“I don’t feel like I’ve let the game down at all”, he said.
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World No 11 Rose admitted that his main priority remains winning his first Open this week but said: “If you fast forward 10 years, I’d like my career resume to read “multiple Major champion and Olympic gold medallist”. “I got into golf to win championships, and major championships”.
As if to show he’s still as relevant as ever among golf’s elite players, even as he approaches the two-year mark since the last of his major titles, McIlroy pulled no punches Tuesday leading to the British Open at Royal Troon.
McIlroy added that he may not even tune in to watch golfers in action at the Games.
Four times Major victor McIlroy pulled no punches when asked ahead of Thursday’s Open tee-off at Royal Troon about his decision not to play in next month’s Rio tournament, initially put down to concerns over the Zika virus, and followed by a raft of withdrawals by leading players.
One also has to wonder if the viruses and bacteria found in the waters surrounding Rio de Janeiro can also be found in the water features on the golf course where the event will be held. After ambivalence towards whether he would be an interested onlooker, McIlroy, when asked which events at Rio he would watch, said: “Probably events like track and field, swimming, diving, the stuff that matters”.
Day appeared to be firmly in control at the World Golf Championship in OH two weeks ago until he three-putted for bogey on the 15th hole, made a mess of the par-5 16th hole on his way to a double bogey, and wound up three shots behind U.S. Openchampion Dustin Johnson.
“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.
Golf’s controversial return to the Games has been turned into something of a joke by the withdrawal of 20 players – including the top four in the world. “You’ve just got to chill out and don’t force it, and you forget that once in a while”. “I can’t. I can tell you that I’m not specifically pinpointing any one thing in my health concerns either”.
By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer A report on Russian doping due out this week is expected to include details about the country’s sports ministry telling its drug-testing officials which. McIlroy said golf needs to toughen its drug-testing procedures if it’s to be viewed “as a mainstream sport”.
When the threat of Zika came along, it provided a convenient excuse for those who may not have wanted to go to the Olympics in the first place. “I crave to have that trophy in my possession at some point”. “Okay, it’s not like you suddenly shoot an 85 or whatever but there’s missed cuts here and there, you make some mental mistakes and lose concentration”. Given the choice, I would think golfers would much rather win The Masters or the U.S. Open than an Olympic gold.
“I haven’t been blood-tested yet”.
IGF president Peter Dawson said Spieth cited his concern over “health issues” for withdrawing.
And yes, there was some golf talk, too.
But for all of the challenges of the closing holes, it is a hole on the front nine that defines what it means to play at Troon, Clark said. The greens are quite flat.
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“When the ball just trickles in back into the bunkers, it doesn’t go into the middle”. But when it’s once every four years, I think it’s something you can certainly make an exception for. I used to put pressure on myself when I was 2 in the world coming here and expectations were high.
