Olympics give Rory McIlroy chance to recast his season—and his career

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Rory McIlroy’s ebbing and flowing relationship with the Olympics took another positive step during his Tuesday press conference, calling a potential gold medal at the Paris games “one of the biggest, if not the biggest achievement in my career for the last 10 years.”

With perspective, McIlroy now thinks an Olympic medal’s significance is only going to grow with time.

“I've been asked this question a lot, ‘Where would an Olympic medal sit in sort of the hierarchy of my career achievements?’ and it's something I probably won't be able to answer until when everything is said and done,” he said. “I think as golf is in the Olympics for a longer period of time, it will become more. I don't know if anything will be able to sit alongside the majors. We have our four events a year that are the gold standard. But I think this is going to be … in time, going to be right up there amongst that.”

Those are large statements from a player who opted out of the 2016 Olympics and once suggested that his decision was not impacted by any sense of obligation to the greater game at large. "I didn't get into golf to try and grow the game," he said back then. "I got into golf to win championships, and major championships.

Five years later at the Tokyo Games, McIlroy desperately wanted to get into the playoff for the bronze medal. He shot a final-round 67 to pull into a tie for third but lost the bronze medal in a four-man playoff eventually won by C.T. Pan. At the time, McIlroy said, “I’ve been saying all day I never tried so hard in my life to finish third. It makes me even more determined going to Paris and trying to pick one up. It's disappointing going away from here without any hardware.”

Now at Le Golf National, he thinks the Olympics present a chance to recast his season, which has seen two wins but no major titles, including a one-stroke defeat at the U.S. Open and a missed cut at the Open Championship. “It would be the achievement, certainly of the year,” he said. “I'd say my focus is pretty high. The last time you guys saw me, I didn't give a very good account of myself at Troon. I want to make sure I'm right where I need to be teeing off on Thursday.”

Indeed, McIlroy’s last start was a disaster at the Open Championship, where rounds of 78 and 75 had him miss the cut for the first time in any tournament since the 2023 Masters. McIlroy took the next week off and was spotted—surprisingly—on Monday getting in some practice at the Old Course at St. Andrews before heading to France.

McIlroy stayed quiet in why he was in Scotland (“none of your business why I was there but it's always nice to play St Andrews”) rather than at Le Golf National, but noted it was a worthwhile experience.

“Yeah, it was good. I wasn't expecting quite the crowd on the last few holes that we got but yeah, it was good,” McIlroy said. “That was the first game of golf I've had since Troon. I thought at least one game of golf before I got here was probably beneficial.”

McIlroy is joined by Shane Lowry on the Ireland team and the two were partners to win the Zurich Classic on the PGA Tour in April, sparking Lowry to quip that he wished he could play McIlroy’s drives this week. The two also were teammates at the Olympics in Tokyo.