RORY McIlroy has made an honest admission ahead of playing in the Olympic Games next week.
The Holywood hotshot and Shane Lowry will be in action for Ireland at La Golf National from next Thursday, and both have genuine medal hopes.
The pair won the Zurich Classic team event earlier this season on the PGA Tour will jet off to Paris later this summer – but this will be a singles event.
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Four-time major winner McIlroy finished fourth in Tokyo Games in 2021.
And ahead of his trip to the French capital, the world number three admits that he started to resent the Olympic Games.
The reason being was the speculation prior to the 2020 Games as to who the Northern Irishman would represent, the UK or Ireland.
Speaking to the Sunday Independent five years earlier, he admitted it caused him huge frustration.
He said: “All of a sudden it put me in a position where I had to question who I am.
“Who am I? Where am I from? Where do my loyalties lie? Who am I going to play for? Who do I not want to (upset) the most?
“I started to resent it. And I do. I resent the Olympic Games because of the position it put me in. That’s my feelings toward it. And whether that’s right or wrong, that’s how I feel.”
The Olympics is an individual event, and the men’s tournament will take place from August 1st to 4th at La Golf National, the venue of the Ryder Cup in 2018.
Down native McIlroy finished fourth at the 2020 Tokyo Games, while Offaly icon Lowry ended his week t-22nd.
Team USA’s squad consists of Masters champion Scottie Scheffler and USPGA/Open winner Xander Schauffele.
2023 US Open winner Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa complete the side of four.
OLYMPIC QUALIFERS
Scottie Scheffler
Rory McIlroy
Xander Schauffele
Ludvig Åberg
Wyndham Clark
Viktor Hovland
Collin Morikawa
Jon Rahm
Hideki Matsuyama
Tommy Fleetwood
Matt Fitzpatrick
Matthieu Pavon
Sepp Straka
Jason Day
Tom Kim
Byeong Hun An
Shane Lowry
Nick Taylor
Min Woo Lee
Corey Conners
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Stephan Jaeger
Nicolai Højgaard
Thomas Detry
Emiliano Grillo
Alex Norén
Ryan Fox
Erik van Rooyen
Adrian Meronk
Victor Perez
Keita Nakajima
Thorbjørn Olesen
Alejandro Tosti
Joaquin Niemann
Sami Välimäki
Kevin Yu
David Puig
Matti Schmid
C.T. Pan
Joost Luiten
Carl Yuan
Camilo Villegas
Matteo Manassero
Adrien Dumont de Chassart
Daniel Hillier
Cristóbal del Solar
Guido Migliozzi
Shubhankar Sharma
Rafael Campos
Darius van Driel
Carlos Ortiz
Kiradech Aphibarnrat
Gavin Green
Gaganjeet Bhullar
Nico Echavarría
Kris Ventura
Phachara Khongwatmai
Abraham Ancer
Zecheng Dou
Fabrizio Zanotti