The announcement came as a something of a surprise but as we heard from Rory McIlroy himself, the World No 6 golfer will be walking out behind the tricolor should he qualify for the 2016 Olympics.
Off The Ball's Dave McIntyre is down at Fota Island for the Irish Open where McIlroy made his announcement this morning.
Dave got the impression that the two-time major winner was clearly looking to get this decision of his chest today and
"It was a decision he'd made and he thought the timing this week was perfectly right with the Irish Open, the World Cup in Brazil where the Olympics will be in two year times. Regardless of what happened he was going to go in there and tell us and get the news out there," said Dave, who speculated about McIlroy's playing partner in Rio, examining the cases of Graeme McDowell and Shane Lowry.
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