Shane Lowry believes successful Olympic gold will make up for lacking out on a second Open title, as Eire team-mate Rory McIlroy targets his largest win for a decade.
Lowry held a two-shot midway lead at Royal Troon, the place McIlroy missed the lower, however struggled to a 3rd spherical of 77 and ultimately completed sixth, 5 photographs behind Olympic champion Xander Schauffele.
“I felt I had a superb likelihood to win The Open a few weeks in the past and I used to be actually disillusioned to not give it a greater go on Saturday and Sunday,” mentioned Lowry, who described being one among Eire’s flag bearers on the opening ceremony as an “superb expertise”.
“Straightaway after that I type of felt like I’ve an opportunity to redeem myself right here in a few weeks.
“In the event you take a look at the media and what it was like again dwelling yesterday when Mona (McSharry) received that bronze medal (within the 100m breaststroke), I believe if I used to be to win a gold medal and convey it again to Eire, yeah, it might be fairly cool.”
McIlroy’s bid to win a fifth main title will stretch into one other decade after he suffered his second worst Open efficiency at Troon, the 35-year-old carding rounds of 78 and 75 to complete 11 over par, 5 weeks after his heartbreaking loss within the US Open.
Requested what a gold medal would do for his 12 months, McIlroy mentioned: “It’s effectively documented that I haven’t received one of many huge 4 in 10 years. It could in all probability be one among, if not the largest [win] in my profession for the final 10 years.
“The final time you guys (the media) noticed me, I didn’t give an excellent account of myself at Troon. I need to ensure that I’m proper the place I have to be teeing off on Thursday.
“Once more I’ve been requested this query quite a bit, the place would an Olympic medal sit in type of the hierarchy of my profession achievements? It’s one thing I in all probability received’t have the ability to reply till when every part is claimed and achieved.
“I don’t know if something will have the ability to sit alongside the majors. We’ve got our 4 occasions a 12 months which might be the gold commonplace. However I believe that is going to be, in time, proper up there amongst that.”
McIlroy and Lowry each welcomed the opportunity of a crew format, combined or in any other case, being launched in Los Angeles in 2028 and likewise dismissed the suggestion that this week’s competitors at Le Golf Nationwide has been diminished by the absence of US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau.
All 4 of the American crew – Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark – are ranked contained in the world’s prime six, with DeChambeau ninth regardless of solely with the ability to earn rating factors from the majors as LIV Golf occasions can not award them.
Requested if the world rankings was one of the best ways to find out Olympic qualifying, McIlroy mentioned: “I don’t assume there’s some other method to do it as a result of it’s arduous to check the golf that they play (on LIV) to the golf that we play.
“That’s the explanation they didn’t get world rating factors, proper.
“If you wish to qualify for the Olympics, you knew what you needed to do. Identical to in case you needed to qualify for the Ryder Cup, you knew what you needed to do. They had been very conscious of the choice they made once they did.”
McIlroy will play alongside Ryder Cup team-mate Ludvig Aberg and world primary Scheffler for the primary two days, whereas Lowry has been drawn with Korea’s Byeong Hun An and Canada’s Nick Taylor.
France’s Victor Perez has been given the honour of hitting the opening shot at 0900 native time (0800BST).
