Jordan Spieth yesterday revealed that withdrawing from the Olympics was the “hardest decision I’ve ever had to make” but, in stark, shrugging contrast, Rory McIlroy offered a dismissive assessment of golf’s place in the Games.
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The fourth-ranked McIlroy certainly did not sound too conflicted about stepping away. Virtually every athlete in the world will go because the Olympic games is where you go and measure your currency against other athletes. I got into golf to win.
Rory McIlroy says he has no regrets over his decision to withdraw from the Olympic Games and believes the game could have been better served sending amateurs to Rio. “I haven’t been blood-tested yet”. With 18 other players having withdrawn, he was looked upon as someone whose commitment might ease the backlash against golf for its perceived indifference about the sport returning to the Olympics.
The world number four told BBC Radio Five Live: “I think golf in the Olympics is great for golf, it’s great to grow the game, there is no question about that”. One of the big things here, you just have to keep it out of the bunkers.
The Olympic qualification period for Rio, based on the world rankings, ended Sunday and the International Golf Federation subsequently submitted the 60 male and 60 female qualifiers to their various national Olympic bodies for official ratification.
“I don’t know of a banned substance that could help a golfer across the board, with driving, with putting, with concentration”. He said: “Honestly, I don’t think it was as hard a decision for me as it was for him”. “You’re going to make sure that you’ve got that opportunity”. But whether there’s something out there where it can make you an overall better player, I’m not sure.
But Massaro told BBC 5 Live: “His comments are unacceptable because it’s a lack of appreciation for how an Olympics can just transcend an individual sport”.
“Compared with all travel to Zika-endemic areas, the Olympics account for about one-tenth of 1 percent of travel from the US and globally about one-quarter of 1 percent”, CDC director Tom Frieden said today. “We are relevant 24/7, 365 days of the year, if that’s your barometer and criteria relevancy”. It wasn’t an easy decision for me.
“I don’t think it would be an appropriate move to play that week, so I will not be playing that week”, he said.
“I don’t think it would be appropriate [to play] given our decision on the Olympics”, Spieth said.
To McIlroy it’s just another example of why golf needs to up its game in the drug testing department. Is there any motivation?
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“I told him he had to do what was best for himself”, Fowler added after giving a lesson to schoolchildren at Troon as part of the HSBC Hour, which offers an hour of free golf to children and their families at nearly 300 golf clubs across the UK.
