JOIN USSaying no in different ways
The ethos of the world’s most famed athletic competition is known as the Olympic movement, which in the men’s golf community is best signified by the stampede of top players dashing away from the 2016 Rio Games.
The best male golfers are not just skipping the first Olympic golf tournament in 112 years; at least one, Rory McIlroy, kicked dirt on it last Tuesday as he left it behind.
Every day yields another body blow to the cause of golf in the Olympic Games and what it was meant to accomplish. Tuesday was only the latest, most cutting rebuke.
It began as the day when American Jordan Spieth would explain his decision, revealed the day before, to skip the Olympics, an event he had once eagerly promoted. Spieth, still the earnest, genial boy next door, did his best to clarify his position despite a mystifying unwillingness to be specific.
But then McIlroy, likable and normally deferential, addressed the worldwide media and stomped on Olympic golf anew. McIlroy, who announced last month that he would forego the Olympics because of concerns over the Zika virus, was asked about Spieth’s decision and whether elite golfers were letting down the game.McIlroy unloaded.
“I don’t think it was as difficult a decision for me as it was for him,” McIlroy said, adding, “I don’t feel like I’ve let the game down at all.” Restoring golf to the Olympics was intended to build the game of golf, especially globally, since the game would be exposed to people who do not normally follow golf or get to play it.
McIlroy did not see the connection.“I didn’t get into golf to try and grow the game,” he said. “I tried to get into golf to win championships and win major championships.”
McIlroy, ranked No 4 in the world, was just getting started. A few minutes earlier, Spieth had said it was going to be agonising for him to watch the Olympic tournament from home. McIlroy said he was probably going to watch the Olympics, but maybe not the golf competition. Asked which events he would watch, McIlroy said, “Probably the events like track and field, swimming, diving — the stuff that matters.”
The dagger fired around the world at the Olympic ideal was unmistakable. That it took place less than 48 hours before the first shot of the 145th British Open was yet another setback for golf.
To be fair, in the past, even when McIlroy had said he would go to Rio, he had expressed an uneasiness about calling himself a future Olympian. In his view, Olympians were athletes who had worked tirelessly and often in anonymity — runners, swimmers and divers — to qualify for the event that was the pinnacle of their sport. McIlroy never pretended to view the Olympics the same way, and neither did most golfers.
One player who had shown some affinity toward the Olympics and who said he understood the importance of representing his country had been Spieth. It jibed with his all-American image, and it certainly helped him land endorsements from business entities like Coca-Cola, the longtime Olympic sponsor for whom Spieth, the world’s third-ranked golfer, is now a global ambassador.
Understanding all that, Spieth, 22, anticipated the inquisition that came his way. He joked about it early, replied to every question respectfully and handled the situation with startling aplomb. He just did not have enough complete answers. “This was something I very much struggled with,” said Spieth, whose withdrawal from the US team means that the world’s top four golfers will not be in the Olympic tournament. Jason Day and Dustin Johnson, the world’s first- and second-ranked golfers, had already opted out.
Spieth avoided mentioning the Zika virus, and, in fact, asked reporters not to refer to it as the cause of his Olympic exit.
“Again, I didn’t cite that,” he said. “So please don’t do that for me. It’s strictly health concerns as a whole. That’s not the only one.”
Spieth conceded that people would be sceptical about the motivations for his decision since they most likely include security concerns. “Yes, I can understand why people are sceptical,” he said. “They’re as passionate about the Olympics as I am. They also are not in my shoes. So I feel that many, if not all of you, would have made the same decision I made if you were in my shoes.”
He added that he hoped to play in four or five Olympics representing the United States. But with so many of the world’s best men’s golfers — and biggest names — snubbing the game’s much-publicised reintroduction to the Olympics, it is more than possible that golf will not be welcomed back in four years. When it comes to Olympic golf in his lifetime, Spieth may be missing his only chance.