He was in the players’ box at Wimbledon supporting girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki as she played her first round match of the women’s tennis at the Olympics.
The Olympic spirit in the broadcasting world can best be summed up as all hands to the pump. For me that means a return to covering tennis a decade on from leaving the sport to report on golf.
McIlroy was a rare familiar face in the Centre Court crowd. The inescapable thought was that four years hence he is likely to be an Olympian rather than a mere member of a competitor’s entourage.
It’s been fascinating trying to imagine the impact of golf’s return to the Games in Rio in 2016 and the world’s top players are certainly in for a culture shock.
Golfer Rory McIlroy and his girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki arriving at the Olympic Village. Photo: Getty
Living by the uniform rules of the International Olympic Committee is a rather different prospect compared with the cosseted worlds they inhabit on the European and PGA Tours.
Here at Wimbledon the blueprint that works so smoothly on an annual basis at the All England Championships has been ripped up.
“It makes you appreciate how well Wimbledon is run,” grumbled one player disaffected by the different protocols in place at an Olympics.
Another high-profile star has been heard ranting about ticket allocations while the media moan about being forced through unfamiliar gates and familiar routes being put off limits by road closures around the All England Club.
Jobsworths have a capital J during the Games regardless of who you are and this creates an environment certainly alien to golf’s pampered pros.
But amid the moans and groans there is a feeling of gratitude that tennis is a member of the Olympic family. From 2016 golf should feel the same way.
Golf’s inclusion in the Rio Games will be good for the sport and for the Olympics.
“The way I look at it is that if Tiger Woods wants to win a gold medal then that increases the value of the medals I won,” Sir Steve Redgrave told me around the time golf was regaining its place in the Games.
Be under no illusions golf has been included because, like tennis, it is a lucrative sport. The modern Olympian ideals carry a price and if you have any doubt about that remember it can only be paid with a certain credit card.
Golf will be good for Olympic business, but it also brings a sense of fair play and integrity that the IOC is so keen to promote.
Benefits of inclusion are already being felt by golf. The campaign to become an Olympic sport led to the introduction of drug testing and the game is now being made to live by the standards of other sports.
Funding and development resources are more available across the globe and Olympic status gives a massive boost to growing the game in parts of the world where golf has yet to make an impact.
Over the next four years Rio will become one of the central sources of golfing story-lines.
At the moment the plan is for 72 hole individual strokeplay tournaments for men and women in separate weeks of the Games. But this may change as organisers consider the possibility of including a team dimension.
There are plenty more issues. Will caddies receive medals? Don’t they play a similar role to a rowing cox? But what if they are a different nationality to their player?
What will happen to the 2016 golfing calendar? August’s PGA Championship has to move dates because it can’t clash with the Games. This is complicated further by Wimbledon moving a week later from 2014.
This move appears to prevent the Open from shifting a week earlier to help
ease schedule congestion.
And returning to McIlroy, who was wearing Danish red to support his girlfriend here, what colours will he be wearing if he qualifies.
It’s a difficult decision for the Northern Ireland star. Three years ago he said he thought he would play for Britain but now it’s a question he avoids.
McIlroy has represented Ireland in the World Cup and north and south of the border the game is administered by the Golfing Union of Ireland.
The time will come when he will have to come off the Danish fence and declare his hand. His relationship with Wozniacki means he’s familiar in Wimbledon green, will he be going for gold in the green of Ireland?
Source: www.bbc.co.uk