'Hard to say' if Olympics will become like a major

Rory McIlroy believes it is difficult to know whether an Olympic gold medal in golf will ever rival the prestige of achieving winning one of the sport's four majors.

The 35-year-old will represent Team Ireland at his second Olympic Games alongside Shane Lowry at Paris 2024.

The men's four-day 72-hole competition starts on Thursday at Le Golf National and the world number three told BBC Sport NI that "as time goes on, as the Olympics become a greater part of our sport, it will mean more to the sport".

But he added: "It's hard to say [whether the Olympics will become like a major], as even this week, the way the qualification system works, not all the best players in the world are here.

"You'd like to think that if you're going to win something really prestigious in the sport then you want all the best players playing and that isn't quite happening here.

"It's still very meaningful and if I were to win a medal, especially a gold medal, it would mean a lot to me."

McIlroy narrowly missed out on a medal in the Tokyo Games, held in 2021, as he finished fourth in the individual event.

"I was really close to winning a medal last time - I said I'd never tried as hard to finish third in my life - so once you're in there and especially if you are in contention for a medal, you feel the buzz of it and it's really cool," added the four-time major winner from Northern Ireland.

McIlroy has arrived in France on the back of a disappointing performance in the Open Championship as high winds put paid to his chances as he missed the cut at Royal Troon.

He hopes to make amends by putting in a good display at Le Golf National, which hosted the Ryder Cup in 2018.

“For me it’s well documented I haven’t won one of the big four in 10 years so it [a gold medal in Paris] would be one of, if not the biggest, achievements of my career in the last 10 years,” he said.

"I've obviously had a bit more time off than I wanted with not playing the weekend at The Open but I'm excited to be here and at a golf course where I've got a lot of fond memories from the Ryder Cup a few years ago.

"And it's good to get back to playing in conditions that are a little bit more familiar. Obviously Troon was really, really difficult but to be out here in the sunshine without a lot of wind feels really nice."

'A throwback to amateur days'

As in Tokyo in 2021, Rory McIlroy will again represent Team Ireland with Shane Lowry

McIlroy is happy to renew his partnership with 2019 Open champion Lowry after the pair competed for Team Ireland three years ago and more recently won the Zurich Classic together in a play-off in New Orleans at the end of April.

“It’s a nice throwback to the amateur days and that’s what I really enjoyed about Tokyo. It just really felt like I was back in the Irish team in 2005 playing amateur golf," explained McIlroy.

“It’s always good to spend time with Shane. We’ve done well before this year, winning the Zurich, and hopefully we can have another good week this week.”

The county Down native wants to finish the season strongly as he attempts to secure the FedEx Cup title and clinch the Race to Dubai crown over the coming months.

"It’s been a pretty good season, albeit coming off the disappointment of Troon, but there are still a lot of big events to play – here, then trying to finish off strongly in America with the FedEx Cup and then finish off strongly in Europe and win the Race to Dubai as well.

"There's the Irish Open at Royal County Down which I can’t wait for. We last played there in 2015 and I didn’t play very well so I want to go back home and give a better account of myself.

"The majors have come and gone but I’ve still got a good eight to 10 tournaments left and I obviously want to finish the year off on a positive note."