Day, Johnson and McIlroy pulled out because of the threat from the Zika outbreak in the Americas while Spieth opted not to go to Rio for more general health reasons.
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Squash was one of the sports that lost out to golf in the bidding for an Olympic place, and English player Laura Massaro said the lack of appreciation for the Olympics by some golfers was “unacceptable”.
McIlroy said: “I didn’t get into golf to try and grow the game”. Given the choice, I would think golfers would much rather win The Masters or the U.S. Open than an Olympic gold.
Golf is returning to the Olympics this summer after a 112-year absence, following a successful bid that included leading golf personalities helping to make the sport’s case. I get where different people come from and different people have different opinions. “I’m very happy with the decision I made and I have no regrets about it”.
“I’ll probably watch the Olympics, but I’m not sure golf will be one of the events I watch”, McIlroy said.
Pressed on what he would watch, McIlroy added: “Probably the events like track and field, swimming, diving – the stuff that matters”.
McIlroy’s comments at Royal Troon in the build-up to this week’s Open Championship have hinted at apathy among top players towards Olympic golf.
USA researchers tried to calculate whether the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, which is in the midst of a Zika epidemic, will lead to outbreaks that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
“I’m excited to be here, I love playing links golf and it’s time to start to playing a little better”. After all, when he last played the Open, he won it. I wanted to make sure I did my homework and knew the risks and that I felt comfortable with going down.
The most withering criticism of golf’s inclusion in the Olympics has been delivered by Rory McIlroy.
“I think you’ve seen, with the amount of top professionals that have decided not to go this time, where it stands in our minds and maybe it would have been best served with amateurs going to play. It just doesn’t feel quite the same to me”. But I hope I have the Claret Jug in my possession before that time.
The 27-year-old, four-time major victor will tee off in his first Open Championship since winning in 2014 on Thursday. As it has been nearly exclusively male players who have been withdrawing from Rio, the International Olympic Committee could potentially consider whether to drop the men’s event and keep the women’s tournament for Tokyo.
Spieth is the latest golfer to say he was not going to Rio, telling the IGF it was for “health reasons”. “I don’t think I would take that away from Zach [Johnson, who won previous year at St. Andrews]”.
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He called on golf’s major governing bodies to step up their anti-doping efforts, which he said are limited to a handful of urine tests each year.
