If you have a spare $320,000 then a slice of prime golfing real estate could be yours.
Four-time major winner Rory McIlroy’s childhood home is up for sale and a quick glance at the realtor’s sale details for the property might help explain why McIlroy has been such a successful golfer.
The four-bed semi-detached house in Holywood, Northern Ireland — the town where McIlroy was born — has a mini golf course in the garden and an electronic-driving range in the garage.
The property is just a 20-minute walk to the Holywood golf club where McIlroy honed the skills that have so far yielded four major championships and 95 weeks at the top of the world golf rankings.
John Minnis, the estate agent selling the property, has confirmed to CNN Sport that the McIlroys are not the current vendors.
“This was the home [Rory] was brought up in,” Minnis told the Belfast Telegraph.
“If you have seen the pictures of him chipping into a washing machine, that was this house.”
McIlroy was listed by Forbes as the world’s sixth highest paid sportsperson in 2017 — certainly the highest earning golfer — racking up around $50 million in prize money and endorsements.
His 2017 earnings would allow him to buy his old Holywood home 156 times over.
Not that the 28-year-old, who signed two $100 million deals with Nike and Taylormade earlier this year, is probably contemplating the idea of downsizing from his current pad in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
He purchased the six-bedroom, nine-bathroom property for $9.5 million back in 2012. It is the former home of four-time major winner, Ernie Els.
Just like McIlroy’s old home in Holywood, it has a putting green in the garden but — at more than 15,000 square feet — this one also boasts a gym, sunken bar, hot tub and even a place to dock a private yacht.
McIlroy will likely be spending a lot of time recuperating in Florida over the next few weeks. He is taking a three-month break from golf to recover from a rib-injury that has plagued him all season. He reportedly injured the rib testing out new equipment in December.
He has not won a tournament in 2017 and is sitting out the European Tour’s season-ending Race to Dubai for the first time in his career.
It is now three years since McIlroy last won a major but he has vowed to get his body right and start the 2018 season strongly.
Some time on his private putting green and in his gym will surely help.