And, from McIlroy, there was yesterday a calculated rebuff to the notion that golf should be part of the Olympic family at all: “I’ll probably watch the Olympics, but I’m not sure golf will be one of the events I watch”.
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On Tuesday, McIlroy defended his decision to skip out on the Olympics, implying that Olympic golf doesn’t matter and that he has no responsibility to grow the game, in addition to his concerns about the Zika Virus.
The Northern Irishman withdrew from the Olympics last month over fears about 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, but has subsequently elaborated on other issues which do not make the event a priority for him. I’m obviously going to be rooting for you, bud’.
“Do I feel like it’s nice to give back? Yes. I’m not personally taking too much on board by that comment”. “I’m an ambassador for the PGA Junior League, I do some stuff for the First Tee in the States and I feel like I’ve used my success in golf in a very positive way in the community”.
“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. “I literally bounced back and forth with it, and ultimately I have to come up with a decision and so I made it”.
“I think the thing for us as well, we weren’t as a collective group of professionals approached or asked if it’s what we wanted”. It’s an unstable place and I just wasn’t comfortable making the trip’.
However, McIlroy, who is six shots off the lead after the first day of the Open, has tried to elaborate more on his comment that he “didn’t get into golf to try to grow the game”.
The 35-year-old said: “Hopefully it’s a slip of the tongue – one of those moments”. I would have taken a rowing boat and rowed over to play in the Olympics.
There was criticism of McIlroy’s remarks from Britain’s former squash world champion Laura Massaro, who has campaigned for her sport to be included in the Olympics.
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“It nearly seems a shame you can’t give that opportunity to athletes who would really, really want it”.
