No engagement for Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki despite online rumors

Caroline Wozniacki poses with Rory McIlroy on Sunday in Dubai.

World number one golf pro Rory McIlroy and his tennis sweetie Caroline Wozniacki are not engaged – though one couldn’t be faulted for thinking that perhaps a big announcement might be in the pipeline.

On Monday, someone named Sascha Bajin, best known at the practice partner of Serena Williams, tweeted that Caroline and Rory became engaged. Caroline, though, wasn’t impressed.

“Can’t believe you started rumors like that!” she tweeted back. “Not engaged yet, but you’ll be the first to know if we do!;)”

To which Sascha replied, “I already bought a wedding gift. And you know I would never start rumors. Some birdie told me a lie I guess lol.”

Wozniacki, 22, Rory’s girl for more than a year, was traveling with him last week in Dubai for his last tournament of the year which he won, putting lots of daylight on the PGA tour between him and his closest competitors.  Woz sat in on one of Rory’s press conferences and put on a reporter’s hat to ask what she was getting for Christmas.

“You obviously have unbelievable support this week. So, you know, if you win this week, am I going to get a really nice Christmas present, and what am I going to get?” Wozniacki asked.

Public displays of icki-ness like this are always kind of lame, but Rory, only 23, played along anyway.

“That's great. I've got my parents here,” Rory responded. “Have you not already got a lot of nice presents? It won't take winning this week to buy you a nice present. I think you'll get a nice present anyway.”

The gift, apparently, won’t be a rock, or at least not of the kind that says a marriage is on the way. 
But given the millions Rory made this year, we’re sure he won’t disappoint!

Rory and Caroline, or Wozzilroy as they like to style themselves, may not be on the marriage train yet, but Rory’s fellow Northern Irish pro Graeme McDowell, winner of the 2010 U.S. Open, decided to take the plunge and get engaged to his American girlfriend Kristin Stape, an interior designer based in Florida.

"I did it properly, getting down on one knee," said McDowell, 33.  "She had no idea what was going on and was shocked and stunned. I even found myself getting a little bit emotional.”  They’ll make it official at the end of next year.

Northern Irish golfing champion Rory McIlroy wants to settle down - stop living out suitcases

McIlroy and Wozniacki

Golf sensation Rory McIlroy has been traveling the world since he was 16, and though he’s only 23 and admittedly having a ball, the world’s top ranked pro admits that the globetrotting can sometimes get tiring.

Speaking to the Irish Independent last weekend, McIlroy says that at some point in the next few years he wants to establish some kind of home base.  His Co. Down mansion, which he hardly ever saw, is currently on the market, but living out of a luxury suitcase isn’t McIlroy’s idea of paradise.

“I'd love in a few years' time to find a base and settle down. That would be ideal. I don't think someone can do this for a prolonged period like 10 years, say,” McIlroy said.  “I'd like to think that in a few years' time I can find a place."

And would that place include his current girlfriend, tennis pro Caroline Wozniacki?  McIlroy didn’t say for sure, but he’s clearly smitten with his Danish love.

"There's my time away with Caroline  -- that's my time off. My time away. And I need that. Of course she's famous in her own right which can create its own situations, but I wouldn't call them problems,” McIlroy said.

"A few days after the Ryder Cup I came back to Europe and Caroline came back from Beijing and I've just been hanging out with her. We got into Turkey last Monday (October 8) and we've just been relaxing. It's a great situation to be in.

“If I have time, I'll travel wherever in the world she is, just to see her. That's what I want to do. That's what makes me happy.”

He sounds like such a sweet boyfriend! And there’s more – though he’s cleaning up on the golf course, his relationship with Caroline is worth more than any big win.

"Obviously it's very satisfying to win majors and important golf tournaments, but deep down, what makes me really happy is my life outside of golf and how that is at the moment. And that, of itself, enables me to play great golf because everything is sort of in balance."

PGA Championship winner Rory McIlroy’s games hasn’t been hampered by Caroline Wozniacki love affair

Rory McIlroy and Caroline Wozniacki at the Olympic Village
in London last month (Alexander Hassenstein / Getty)

So much for Rory McIlroy’s golf game being in the gutter because of his romance with tennis pro Caroline Wozniacki.

McIlroy, as you likely know, utterly steamrolled the competition at the PGA Championship last weekend, winning the last Major golf tournament of the year.  All the missed cuts and double bogeys mean nothing now, and his relationship with Wozniacki – whose career has definitely gone south since hooking up with Rory last year – is going strong.

Fellow Northern Irish pro Graeme McDowell said last month that the Rory-Caroline romance – they’re nicknamed Wozzilroy – was perhaps taking a toll on his game, but that he’d soon snap out of his funk. McDowell, a major winner himself (and romancing an American designer to boot), was right.

"There's no doubt, all the traveling is wearing him down a little bit and we are seeing a little bit of fatigue," McDowell told a program on the Golf Channel.

"But he's a fit kid and he's a young kid and he has all the talent in the world. It is only a matter of time [before he comes back]."

And what’s a round or two over par when you’re in love?

"He's very happy with his personal life and Caroline is a great girl," McDowell said. "He will be okay. He's had a tough 12 months. Let's be honest, the boy's in love. He's crazy about her. It's not a bad problem to have."