Rory McIlroy started making ready for the Olympics by taking part in a course he is aware of nicely, with photographers camped out behind him on the tee and spectators crammed behind the railing on the 18th inexperienced.
Solely he wasn’t at Le Golf Nationwide, the place he was a part of Europe’s profitable Ryder Cup crew in 2018. This was Monday on the Previous Course at St. Andrews.
“None of what you are promoting why I used to be there,” McIlroy stated Tuesday, not making it totally clear whether or not he was severe or being cheeky. “However it’s all the time good to play St. Andrews. Yeah, it was good. I wasn’t anticipating fairly the gang on the previous few holes that we bought.”
“That was the primary recreation of golf I’ve had since Troon,” he stated. “I assumed a minimum of one recreation of golf earlier than I bought right here was most likely helpful.”
Royal Troon wasn’t a fantastic reminiscence for McIlroy.
He was coming off a crushing collapse on the U.S. Open — twice lacking par putts within the 3-foot vary over the ultimate three holes to lose by one to Bryson DeChambeau — when he arrived on the British Open and was gone earlier than he knew it. A tee shot over the railroad tracks within the first spherical led to a 78. A triple bogey on his fourth gap within the second spherical led to a 75.
Shane Lowry carried the flag for Eire within the opening ceremonies on Friday. McIlroy arrived from St. Andrews to start out two days of preparations and stated his focus was “fairly excessive.” The motivation was not totally clear.
At stake is an opportunity to win a gold medal, which might assist fill the void of lacking out on all these silver trophies awarded on the majors.
“The final time you guys noticed me, I didn’t give an excellent account of myself at Troon,” he stated. “I need to be sure I’m proper the place I must be teeing off on Thursday.”
McIlroy implied he had taken a full 9 days away from taking part in golf since lacking the lower within the British Open, completely different from others within the 60-man subject.
Scottie Scheffler performed throughout a household vacation within the south of France. The remainder of the Individuals gathered in Portugal for somewhat seashore and some days of pleasant golf video games. Jon Rahm received his first LIV Golf occasion final week in England.
Precisely the place the Olympics fall on the precedence scale for any golfer continues to be being measured. That is solely the third time gamers are chasing medals in a sport that has been all about cash, significantly the final couple of years.
A
McIlroy has been recognized to flip-flop on varied stances over time, most notably on the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League. He went from being the loudest critic to wanting an answer that brings all the most effective gamers again collectively.
The Olympics was one other subject. McIlroy skipped in 2016 and stated that he would watch the Olympics however solely “the stuff that issues.” Then he went to the Tokyo Video games and was all in, simply as he feels now.
McIlroy misplaced out on a bronze medal in a seven-man playoff on the final Olympics and famously stated when it was over, “I’ve by no means tried so exhausting to complete third.”
And what would a gold medal imply? The Paris Video games come at a time in his profession when he’s requested extra concerning the 10 years with out a main than the 4 majors he received.
“It might be the achievement, actually of the yr,” McIlroy stated. “I feel for me, it’s well-documented that I haven’t received one of many massive 4 in 10 years. It might most likely be one in every of, if not the largest in my profession, for the final 10 years.”
McIlroy is a lot aware of Le Golf Nationwide. He performed the French Open 3 times — lacking the lower in 2008 in his first full yr as a professional, ending fourth in 2010 and third in 2016. After which there’s the Ryder Cup, the place he went 2-3 however celebrated a gold trophy when Europe received handily.
He sees the same setup for the Olympics, with thick tough and greens on the quick facet, and loads of water down the closing stretch. The tough doesn’t look like fairly as juicy because it was for the Ryder Cup, and for that McIlroy supplied a slight dig.
“Ask the Individuals. I wasn’t in it a lot that week,” he stated as Lowry burst out laughing.
One massive change from Tokyo is getting out to absorb the whole Olympic expertise. For McIlroy, that may wait. He’s all about golf via Sunday, after which plans to stay round Paris for a number of days to see some occasions.
McIlroy has stated in latest weeks it should take time to measure the place an Olympic gold medal matches within the panorama of golf. He would love nothing higher than to present a solution based mostly extra on expertise than hypothesis.
“I feel as golf is within the Olympics for an extended time period … I don’t know if something will be capable to sit alongside the majors,” he stated. “Now we have our 4 occasions a yr which might be the gold normal. However I feel that is, in time, going to be proper up there amongst that.”