Rory McIlroy has reignited his feud with the golfers that left to join LIV Golf, explaining that the standard of play on the Saudi Arabian tour contributed to many golfers missing the 2024 Olympics.
The Northern Irishman has been a vocal critic of the Saudi-backed breakaway venture, which has lured in dozens of high-profile stars with the promise of money-spinning events and salaries.
But McIlroy, 35, thinks LIV struggles to hold a candle to the PGA Tour in terms of quality, and took aim at the players who may now struggle to qualify for competitions such as the Olympics as a consequence of their decision.
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When asked if he felt the Olympic golf event would be a disappointment because some of the best players in the world failed to qualify, McIlroy gave a brutal response.
“I mean, I don't think there's any other way to do it because it's hard to compare the golf that they play to the golf that we play. That's the reason they didn't get World Ranking points, right?" McIlroy said.
"So if you want to qualify for the Olympics, you knew what you had to do. Just like if you wanted to qualify for the Ryder Cup, you knew what you had to do. They were very aware of the decision they made when they did."
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Discovery+ is the new home of the Olympics. The streamer is set to broadcast 3,800 hours of sport live from Paris.
Sports fans can get Discovery+ for £3.99 a month until the end of 2024 via Amazon Prime's video channels. This also comes with an Amazon Prime 30-day free trial.
While LIV players are not banned from the Olympics and made the cut to qualify, including two-time major champion Jon Rahm, other stars have fallen down the world rankings as a result of their controversial move.
US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau is unquestionably one of the top players in the game, but the 30-year-old was not included in Team USA's four-man lineup.
Instead, American quartet Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa are playing at the tournament, which begins at Le Golf National on Thursday.
Northern Irishman McIlroy, who said he "resented" the Games for making him choose between Ireland and Great Britain, admitted it would be a shame not to have all of the best players in the world in Paris.
"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," McIlroy added.
"It's still very meaningful and if I were to win a medal, especially a gold medal, it would mean a lot to me.
"I was really close to winning a medal last time [at Tokyo 2020] - 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."
