G-Mac and Rory’s Olympic partnership isn’t set in stone yet

Shane Lowry was well entitled to a wry smile over the last day or two as he heard just about everybody talk up Ireland’s prospects of a medal at the 2016 Olympic Games now that Rory McIlroy has declared for Ireland and Graeme McDowell has confirmed he will wear the green, white and orange in Rio.

It is not unreasonable to regard McIlroy and McDowell as red-hot favourites for the two-man Irish team given that they stand sixth and 22nd respectively in the official world golf rankings. But the Olympics are still more than two years away and a lot could change in that time. Lowry, for instance, sees a place at the Olympics as crowning anything he, or the other illustrious sporting members of his family, have achieved.

He has a bit of ground to make up from his current ranking of 75th but plenty of time to do so and won’t have overlooked the fact that G-Mac and McIlroy have dropped back a little from the imposing positions they occupied two or three years ago. He himself, on the other hand, has hung comfortably on to his top 100 status and after his recent runner-up finish in the BMW Championship at Wentworth is heading in the right direction.