McIlroy Admits Paris Olympic Winning Gold Would Be Biggest Career Win In Past 10-Years

So much has been written about Rory McIlroy’s now 11-year long major championship victory drought.

It was August 2014 in the near darkness of the Valhalla Golf Club in suburban Louisville, Kentucky when McIlroy last lit-up the major championship winning arena in capturing back-to-back majors.

While McIlroy continues to strive for glory in the ancient club-and-ball game at the highest level, he continues to win around the globe as evident as he’s tasted success 17 times on the PGA Tour, claimed three FedEx Cups, won eight DP World Tour events and finished atop the Race to Dubai rankings on no fewer four occasions. He also helped Europe win the Ryder Cup in 2014, 2018, and 2023, posting an 8-5-2 record across those three competitions.

And ahead of this week’s Olympic Men’s Golf showdown in surburban Versailles, McIlroy was asked what winning a Gold Medal would mean.

“It would be the achievement of the year,” McIlroy said.

 

“I think for me, it’s well documented that I haven’t won one of the big four in 10 years. It would probably be one of, if not the biggest win in my career for the last ten years.”

McIlroy’s stunning admission is quite the departure from how he viewed the Olympics eight years ago, when golf returned to the quadriennial competition for the first time since 1904.

McIlroy skipped the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro indicating at the time that he felt the Olympics did not fit into the golfing mold, so he decided to pursue other goals at the time. The ZIKA Virus also played a role in his decision. But the Ulsterman has since changed his tune, saying a Gold Medal would rank above all his other individual victories since Valhalla.

“I think as golf is in the Olympics for a longer period of time, it will become more of—I don’t know if anything will be able to sit alongside the majors. We have four events a year that are the gold standard. But I think this is going to be—in time—going to be right up there amongst that,” McIlroy said.

“But I’ve been asked this question a lot: Where would an Olympic Medal sit in the hierarchy of my career achievements? It’s something I probably won’t be able to answer until after everything is said and done.”



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