Will Olympic Golf Survive the Cut?

Recent withdrawals by no fewer than 20 eligible golfers, including the world’s top-four, proved to be body blows to the International Golf Federation which lobbied successfully to secure golf’s inclusion in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo in 2020 after a lapse of 112 years

Masters champion Danny Willett

Worse still, one of the game’s leading stars, Rory McIlroy, got himself stuck in a hole as large as some of the pot bunkers at Royal Troon, in the days leading up to The Open last month.

When quizzed by the press for his reasons to stay away from the Olympics, he uncharacteristically stumbled his lines.

"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 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 I got into golf. I got into golf to win. I didn't get into golf to get other people into the game."

The BBC Sports website took offence into McIlroy’s retort, saying that it flew in the face of the Northern Irishman who had over the years focused on the importance that he places in inspiring young golfers.

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Written by Chuah Choo Chiang

Photography by AFP

Click here to see the published article.

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