Rory McIlroy rumor claiming he donated $4.2M Masters earnings to charity is unfounded
A rumor that circulated online in April 2025 claimed golfer Rory McIlroy donated his $4.2 million in earnings from winning the 2025 Masters Tournament to Mencap. The charity based in the U.K. — including Northern Ireland, where McIlroy was born — focuses on helping children and adults with learning disabilities.
For example, on April 13, a manager of a Facebook page named Golf Plus shared a post (archived) reading, "GOOD NEWS. Rory McIlroy has donated $4.2 million in prize money from donning the green jacket after completing the Grand Slam at The Masters 2025 to children's charity Mencap." The post, which referenced McIlroy's achievement of a career Grand Slam — the term for winning all four major golf championships at least once — received more than 53,000 reactions, 3,700 comments and 5,100 shares, as of this writing.
(Golf Plus/Facebook)
Other users shared the same rumor on Facebook, Threads and X.
While McIlroy truly has donated in support of Mencap in the past, no demonstrable evidence confirmed that he gave the charity $4.2 million following his 2025 Masters victory in Augusta, Georgia. Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo displayed no results from credible news media outlets reporting on the matter.
Representatives for McIlroy and Mencap did not yet respond to an emailed request for comment on whether the rumor was true.
In December 2016, Mencap Northern Ireland announced (archived) McIlroy's visit to one of its new facilities in Belfast. The news release said that, on Dec. 21, 2016, "Northern Ireland golf hero Rory McIlroy, made his first visit to the new Mencap Centre in Belfast, following his donation of £500,000 from the Rory Foundation to support the build of the facility." In 2017, the official Mencap NI account also wished McIlroy luck in the British Open.
The Golf Plus Facebook post (archived) featured a comment from a page manager linking to an advertisement-filled article. A fairly simplistic WordPress website named Luxury Blog hosted the story, which began as follows:
In an inspiring act of generosity, golf superstar Rory McIlroy has donated his entire $4.2 million prize from winning the 2025 Masters Tournament to Mencap, a leading UK charity dedicated to supporting children and adults with learning disabilities. The announcement, made shortly after McIlroy claimed his first green jacket and completed the career Grand Slam at Augusta National, has drawn widespread admiration, highlighting his commitment to philanthropy as much as his brilliance on the course.
McIlroy's victory at the 89th Masters was a historic moment, marking his fifth major championship and placing him among an elite group of six golfers to win all four majors. The Northern Irishman triumphed in a thrilling sudden-death playoff against Justin Rose, sinking a dramatic birdie putt on the 18th hole to secure the title. The win earned him a record-breaking $4.2 million, the largest first-place prize in Masters history, from a total purse of $21 million. Yet, in a move that stunned fans and underscored his values, McIlroy chose to give every penny to Mencap, a cause he has long supported through his charitable endeavors.
Scans of the article's text with the artificial-intelligence detection websites Copyleaks, QuillBot and ZeroGPT all indicated that someone likely generated the story with an AI tool. Also, the Luxury Blog website lacked signs of credibility, such as legal pages for terms and conditions and a privacy policy. Further, the "Contact Us" page showed fake contact information including "Phone: (123) 456-7890" and "Address: 123 Main Street City, State, ZIP Code Country."
A similar unfounded rumor shared on Facebook earlier in April claimed McIlroy donated his $4.5 million in earnings from his March victory at The Players Championship to Mencap. Posts promoting this rumor also featured author-submitted comments leading to advertisement-filled articles on untrustworthy websites.
The goal of these unfounded rumors — at least partially, if not wholly — appeared to be to earn advertising revenue for the owners of the websites hosting the articles, which, again, someone likely generated with AI tools.
For further golf-themed reading, we previously examined whether photos showed the aftermath of an alligator tearing off a golfer's arm.
"2025 Masters Highlights: Rory McIlroy Wins, Completing Golf's Grand Slam." The Associated Press, https://apnews.com/live/masters-2025-score-leaderboard-updates.
"AI Content Detector." Copyleaks, https://copyleaks.com/ai-content-detector.
"---." QuillBot, https://quillbot.com/ai-content-detector.
"AI Detector - Trusted AI Checker for ChatGPT, GPT4 & Gemini." ZeroGPT, https://www.zerogpt.com/.
Bolton, Rob. "Points and Payouts: Rory McIlroy Earns $4.2M, 750 Points at Masters." PGA TOUR, 13 Apr. 2025, https://www.pgatour.com/article/news/betting-dfs/2025/04/13/points-payouts-prize-money-breakdown-fedexcup-masters-tournament-augusta-national-mcilroy-aberg-justin-rose.
Ferguson, Doug. "Rory McIlroy Wins The Players Championship and Masters Expectations Rise." The Associated Press, 18 Mar. 2025, https://apnews.com/article/rory-mcilroy-players-championship-masters-augusta-8a67bcc00fc2ee784b9de9e94426d66d.
Hall, Mike. "Golf Career Grand Slam Winners - Which Players Have Achieved The Feat?" Golf Monthly, 18 May 2022, https://www.golfmonthly.com/features/players-won-golf-grand-slam-154520.
Mencap. "Rory McIlroy Visits Mencap Centre in Belfast Following £500K Donation." Mencap Northern Ireland, https://northernireland.mencap.org.uk/blog/rory-mcilroy-visits-mencap-centre-belfast-following-ps500k-donation. Accessed 15 Apr. 2025.
"Rory McIlroy." PGA TOUR, https://www.pgatour.com/player/28237/rory-mcilroy/bio.
"Rory McIlroy Visits Mencap Centre In Belfast Following £500K Donation." Mencap Northern Ireland, 21 Dec. 2016, https://northernireland.mencap.org.uk/rory-mcilroy-visits-mencap-centre-belfast-following-ps500k-donation.
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