McIlroy offers honest assessment of golf's place in the Olympics

Rory McIlroy didn’t agonize over his decision to skip the men’s Olympic golf tournament next month in Brazil.

“I’m very happy with the decision I made,” McIlroy said Tuesday ahead of this week’s British Open. “I have no regrets.”

The four-time major winner didn’t seem all that concerned about the perception of his decision, which he said was made on the basis of the possibility of catching Zika virus, as well other health concerns in Rio de Janeiro. Whereas American Jordan Spieth seemed genuinely torn on Tuesday explaining his rationale for taking an Olympic pass, McIlroy apparently came to his decision with a clean conscience.

“Honestly, I don’t think it was as difficult a decision for me as it was for him,” McIlroy said at Royal Troon.

In certain corners of capital G golf — the organizations whose very existence is predicated on the sport’s participatory growth, or at least stabilization — there was a lot of disappointment in the decisions of all of the top four players in the world, as well 16 other men and one woman (Lee-Anne Pace of South Africa) who skipped the Olympics after qualifying.

However, in one of many moments of candor on Tuesday, McIlroy said he doesn’t feel wholly compelled by his position and visibility in the sport to promote Olympic golf.

“I don’t feel like I’ve let the game down at all,” he said. “I didn’t get into golf to try and grow the game. I got into golf to win championships and all of a sudden you get to this point and there is a responsibility on you to grow the game, and I get that. But at the same time that’s not the reason that I got into golf. I got into golf to win. I didn’t get into golf to get other people into the game.”

That’s seemingly a change in stance for McIlroy from April, when the Ulsterman seemed to more embrace what he acknowledged as the power he might have to bring new faces into the game.

“This is the first time golf has been in the Olympics for a long time, and if the best players aren’t there, supporting the event and competing in it, then what’s the point?” said McIlroy, according to the Augusta Chronicle. “I feel like I have a responsibility to grow the game, as part of a group of players who can spread this game throughout the world.”

Whether a 28-year-old four-time major winner in his prime is expected to choose growing golf over growing his trophy case is a tough discussion. However, it shouldn’t be limited to McIlroy, who was willing to put his name on a sentiment that a lot of his peers would back.

There’s plenty of time to debate that, anyway. There’s an Open this week, and McIlroy is looking to win a second Claret Jug. And, after the PGA Championship in a few weeks, McIlroy can then worry about such existential problems. He can do that from his couch while watching the Games in Rio.

“I’ll probably watch the Olympics, but I’m not sure golf will be on of the events I’ll watch,” he said.

Pressed for which events might draw McIlroy’s eye, he went after golf’s tenuous place in the Olympic program.

“Probably the events like track and field, swimming, diving. The stuff that matters.”