SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Rory McIlroy stated the Ryder Cup is the very best match in golf, however after a spectacular closing day of the lads’s Olympic match — through which lots of the sport’s greatest names battled atop the leaderboard — he thinks the Olympics “has the potential to be proper up there with it.”
McIlroy stated golf wanted the Olympics and known as the 4 days at Le Golf Nationwide within the Parisian suburbs one of many “greatest particular person competitions I have been part of.”
“With how a lot of a s— present the sport of golf is true now, you consider tournaments that could be the purest type of competitors of the game, not enjoying for cash,” McIlroy stated on Sunday after a fifth-place end representing Eire. “So it speaks volumes for what’s vital in sport.”
McIlroy has been an outspoken opponent of the LIV Golf League, which disrupted the established order when it started plucking PGA Tour gamers in 2022. Seven LIV gamers competed within the Olympics, together with Spain’s Jon Rahm — who stumbled out of medal rivalry on Sunday with a poor again 9.
However the 35-year-old McIlroy stated the drama on the Olympics was all in regards to the sport itself. Golf returned to the Olympics for the 2016 Rio Video games after a 112-year absence. That momentum was slowed for the 2021 Video games in Tokyo, which had been severely implicated by the COVID-19 pandemic as many prime gamers opted out.
The 2024 Paris roster was loaded. And on the ultimate day, Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Tommy Fleetwood, Hideki Matsuyama, Scottie Scheffler, Tom Kim and McIlroy had been all in rivalry, with Scheffler profitable all of it because of a final-round 62. Fleetwood gained silver for Nice Britain, one stroke behind. Frenchman Victor Perez had a large closing day — going minus-8 — to springboard into rivalry. Perez completed one shot shy of the rostrum.
“Even standing on the sixteenth tee, and watching 18, and seeing Victor Perez come up 18 and all the joy of the French crowd,” McIlroy stated. “We do not get that some other place that we play, perhaps aside from the Ryder Cup. So I simply liked the unimaginable environment and atmosphere to play in.”
The four-time main champion stated he believed a typical 72-hole format was one of the best ways to find out a winner however was additionally open to increasing the Olympics.
“In the event that they wished to do a two-day, group kind of competitors and play for six days, I might be all for that,” McIlroy stated.
On Sunday, McIlroy had a streak of 5 birdies in his closing 9 earlier than hitting a wedge shot into the water on 15, which he stated value him a medal.
“I really feel like I have been {golfing} almost effectively the final three years, so I clearly need the tides to show to to go from almost to the place I am again to profitable golf tournaments,” stated McIlroy. “It is all effectively and good saying, ‘I am shut, I am shut, I am shut,’ however as soon as I truly step by the edge and switch these shut misses and shut calls into wins, that is after I’ll be completely happy.”
McIlroy stated it was his first Olympics the place it “felt like an Olympic video games,” given the immense COVID-19 protocols in Tokyo.
He maintained that his favourite occasion is equestrian dressage, saying, “I simply assume it is superb how they get these horses to do this.” McIlroy stated he was capable of go to Roland Garros for tennis one night time and can keep in Paris for a couple of days to take in the Olympic expertise, and he intends on attending monitor and area and gymnastics.
The Olympics introduced heightened stakes for gamers representing their international locations. The 22-year-old Kim was visibly emotional after Sunday’s match, wiping away tears at occasions when speaking to the media. With an Olympic medal, Kim would’ve been granted an exemption for necessary army service.
He completed in eighth place, 4 strokes again from bronze after posting a 68 within the closing spherical. Kim declined to touch upon the subject — as he had all week — however stated the Olympics held further weight.
“This week has been such an A-list occasion for me, I actually wished to win for my nation,” Kim stated. “The Olympics, it is completely different. You do not actually get an opportunity to symbolize your nation, that is each 4 years. I will be so much older the subsequent time we play, so you do not wish to miss these alternatives.”
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