Rory McIlroy appears to have changed his tune on Olympic golf

It felt very different to any other tournament.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – The significance of a gold medal hit Justin Rose at a moment he wasn’t expecting.

“I think it was very important for Olympic golf going forward”, Rose said.

“He was very proud and said he was rooting for me”, Rose told a media conference. “I’ve never seen it resonate so much with him”.

The 2013 US Open champion closed with a four-under-par 67 to win on 16-under.

Matt Kuchar of the United States equaled the course record 63 set by Australia’s Marcus Fraser on day one, flying up the leaderboard to finish 13-under and in a clear bronze medal place, four shots in front of Thomas Pieters from Belgium.

“I have no regrets”.

“I grew up watching the Olympics and that was the pinnacle of my sport”, she said. “I think it’s done golf a great deal of good”. “To be an Olympic medallist is even more special. It was the gift of a lifetime coming here”.

Numerous world’s top 10 chose to skip the event, whether it be down to the threat of Zika or the secret admission that Golf should not have been included in the first place, but as Rose strolled off the final green on Sunday afternoon to the adulation and applause of the galleries you could bet your life that numerous games biggest names would have wanted to be in the Englishman’s shoes.

“It brought golf into a context they can understand”, Rose said, citing several similar texts from “the deep, dark parts of your phone book that don’t often get used”.

At The Open, Rory McIlroy flippantly said he was going to watch events in the Olympics “like track and field, swimming, diving … the stuff that matters”.

Deadlocked at 18, Stenson was shy of the green with his approach while Rose was left of the green with bunkers between, the gold fight down to a pitch and putt contest. When his come-backer for par missed low, Stenson tapped in for a bogey, a 3-under 68 and the silver medal.

Despite the woman’s faux pas, Rose kept his head as he went on to win the tense competition at the death as Swedish golfer Henrik Stenson bogeyed the final hole. “You saw the emotion Andy Murray showed, how much it meant to him”, he said of the world number two, who defeated Juan Martin del Potro to retain his men’s singles title.

“I was just on the outside and barely qualified”, he said after finishing three strokes behind Rose on Sunday.

“This is just a dream come true”. To come out of it with a medal is incredible, and to come out of it with gold, unbelievable.

The American only climbed into the world top 15 in early July, which put him into contention for one of his country’s four spots. “I’m glad it was close, not for my nerves, for golf”, said the Rio 2016 gold medalist. “The overwhelming sense of pride is just remarkable”.

Ko decided not to stay in the athletes’ village, but seems delighted to be in Brazil for her sport’s first Olympics in 112 years.