McIlroy will take Team GB option for Olympics

RORY McILROY is one of the most recognisable and popular sportsmen on this island but his declaration of intent to represent Britain in the 2016 Olympics, should golf be accepted at next week’s vote of the IOC, is likely to lose him friends on the southern side of the border.

“I’d probably play for Great Britain,” he says. “I have a British passport. It’s a bit of an awkward question. It would be huge play in an Olympics and I’d love to get an Olympic medal one day.”

Golf, of course, is a 32 county sport. The men’s game is governed by the Golfing Union of Ireland, the women’s by the Irish Ladies Golf Union. The teams are known simply as Ireland – that is, until the players turn professional and suddenly the European Tour for reasons best known to itself labels those from the north as “Northern Ireland” even though there is no such entity in the game of golf.