Bach: Absence of top male golfers to be evaluated after Rio

Took aim. Direct hit.

Bach says the International Olympic Committee has to “respect the individual decisions” of golfers who pulled out citing concerns over Zika, but notes that there have also been “very different reasons” not related to the virus that have led some to skip the games.

The Salt Lake Olympic Games and Rio Games are very different.

The network altered Bach’s speech to remove several paragraphs that commended Russian Federation for hosting the Olympics, as well as promoting a message of fair play and harmony. And that meant something.

On Tuesday, the stories came thick and fast.

Any hope of Rio hosting a men’s tournament that anyone beyond the hardcore aficionado will give a flip about took a knockout blow Monday when the last of the Big Four, Jordan Spieth, delivered his regrets to the powers that run global golf. It spooks them better than any ghost or ghoul.

“I don’t think it was as hard a decision for me as it was for him”, McIlroy said.

“I haven’t been blood-tested yet”, McIlroy said. Thousands of athletes in many sports have visited Brazil in the last two years for test events and not one has been reported to have contracted the virus.

Then McIlroy cranked it up a notch.

“You can’t really pick up HGH (human growth hormone) in a urine test [so] I could use HGH and get away with it”.

The comments from the four-time major victor will do little to improve the perception of the already beleaguered addition to the Games. He utterly trashed his sport’s record in the battle against doping.

McIlroy has other things on his mind as well. That’s as many as John, Paul and George put together.

Dawson pointed to the interest in smaller countries pushing for golf’s inclusion in the Olympics.

“So our announcers, when the Parade of Nations comes in, are talking about the athletes”.

Either way, McIlroy had had enough.

“It will loom over me throughout the Olympic games, for sure”, he said. “That being said, until the Olympic games, it’s hard to know what sort of preparation, shall we say, that people are doing”. “I got into golf to win championships and win major championships”. While nervous, I’m crossing my fingers and finding reason for hope-partly because of the extraordinary Brazilian people and partly because of the magic that is the Olympics. “I’ve got four Major championships, and I’d love to add to that tally, just as those guys would love to add to their one or two Majors that they have”. “I’m going to win more times than not”. “I certainly have thought about all that and it’s something I’ve looked forward to since 2009 when it was announced”.

Which events will he watch? Asked what sports he would watch, McIlroy said: “Probably the events like track and field, swimming, diving”. In that moment McIlroy was more Keith Moon than Ringo Starr. Canada has also set a goal of finishing in the top 12 in the world in medals standings.

In recent months Spieth has played tournaments in OH and Pennsylvania, where incidence of Zika have been recorded. It wasn’t an easy decision for me. “So, man, I just feel that there’s so much added pressure off that”.

“I don’t think it would be appropriate [to play] given our decision on the Olympics”, Spieth said.

Those who have championed golf’s return to the Olympics for the first time since 1904 believes it will provide a great platform upon which the sport can grow.

“They (the public) are not in my shoes”.

Ouch. A rather barbed retort to those who have criticised his decision made a month ago not to play in Rio – citing zika at the time, although the suspicion that was merely a convenient excuse has grown ever stronger.

Spieth stressed that it was not just a worry about the Zika outbreak that made him withdraw. “That (Zika) is not the only one”, he said.