SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — No one may have had a more mercurial relationship with golf’s move to the Olympics than Rory McIlroy, but after desperately wanting to get the bronze medal in 2021 in Tokyo, McIlroy is all in on this event after what transpired at Le Golf National this week outside Paris.
The Olympics have fully arrived in McIlroy’s mind.
“Amazing,” he said in summing up the week. “We were talking about it out there and Nico [playing partner Nicolai Hojgaard] reckons it's the best tournament he's ever been involved in, and he's played a Ryder Cup.
“I still think that the Ryder Cup is the best tournament that we have in our game, pure competition, and I think this has the potential to be right up there with it. I think with how much of a sh-t show the game of golf is right now and you think about the two tournaments that might be the purest form of competition in our sport, we don't play for money in it. So it speaks volumes for what's important in sports, and I think every single player this week has had an amazing experience.”
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McIlroy gave a large dose of extra credit to the environment at the stadium-golf setting of Le Golf National, where crowds estimated at more than 20,000 a day turned the tournament into an impromptu festival. McIlroy was entirely in the mix of the proceedings, getting to 17 under while playing the 15th hole and staring down eventual gold medalist Scottie Scheffler. A misjudged wedge at the watery 15th hole led to a double bogey that took the wind out of his sails.
“When I got to 10 and 11, I looked at the board and I was 14 and Jon [Rahm] had got to 20,” McIlroy said. “So I was like—I didn't feel like I had a chance. Then I looked at the board again after I birdied 14 and I was one behind and I was like, holy sh-t, what just happened? Even that wedge shot on 15, I hit the shot I wanted to hit. The two boys in front of me, Nicolai and Hideki [Matsuyama], they got their balls up in the air a little bit more and the wind carried it, and I saw they went like 25, 30 feet past. I hit the shot I wanted to hit, but I didn't get the ball in the air enough for the wind to carry it the extra three or four yards I needed to. Missed my spot by nearly three or four yards and that ended up costing me a medal.”
The miscue could have ruined his week, but McIlroy thought it was a great moment for golf, and that seemed to be the most important thing he took away from the proceedings.
“It was probably one of the best individual competitions I've been a part of,” he said. “I think just the atmosphere. Even standing on the 16th tee and watching 18 and seeing Victor Perez come up 18 and how he was serenaded by the French crowds. We don't get that any other place that we play, maybe apart from the Ryder Cup. I just thought it was an incredible atmosphere and environment to play in, and I think everyone in the field had a blast.”
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Even more telling than McIlroy’s enthusiasm for golf in the Olympics. He’s headed to watch more events for the next few days.
“This has been my first games where it's felt like an Olympic Games,” he said after participating in the Tokyo Games where players movements were highly restricted because of COVID. “To be able to go to some of the other events and to feel the spirit of the Olympics and what it's all about and having dozens and dozens of athletes come from all over the world to compete in their individual sports and to be a part of that, it's felt really cool.”