Rory McIlroy has set his sights on Olympic gold as a means to atone for a decade of hurt in Major championships.
McIlroy, who is donning Team Ireland colours at Golf National this week, won the last of his four Major championships in 2014. While, like many golfers, McIlroy is clearly unsure about the standing of Olympic medals in this sport he is high on personal motivation. Golf was absent from the Games for 112 years until a return in 2016.
“It would be the achievement, certainly of the year,” McIlroy said when asked where success would rank in his mind. “I think for me, it’s well documented that I haven’t won one of the big four in 10 years. It would probably be one of, if not the biggest in my career for the last 10 years.
“My focus is pretty high. The last time you guys saw me, I didn’t give a very good account of myself [in the Open] at Troon. I want to make sure I’m right where I need to be teeing off on Thursday.
“I’ve been asked this question a lot, where would an Olympic medal sit in sort of the hierarchy of my career achievements and it’s something I probably won’t be able to answer until everything is said and done. I don’t know if anything will be able to sit alongside the majors. We have our four events a year that are the gold standard. But I think this is going to be, in time, right up there amongst that.”
A key topic for discussion is the absence of Bryson DeChambeau from the US contingent in France. DeChambeau won the US Open after top-10 finishes in both the Masters and US PGA Championship. However, his place on LIV Golf means he is not eligible to earn world ranking points in his regular tour events. The four representatives from the US, all ranked in the top 10 in the world, therefore did not include DeChambeau.
“I think that’s the nature of qualification for the Olympics,” said McIlroy. “You could have the fifth best sprinter in the world but if he’s from a certain country, he’s not able to make it. So I think it’s just the way that the qualification works in the Olympic Games and that’s not just in golf. That’s in other disciplines, as well.”
Pressed on whether the world rankings should have such a say in Olympic qualification, given the system has refused to recognise LIV, McIlroy offered little sympathy to DeChambeau and co. “I don’t think there’s any other way to do it because it’s hard to compare the golf that they play to the golf that we play,” added the Northern Irishman. “That’s the reason they didn’t get world ranking points, right? So if you want to qualify for the Olympics, you knew what you had to do. Just like if you wanted to qualify for the Ryder Cup, you knew what you had to do. They were very aware of the decision they made when they did.”
McIlroy’s teammate, Shane Lowry, took huge pride in being one of Ireland’s flag bearers at Friday’s opening ceremony. “It was an amazing experience, a big honour and something that I’ll remember forever,” said Lowry. “They are memories for a lifetime and just even being there and being around the other athletes, it was pretty cool. To see the Olympics from there, it’s something that when I was growing up as a golfer, you didn’t really think was going to be achievable. So it was an amazing experience.
Speaking about missing out on the Open, where he led by three shots at one point on Saturday, Lowry said:
“I felt I had a good chance to win The Open a couple of weeks ago and I was really disappointed to not give it a better go on Saturday and Sunday.
“Straightaway after that I sort of felt like I have a chance to redeem myself here in a couple of weeks.
“If you look at the media and what it was like back home yesterday when Mona [McSharry] won that bronze medal [in the 100m breaststroke], I think if I was to win a gold medal and bring it back to Ireland, yeah, it would be pretty cool.”
