Troon: Rory McIlroy might not even bother watching the golf at the Olympic Games, saying in pointed remarks that he will only tune in for “the stuff that matters.”
Fears over the Zika virus have been cited by a number of top players, including McIlroy, who have pulled out of the Rio Games in August.
But the Northern Irishman has also admitted that the Olympics just don’t have the same meaning to golfers as other athletes.
He hammered home that point on Tuesday as he spoke at Royal Troon in Scotland, where this week’s British Open will be held.
“I’ll probably watch the Olympics, but I’m not sure golf will be one of the events I watch,” said the 27-year-old.
When asked what he would turn his television on during the Games, McIlroy added: “Probably the events like track and field, swimming, diving, the stuff that matters.”
Such comments can do little to help golf’s prospects of remaining an Olympic sport in the long term after the damage already done with the spate of big-name withdrawals.
The sport has been brought back into the Olympic fold for the first time since the 1904 Games in St Louis.
On Monday, Jordan Spieth became the latest golfing superstar to pull out of going to Brazil, meaning six of the world’s top 10 will not be there.
Spieth, however, struck a very different note to McIlroy.
“Listen, this was probably the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life at 22 years old. I can probably honestly say that,” Spieth said on Tuesday.
“This was harder than trying to decide what university to go to. Whether to turn professional and leave school. This was something I very much struggled with.
“I bounced back and forth, and ultimately a decision had to be made yesterday, and so I made it,” he said.
“It will loom over me throughout the Olympic Games, for sure. I will be, I’m sure at times pretty upset that I’m not down there. I thought about all this ahead of time.”
Spieth denied that his withdrawal was specifically for fears of catching the mosquito-borne Zika disease and accepted that it could be an over-reaction on his part and that of his fellow stars.
He also refused to confirm what medical advice he had been given to help him reach such a decision.
“No, that’s personal. I can’t. I can tell you that I’m not specifically pinpointing any one thing in my health concerns either,” he said. “This is health concerns as a whole.”
The International Golf Federation’s president Peter Dawson has admitted the debacle does not help the sport’s reputation.
Dawson and other leading names in golf have spoken of using Rio to help grow the sport globally, but McIlroy, a four-time major winner, sees things differently.
“I don’t feel like I’ve let the game down at all. I didn’t get into golf to try and grow the game,” he said.
“I got into golf to win championships and win major 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.
“I get where different people come from and different people have different opinions.
“But I’m very happy with the decision that I’ve made and I have no regrets about it.”
