Rory McIlroy may have come up a couple of shots shy of the medals in Paris, but the world number three takes away plenty of positives from the 2024 Olympic Games, not least being part of arguably the most successful Irish team ever assembled for the quadrennial sports showpiece.
“Yeah, it’s been amazing,” he said after finishing tied for fifth. “I just think – these games have felt very different than the one I was involved in in Tokyo because of COVID, but there’s just been a great feeling around these games, particularly within the Irish camp and in this golf tournament as well. I just think that golf in the Olympics, it needed this. It’s been an incredible week, an incredible experience and obviously for the Irish team, there’s still medals to play for and I’m excited to watch that.”
McIlroy’s own medal hopes appeared to have all but gone after stalling on the front nine, but a run of five consecutive birdies to start the back side, combined with leader Jon Rahm slipping back to the pack, suddenly had Gold in his sights, not just Silver or Bronze.
Those hopes found a watery grave on the 15th when his aggressive approach shot came up a couple of yards shy and found the hazard, leading to a double bogey six and
“Yeah, I got on that run on the back nine and I thought any medal was possible then,” he said. “When I turned, I was six behind, I was 14-under-par after 11 and Jon Rahm had got to 20 so I didn’t really think I had a chance at Gold and then everything started to happen pretty quickly. I played okay, I actually played good on the way in, that one wedge shot on 15, honestly, I hit the shot I wanted to hit, it just didn’t get up in the air enough to have the wind carry it that extra two or three yards onto the green, but it’s been an incredible week and I obviously gave it a good go out there today, but it wasn’t to be.”
McIlroy has been guilty in the past of not being fully aware of where he lay in a tournament but that wasn’t the case on the 15th and he wanted to keep the pedal pressed firmly to the floor and keep making birdies.
“I knew I was only one back at that point,” he admitted. “So even over the shot on 15, I wanted to stay aggressive. Look, it would’ve been easy to hit it 30 feet long and make a four, but I wanted to make another birdie and, you know, stay aggressive and get the most out of the round but unfortunately that didn’t happen.”