FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Dallas’ Jordan Spieth doesn’t regret his decision to skip the Olympics in Rio but wanted to be there while watching the competition.
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“I think I was number one in strokes gained off the tee at Baltusrol, but I was near dead last in putting, so obviously that was something I needed to address”.
He still believes he made the right decision at the time. “I guess there’s a lot more fans that can actually watch golf now that have never really watched it before, just because it’s in the Olympics”.
Speaking ahead of The Barclays 2016 at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course, McIlroy said he isn’t in a hurry to find a new equipment manufacturer after Nike shocked the golf world the week after the PGA Championship in announcing it would cease making golf clubs, balls and bags.
“I haven’t been home, but apparently my parents’ house has been inundated with golf equipment from different manufacturers”, McIlroy revealed to amused reporters in NY.
“I would have loved to have gone and played”, Johnson said. He did watch the Olympics, just not he golf. The Englishman had also made history by hitting Olympic golf’s first hole-in-one in the opening round.
“If you didn’t lose a golf ball, it’s one golf ball a round”, he said to the reporter who asked the question. “If I can play my way on to that team, that would be fantastic and look forward to representing Australia in Tokyo if I can”. “I think that’s the thing”. I would have loved to have gone and played. “I still believe that in the long term, I think it would be very easy to make it a very big deal for golf and to grow (golf) with amateurs playing in the Olympics”, said Scott. But to me the risk wasn’t worth it.
“Like I said, I don’t really expect to sign with anyone next year”.
“I feel like with the putter change to a mallet, it doesn’t encourage that face to close that much, which is the bad putt I was getting”, revealed McIlroy.
The Northern Irish golfer decided not to take part in the Olympic golf tournament, the first time the sport was included in the Games in over 100 years, citing concerns over the Zika virus.
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With wind gusts up to 25 miles per hour, it wasn’t surprising when McIlroy backed off the ball just as he was about to putt and called for a rules official. “It was away from the village; I thought it was going to just sort of blend in with everything else”.
