RORY: I DREAM OF CLARET JUGS NOT OLYMPIC MEDALS
YOu might have thought it had been staged when Rory McIlroy was asked the first question about the Zika virus yesterday and a fly of some description started buzzing around his ear before trying to land on his shoulder.
‘Mosquito!’ he cried, smiling broadly and flapping away in the general direction of the midge-like creature.
It was a rare light- hearted moment in a largely sombre press conference on the eve of the 100th Open de France, dominated by the subject of why so many golf stars have pulled out of the Olympic Games in August.
It was typical Rory as he became the first of the Olympic renegades to admit factors alongside the mosquito-borne Zika explain the rash of withdrawals.
Asked by Sportsmail if it was embarrassing for the game when most other leading sportsmen were still heading to Rio, he replied: ‘I don’t think it is embarrassing because most other athletes have dreamed their whole lives of competing in the Olympics and winning a gold medal, and we haven’t.
‘We dream of winning green jackets and claret jugs. Perhaps that makes the game look insular but it’s just the way it is.
‘I’ve said to people, I have four Olympic games every year. That’s my pinnacle, what I play for and what I shall be remembered for.’
To be fair to McIlroy, he had every intention of going to Rio until a last-minute change of heart. He’d had two vaccinations, organised a house, a chef, security, the works. He described calling captain Paul McGinley to tell him he wasn’t going after all as ‘one of the hardest telephone calls I’ve ever had to make’.
Added McIlroy: ‘I just didn’t want to disappoint people and Paul most of all, because I’m close to him. We talked about it so much. We had everything planned out. But then, at the end of the day, I was just not 100 per cent comfortable going down there, and I just didn’t want to take the risk.’
McIlroy conceded it had been a bad week for the sport after his decision precipitated withdrawals from the likes of Branden Grace, fellow Irishman Shane Lowry and, most damagingly of all, world No 1 Jason Day.
All placed the blame squarely on Zika, even though the latest authoritative study has downgraded the risk of catching the virus to ‘minimal.’
‘It has been a difficult time for golf with all the negative press but I don’t think it will have any lasting effect,’ said McIlroy.
It will, however, if the Olympic committee take a dim view of the absentees and decide golf ’ s return should be short-lived.
On to happier matters, and McIlroy’s welcome decision to play in this special edition of the French Open.
The 27-year- old hasn’t been seen since his missed halfway cut at the uS Open a fortnight ago.
‘Sometimes you need these setbacks to reassess things and use them as motivation going forward,’ he said.
‘I’ve been working with Michael (Bannon, his coach) on a few things and we’re trying to bed them in. I think my record shows I’ve come back from setbacks pretty well.’