Why Olympic golf still matters to Scheffler, McIlroy, more - ESPN

Most of the world's best golfers spent the past four months playing in the four most famous tournaments in the world — the Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open and The Open.

In August, many of them will compete in the FedEx Cup playoffs on the PGA Tour, which awards a $25 million bonus to the winner.

So where does an Olympic gold medal rank against a coveted green jacket that comes with winning the Masters or a Claret Jug that goes to the golfer who finishes first at the Open Championship? Especially in a sport where money seems to be the only thing that matters?

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This year's Olympic men's golf tournament, which begins Thursday at Le Golf National outside Paris, is only the fifth time golf has been included in the Summer Games. Golf was officially recognized as a sport in 1900 and 1904 but wasn't part of the Olympics again until 2016.

«I've been asked this question a lot: Where would an Olympic medal sit in sort of the hierarchy of my career achievements?» Ireland's Rory McIlroy said. «And it's something I probably won't be able to answer until when everything is said and done.

»I don't know if anything will be able to sit alongside the majors. We have our four events a year that are the gold standard. But I think this is going to be, in time, going to be right up there amongst that."

It's quite an about-face for McIlroy, who qualified for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He skipped the tournament over concerns about the Zika virus, and later said he resented the Olympics because it would cause him to decide whether to represent Ireland or Great Britain.