News
Rory Speaks His Mind, Chamblee Loses His
How many times have we complained about athletes giving canned or cliched answers? How many times have we wished that an athlete would “speak his mind” and just “tell it like it is”.
Today, thanks to Rory McIlroy, many of us got our wish.
Rory was asked at his Open press conference about the difficulty regarding his decision to forego the Olympics this summer.
The four-time major winner did not disappoint.
“Honestly, I don’t think it was as difficult a decision for me as it was for (Spieth),” McIlroy said. “I don’t feel like I’ve let the game down at all. I didn’t get into golf to try and grow the game. I got into golf to win championships and win major championships.”
But Rors didn’t stop there.
“I got into golf to win. I didn’t get into golf to get other people into the game. But, look, I get where different people come from and different people have different opinions. But I’m very happy with the decision that I’ve made and I have no regrets about it.”
And finally, just to really drive the point home, he said this:
“I’ll probably watch the Olympics, but I’m not sure golf will be one of the events I watch.”
Which events will he watch?
“Track and field, swimming, diving. The stuff that matters.”
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Afterwards, the Golf Channel interrupted their banal pre-coverage coverage to ask Brandel Chamblee what he thought about Rory’s comments.
“I think it’s likely that, at the end of his career, he’ll regret that moment more than any other moment in the history of his career.”
In the history of his career. Not hyperbolic at all.
Chamblee went on to lament the fact that the game of golf “suffers from being too expensive, too slow, too exclusionary, too hard to understand the rules”.
Let me stop you there, Brandel.
Rory playing in the Olympics isn’t going to solve any of those issues. Instead, maybe you should save some of this misguided outrage for the International Golf Federation and International Olympic Committee. They are the ones that have screwed this whole thing up from the start.
Apparently, Chamblee is the only person that has taken the Zika virus excuse at face value. The fact is, the way this has been set-up ignored any issues players may have had with the schedule or location.
Instead, the IOC, in all it’s arrogance, figured no athlete would turn down the opportunity to compete in the Olympics. The IOC was wrong.
All Rory McIlroy is doing is saying out loud what everyone else was already thinking. And that includes the other top three golfers in the world.
Cover Photo via Flickr
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