Rory McIlroy has made a name for himself as one of golf’s biggest earners, but the Northern Irishman has also shown his savvy business acumen away from the course

Rory McIlroy pocketed huge sums from the investment (Image: (Image: Getty))

Northern Irish golf star Rory McIlroy remains third-highest earner in PGA Tour history and has proven his financial acumen off the course too, with a profitable investment in yachts used in James Bond films.

With career earnings exceeding $110Million from PGA Tour events alone, McIlroy is only surpassed by Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.

In 2013, as his golf winnings began to accumulate, McIlroy wisely invested in Dorset-based yacht manufacturer Sunseeker. The company’s vessels are popular among the wealthy elite, including Michael Douglas, Simon Cowell, and John Terry.

A few years later, McIlroy’s stake yielded a nine-figure sum when Sunseeker was acquired by Chinese property firm Dalian Wanda for a staggering $356M, according to The Irish Independent. By this time, the company’s boats had gained global recognition, featuring in James Bond films Quantum Of Solace and Casino Royale, with McIlroy netting a $2M profit.

McIlroy will be hoping for similar success with his latest business venture TGL. McIlroy and Tiger Woods have launched the ‘next big thing’ in golf. Its first event coursed through at the custom-built SoFi Center recently, amid mounting buzz for this tech-driven golf variant.

Before the launch, chatting with ESPN, McIlroy described: “We have teams, obviously, there’s a lot of technology involved, trying to bring it into the digital era.

Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods launched TGL (Image: Getty Images)

“A lot of things that we’ve taken from other sports like a shot-clock, a timeout, things that you don’t see in regular golf. [We’re] trying to appeal to that bigger sports audience out there.”

“Tiger and I have been a part of this from day one and whenever you see the concepts and the renderings you think, ‘Yeah, that looks really cool’. But until you actually stand in here [the SoFi Center] and you see what they’ve been able to do, I think the scale of it is the thing for me that blows my mind.”

“Every time I step in here, I’m just blown away by the size of the screen, the fact that we’re able to put something that looks like golf on a stage like this. It’s really cool and we’re obviously really excited about it within the game of golf. I think a lot of other people outside of the game are going to see this and hopefully get excited about it as well.”