Now that Rory McIlroy has had another change of heart and suggested the real reason why he didn’t want to play golf in the Olympics (“not even worth watching”), maybe we can all come clean on why golf never deserved to be invited back in the first place.

Baron de Coubertin had a lot of things in mind when he came up with his trusty old motto Citius, Altius, Fortius, although it had nothing whatsoever to do with a golf swing.

And whatever about his long-faded ideals of amateurism – the taking part that matters and not the winning, etc, etc – there is something disturbing about money being the only motivation left in the mind of any Olympic participant. McIlroy didn’t dare suggest that, although it’s so obviously true.

For Paddy Barnes to follow all that with the suggestion McIlroy was still “talking s**t”, and that the real reason he didn’t want to play golf in the Olympics is because “Paddy Barnes is carrying the flag for Team Ireland and he isn’t” would be laughable . . . if that wasn’t possibly true as well.

Some mess, in other words, although it wouldn’t be a proper Olympics if there wasn’t some sort of row like this. Still, in the past the row was typically over Irish athletes who weren’t being sent, as opposed to someone who just didn’t want to go.

Well, it can’t have been easy for McIlroy to describe any aspect of the game that has earned him his small €72 million fortune as a turn-off. Because that is what golf is: a game, not a sport. And despite all the power and greed and corruption, the Olympics remain the ultimate stage for sporting and human endeavour, whether that be faster, higher, stronger – though, again, that has nothing whatsoever to do with a golf swing.

Nike deal safe
While McIlroy very nearly got away with that near-zero risk of catching the Zika virus as his excuse to withdraw from Rio, at least his conscience is now clear. So too should his next endorsement deal with Nike, having cleared himself of any potential conflict with New Balance, sponsors of the Irish Olympic team.

The pity is that it’s come too late for Rio to withdraw from golf. Of all the costly and controversial venues built for these Olympics in the old city of the January river, the golf course on the Marapendi nature reserve was the one the city needed by far the least.

The course was funded by Pasquale Mauro, the billionaire property magnate who in 2008 was discovered to have kept 70 workers in slave-like conditions on one of his estates. This is the same billionaire who, in return for constructing the course, was given permission to build 23 condominiums of 22 stories each, over three times their originally approved height.

The other pity here is that McIlroy’s petty excuses for not wanting to be anywhere near Rio has taken a little of the shine off those who have spent a large part of their lives trying to get there, and whose ideals would still be a lot more in line with De Coubertin’s.

Indeed, around the same time as McIlroy was explaining to the golfing media at Royal Troon last Tuesday why he couldn’t be bothered with the Olympics, Athletics Ireland was announcing the names of the 17 who would represent the country in Rio. For every one of them, this will likely be the pinnacle of their sporting careers, if not their lives.

It will see Rob Heffernan become the first Irish athlete to compete in five consecutive Summer Games (thus equalling the all-time record of Irish sailor David Wilkins). Only three men in the entire 120-year history of the Olympics have competed in more than five Olympics.

And while Heffernan will travel to Rio next month already armed with the 50km walk bronze medal retrospectively awarded from London 2012, he has every intention of equalling or doing better this time round.

Only three more of those 17 Irish athletes have competed in previous Olympics: it’s the third consecutive Games for Fionnuala McCormack, who although qualified in both the 10,000m and marathon, is likely to run the marathon only. Brendan Boyce (50km walk) and Tori Pena (pole vault) also competed in London.

For the other 13 then, Rio will mark their Olympic debuts. These include Ciara Mageean, who just last Sunday won the European Championship bronze medal over 1,500m. Mageean probably represents our best if not only chance of producing a track finalist in Rio – although that doesn’t mean any of the rest have any lesser right to be there.

.17 second miss
Mark English this week posted a picture of the Christ the Redeemer stature in Rio on social media, a reminder to himself, as much as anyone else, that he posted a similar picture on his bedroom wall at UCD four years ago, after narrowly missing out on the 800m at the London Olympics, by .17 of a second.

“It’s been quite the journey so far,” admitted English. A foot injury earlier in the season meant there was no guarantee he would even make it to Rio, despite running the qualifying time last summer. There was also the sense that had English not made it to Rio, it would have been a lifetime opportunity missed, because there’s certainly no guarantee he will be still in the hunt come 2020.

It should be the way, because no proper sport comes with any guarantee. Which is probably why McIlroy doesn’t feel like he’s missing out on anything at all.