Rory McIlroy has made a 180-degree turn in his opinion regarding the significance of Olympic golf. If eight years ago he bypassed the Rio de Janeiro Games, in which more than a century later the sport that made him popular returned to the famous summer competition held every four years, in the visit to Tokyo in 2021, where he fought until the playoff for the bronze medal, the Northern Irishman reconsidered starting to give it a very different dimension. Yesterday, at Le Golf National in Paris, McIlroy completed his transformation with a very daring comparison.
For Rory, the Ryder Cup is the best golf tournament there is, but now he believes that the Olympic Games “have the potential to match it”. About the tournament of these Paris Games, the Northern Irishman said it had been “one of the best individual competitions I have participated in”. A way of seeing it that, beyond the high level of the participants and the great atmosphere on the field and everything that surrounds an Olympic event, with the Olympic Village and the fact of being able to enjoy day to day with athletes from other disciplines, may also be influenced by the current situation of golf.
“With how shit golf is right now, you think about tournaments that could be the purest form of competition in the sport, without playing for money,” said McIlroy after finishing tied fifth at Le Golf National representing Ireland. “So it says a lot about what is important in the sport,” added Rory, one of the players who have openly opposed LIV Golf and that fracture between circuits that affects the day-to-day of tournaments, but had no influence on the Olympic tournament, with seven players from the Saudi tour in the ‘field’.
“Being on the tee of hole 18, from where I saw the 18, and being able to see how the excitement of the French public skyrocketed with Victor Perez… We don’t have that anywhere else we play, apart from the Ryder Cup. So I loved the incredible atmosphere and the environment to compete. If they wanted to make a two-day team competition and play for six days at the Games, I would totally agree,” concluded McIlroy, completely in love with the Olympic event.
For Rory, these Paris Games were the first in which he got to “truly feel at the Olympic Games“, after the Tokyo event marked by the covid-19 pandemic. In addition, he revealed that his favourite event is dressage (“it’s amazing how they get horses to do what they do”), that he was able to go to Roland Garros one night to play tennis and that he intends to attend these days in Paris to attend athletics and gymnastics events where he can soak up even more of the Olympic spirit.
