Rory McIlroy yacht investment made tidy profit following James Bond link | Golf | Sport

Rory McIlroy made a tidy profit off a yacht investment on boats that were used in James Bond movies.

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McIlroy is no stranger to earning a few bob, with the Northern Irishman sitting pretty as the third-highest earner in PGA Tour history.

Overall throughout his career, McIlroy has banked over £90million from PGA Tour events, sitting only behind Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods in the list.

But, McIlroy appears to be a savvy financial operator away from the course, as he earned a tidy £1.65m windfall from a stake he held in a yacht company.

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Rewind to 2013 when McIlroy was one of golf’s hottest properties. As the millions in prize money from his golf events started flooding in, McIlroy took the decision to reinvest some of the cash in Dorset-based yacht maker Sunseeker.

The boat manufacturer was a well-known one among the rich and luxurious circles, with their vessels having been used by the likes of Michael Douglas, Simon Cowell and John Terry.

Just a couple of years later, McIlroy’s stake had returned a nine-figure fee, after Sunseeker was bought out by Chinese property firm Dalian Wanda for a mammoth £292m, as per The Irish Independent.

By then, the firm’s boats had caught the eyes of the world, having been featured in the James Bond movies Quantum Of Solace and Casino Royale.

McIlroy will be hoping for a similar return on his latest business venture… TGL golf.

Described as the ‘next big thing’ in the sport, McIlroy, alongside legendary PGA Tour hero Tiger Woods, have been hard at work to get the project off the ground.

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Its maiden voyage took place at the purpose-built SoFi Center this week, with excitement surrounding the simulation-based golf spin-off continuing to grow.

Speaking about the innovative project prior to its launch, McIlroy told ESPN: “We have teams, obviously, there’s a lot of technology involved, trying to bring it into the digital era.

“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.”

On Woods’ impact, the Irishman continued: “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.”