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 feel like my game has been quite consistent apart from 2013, where I didn’t play that well and it’s probably the only time in the last six years I’ve dropped outside the top 10 in the world.
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McIlroy told a press conference before this week’s Open Championship that he got into the game to win trophies, not “grow the game”.
“I think his comments are unacceptable, it think it’s a lack of appreciation for how the Olympics can just transcend an individual sport”.
Rory McIlroy dealt another blow to golf’s relationship with the Olympics today as he indicated that he would only watch “the stuff that matters” at next month’s Games.
RORY McILROY: Yeah, I think I would have elaborated a little bit on the grow-the-game comment.
Jamie Spence, Team GB’s golf leader, said: “Jack Nicklaus is my hero and he said he’d walk to Rio to play in the Olympics, and I feel the same way”.
McIlroy, who rates the four Majors as more important, also questioned whether golf was doing enough to justify its Olympic status in terms of drug-testing.
On being compared to Spieth, Day and Johnson: “I’ve got four major championships, and I’d love to add to that tally, just as those guys would love to add to their one or two majors that they have and just keep going”.
Spieth said he texted Fowler that he wouldn’t be playing and said, “I’ll be rooting for you, bud”.
“I’m excited about it, treating it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”. I get where different people come from and different people have different opinions.
McIlroy is one of 20 players to withdraw from Rio, many citing the threat of the Zika, a mosquito-borne virus which has been linked to defects in newborn babies and Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome which causes temporary paralysis in adults. I will be, I’m sure pretty upset that I’m not down there.
The golfer opened up about his thoughts on the drugs used in sport and further revealed that he doesn’t think that there is any drug that can make someone an overall better player.
“I’m very passionate and very much a supporter of the Olympics and Olympic golf”.
“I’m very happy with the decision I made”.
If the 2016 Olympics were in Tokyo instead of Rio, Dustin Johnson would be competing.
“Unfortunately it’s a money-oriented sport as well, so they don’t earn any money for going to the Olympics”.
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“This year I just had to try and weigh a risk that doesn’t present itself every year, and just at the time that I had to make the decision, I just felt this was the right move for me”.
