It's been a great few years for Rory McIlroy on and off the golf course and accounts filed with the Companies Registration Office in Dublin recently show he's now a very valuable asset indeed.

Rory McIlroy Inc — The perception that Rory McIlroy is a tax exile in Dubai is wrong, a spokesperson for his management company has claimed.

Call it PR or spin but while on Friday the Irish public was being told that Rory McIlroy was doing his bit for the Irish economy by paying corporate tax on royalties here, The Sunday Times reports today that the world No 1 is now a registered tax exile in Dubai when it comes to the lion's share of his fortune.  

Rory McIlroy’s out of court settlement with his former agents brings to mind that scene from Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” when the kindly Roman centurion is lining up the locals for execution.

“Crucifixion?”

“No, freedom actually.”

The last time we saw Rory McIlroy and Conor Ridge, suited and booted as they glided over polished floors was in that much-used agency picture of them arriving at the White House for a State Dinner in honour of British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Did Caroline Wozniacki play a role in one of the key events that led to the legal bust up between Rory McIlroy and Horizon Sports Management? On the face of what was said in the High Court in Dublin on Friday, the world No 1’s former fiancée was not short of an opinion on what is one of the major events in the proceedings — a supposedly face-saving donation made to UNICEF by Horizon on McIlroy's behalf but against McIlroy’s wishes.

It wasn't in the grand setting of James Gandon's Four Courts but in a tiny third floor room nearby that the latest chapter in the Rory McIlroy v Horizon Sports Management drama played out to a handful of court scribes and a quarrel of lawyers.

The European Tour is keeping its fingers crossed that the drawing power of Rory McIlroy and world No 9 Rickie Fowler — with the promise of more big names to come — will boost the chances of ending the long wait for a title sponsor for the Irish Open.

Rory McIlroy missed out on a $11.4m pay day in the FedEx Cup finale in Atlanta on Sunday but he could be back in Georgia next April having lost at least $30m, not to mention his brand image, if his case against Horizon Sports Management goes all the way to the High Court in Dublin in February and he loses.

Rory McIlroy is unlikely to have shed a tear in sympathy for Conor Ridge and Horizon Sports Management following the announcement by Graeme McDowell on Sunday night that he's leaving the boutique Irish agency to manage his own affairs.

Graeme McDowell sensationally announced last night that he's leaving Horizon Sports Management at the end of the year — on amicable terms — to manage his own affairs.

European Ryder Cup skipper Paul McGinley singled out Rory McIlroy’s loyalty and single mindedness as key to his incredible dominance this season.

Rory McIlroy returns to action in the Memorial Tournament this week but the fallout over his break-up with Caroline Wozniacki won't go away.

All has changed in Rory McIlroy's world.

Bump into his coach Michael Bannon as you walk along the corridors of the PGA National Resort, ask for a comment on how the Ulsterman's swing compares to 12 months ago and you are politely told go through his tour manager, who is standing six feet away.

He may simply have been trying to fob off a reporter but when Rory McIlroy loudly insisted at the door of the clubhouse to Sherwood Country Club that he would not be doing any one-on-one interviews until the middle of the next summer “when everything has settled down” you wonder if an out-of-court settlement of his dispute with Horizon Sports Management might be on the cards.