At the risk of conflating McIlroy and the Olympics again...

Interesting gambit:

http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golftalkcentral/ireland-offers-mcilroy-chance-to-carry-flag-at-rio-olympics

To be honest I can’t think of much we wouldn’t offer him to compete for Ireland… Fast track Caroline’s Irish passport so they can carry the flag together perhaps But I have resigned myself to the fact that he will almost certainly compete for GB & NI. It is not going to stop me cheering for him though if it came down to him and Harrington or him and that fine Irish athlete Shane Lowry for a medal well country comes first.

I think Rory has already made up his mind to compete for GB&NI and the only reason he may be delaying the announcement is that he may be concerned about losing support among the Irish Americans, which is a very large number of people with significant financial clout.

And at the risk of setting this off again too. It seems to me that this proposed offer would be a slap in the face to Ireland's veteran Olympians who would be considered for the honour of carrying the flag. Especially when this is someone who finds it difficult to make up his mind about his nationality.

Sorry for lighting the blue touch paper and legging it.....

Grumps

That would be my feeling if I was one of those Irish veterans I think. Think I'd be a bit miffed as well if I was McIlroy to think they're trying to buy me with this offer.

really dont think Mcilroy is motivated by the chance to carry a flag. Pat Hickey is a tool.

That would upset me if I were one of the other candidates.

Maybe in 2/3 olympics time if he declared for Ireland this time, and won a couple of times.

Although, pro golfer, carrying? Would he not just get his caddy to carry it? Sure Stevie Williams would jump in, in his mind it's probably down to him that Rory's been so successful so far anyway.

I am sure he has a GB&NI Passport, he competes under the NI flag. The Olympics are for GB&NI. This is all a bit of a non story.

If Katie Taylor is still on the amateur boxing scene in 2016, she might have something to say about this...

Wouldn't fancy Rory's chances in a fight with her. But I'd pay money to watch.

beninho wrote:I am sure he has a GB&NI Passport, he competes under the NI flag. The Olympics are for GB&NI. This is all a bit of a non story.

WUM Alert

Wozniaki trading her Danish passport for Oirish would be like trading diamond for dog dirt.

I'd rather be a Paddy than a great dane souper, especially in sporting terms.

You'd have to say the Danes got the looks though, who got the brains is a nil nil draw.

was at the deutsche bank last month, followed Rmac for a few holes. Wozzy was following too outside the ropes. Pretty girl but quite muscular around the legs and hind quarters. I guess tennis will do that to you.

Diggers wrote:You'd have to say the Danes got the looks though, who got the brains is a nil nil draw.

Oh, I'm not convinced that's so one-sided really. Met some pretty spectacular Oirish ladies.

I went out with an Irish girl for a while, she was OK but her sister was spectacular and single.
The 3 of us went for a weekend in Kinsale and got hammered and they kept teasing me about having a 3some with sisters. They were only joking....sadly.......but I still have fond memories of what might have been

Diggers wrote:I went out with an Irish girl for a while, she was OK but her sister was spectacular and single.
The 3 of us went for a weekend in Kinsale and got hammered and they kept teasing me about having a 3some with sisters. They were only joking....sadly.......but I still have fond memories of what might have been

What might have been...probably embarassing inadequecy

So you were pitching a tent all weekend diggers?

I fail to see what is so good about the oirish in sporting terms Incontent?

They're pretty rubbish at everything, plus their eyes are too close together.

You jest, but for a small nation i think we do quite well.

Rugby-good to very good
Soccer- average
Golf- pretty good, excellent if you include NI
Hurling- much better than the scots are at shinty

We do well in boxing, athletics, horse racing and an Irish guy is WWE champion at the moment too.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

Bob_the_Job wrote:

Diggers wrote:I went out with an Irish girl for a while, she was OK but her sister was spectacular and single.
The 3 of us went for a weekend in Kinsale and got hammered and they kept teasing me about having a 3some with sisters. They were only joking....sadly.......but I still have fond memories of what might have been

What might have been...probably embarassing inadequecy

True enough Bob, Id imagine the fantasy is better than the reality but I'd have loved the opportunity to find out whether thats true or not. Was actually a cracking weekend, Kinsale is a good night out.

incontinentia wrote:You jest, but for a small nation i think we do quite well.

an Irish guy is WWE champion at the moment too.

What on earth has that got to do with sporting ability? You may as well chuck in Liam Neeson and Colin Farrel.

incontinentia wrote:You jest, but for a small nation i think we do quite well.

Rugby-good to very good
Soccer- average
Golf- pretty good, excellent if you include NI
Hurling- much better than the scots are at shinty

We do well in boxing, athletics, horse racing and an Irish guy is WWE champion at the moment too.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

ya had to go and ruin it by mentioning the wrestling!

WWE?

Average at football? Ha ha. Gubbed 6-1 at home by the hun and the worst team by a mile at the euros. While in golf you have harrington, that's it. Rugby is only played seriously by about a dozen countries too, and half of them are UK and France and Italy.

A truly hopeless sporting nation.

Hey we'r going through a rough patch in the soccer currently, it happens to everyone. We also have Lowry in golf, and believe me, he's headed for the top whether you like it or not.

I agree Lowry will make it to the top but why are we talking about WWE again ?

Only thing Lowry is making it to the top on is the top number on his scales.

He's a journeyman, always has been always will be.

I do like your ironic support of him though. Makes me laugh.

Journeyman? He's now won two Tour events - there are loads who've never done that. He may not be the next Nicklaus but he's doing OK. Jealous?

Journeyman doesn't mean win you never win, it means you rarely win, and no one can say that Lowry is anything but very ordinary. Two wins in four years is hardly breathtaking stuff.

It is journeyman form to be sure, it isn't/wasn't meant to be a derogatory description, you've merely decided to see it that way, but Lowry adds to it himself by keeping in such hysterically disgusting shape. If he was serious about being the best he could be, he would do than eat 100 cornish pasties a day.

Super- did u see the final round on sunday? What do you think of Lowry's game?

I didn't see it, by all accounts he did very well and fair play to him. One win as a professional in how many starts has to be commended.

He is/does appear to be turning into a better player, perhaps a bit more composed on the tour now that he seems to be making a consistent living and comfortably keeping his card, however he could just as easily fall off the radar, far better players have done so.

I just can't for the life of me see why someone with a deomonstrable talent, would rely solely on just that when no other sport in the world benefits from being fat. He's certainly living up to one/many of the many Irish sterotypes.

Fair play super, quite a reasoned summary.

On another matter, I read recently that Woods is skipping the HSBC champions event in China and McIlroy is undecided. Its still a WGC right? Why wouldnt they play?

incontinentia wrote:...Why wouldnt they play?

They don't need the money?

What about the prestige? I thought WGCs are the next most important tourneys after majors??

Says whom? I don't get the feeling that a player's career will be looked back upon and judged by the WGCs they've won. If they're a component of how people will analyse a player's career, they'll be as an afterthought to the Majors.

I think if you haven't won a major you do look next for a WGC win. They are elite fields , you win one and you have beaten the best in the world historically.
It's the same with the Masters events in tennis. They are high tariff events.
Lack of a WGC win is a big hole in both Monty and Westwoods CV's IMO.

super_realist wrote:Average at football? Ha ha. Gubbed 6-1 at home by the hun and the worst team by a mile at the euros. While in golf you have harrington, that's it. Rugby is only played seriously by about a dozen countries too, and half of them are UK and France and Italy.

A truly hopeless sporting nation.

“A truly hopeless sporting nation” And this coming from a Scotsman … SR seriously your constant rants about all things Irish really do make you look like a Muppet. Are you a wum or do you simply have nothing to say about your own country and it’s golfers?

hogie wrote:

super_realist wrote:Average at football? Ha ha. Gubbed 6-1 at home by the hun and the worst team by a mile at the euros. While in golf you have harrington, that's it. Rugby is only played seriously by about a dozen countries too, and half of them are UK and France and Italy.

A truly hopeless sporting nation.

“A truly hopeless sporting nation” And this coming from a Scotsman … SR seriously your constant rants about all things Irish really do make you look like a Muppet. Are you a wum or do you simply have nothing to say about your own country and it’s golfers?

Point out from the above statement where I've said anything untrue!
I'm on record several times saying that A) I don't consider myself Scottish, B) Dislike Scottishness and C) that Scotland are also terrible bar a few individuals (Murray, Hoy etc) at sport.

Ireland are indeed a hopeless sporting nation I'm afraid, you can't really argue otherwise. I suppose you can add Billy Bunter to your list of under achievers now he's won ONE pro event or rather one event as a pro but it hardly changes your position as a sporting nation.
Interestingly enough, did you know that a "hogie" is someone from Dundee?

super_realist wrote:

hogie wrote:

super_realist wrote:Average at football? Ha ha. Gubbed 6-1 at home by the hun and the worst team by a mile at the euros. While in golf you have harrington, that's it. Rugby is only played seriously by about a dozen countries too, and half of them are UK and France and Italy.

A truly hopeless sporting nation.

“A truly hopeless sporting nation” And this coming from a Scotsman … SR seriously your constant rants about all things Irish really do make you look like a Muppet. Are you a wum or do you simply have nothing to say about your own country and it’s golfers?

Point out from the above statement where I've said anything untrue!...

Nothing per se, but as someone who professes to be intelligent you should know that using a sample population of 1 is somewhat flawed in making a statistical point (RoI are ranked 28 out of 207 teams, so certainly above the median, and probably well above average in standard of play...not that I care).

(On a more wide ranging point, what's happened to you? You used to come across as interesting, funny and impish. Why are you now coming across as a curmudgeonly, slightly racist and about as funny as cancer? Please leave Aberdeen - it doesn't agree with you.)

It wasn't a sample of 1 though was it, Further to the humiliation (at home) by Germany they were by far and away the worst team at the recent Euro's, so it's hard to argue that Ireland are "average" at Football, poor would be a better description. Rankings in Football mean very little, England are ranked third but you could barely argue that they deserve to be top 16 in actual reality.

You also can't be racist against the Irish, for they aren't a race. I'm not being curmudgeonly either, I just don't buy into the Oirish love in there seems to be on these boards.

Impish

I think England are ranked 5th in the world (see HERE). If you want to narrow it to Europe, RoI are ranked 16th out of 53 nations in Europe, so again above median and probably above average in standard of play.

I don't get or buy in to the Oirish love either, doesn't mean you have to rail against it and go too far in the other direction.

I don't think I'm being too harsh at all. Just pointing out that they aren't very good at sport. Probably too concerned about "lucky charms" and "gold"

According to the UEFA rankings by country Ireland are ranked 36th out of 53, just ahead of sporting luminaries like Lithuania and Kazakstan and behind the powerhouses of Moldova and Bosnia, in fact they are even 10 places behind the terminally dreadful Scotland. Like I say though Rankings (in football) mean nothing.

Super, the bigger question here of course is, considering how often you tell us you hate football and footballers is.....why do you even care ?
Basically whenever a country like Ireland makes a finals its a triumph.

I don't really care. I was merely responding to someone who had made claims that Ireland were quite good at sport, it's hard to see how anyone can come to that conclusion.

Super- compare Ireland to any similarly populated country and you will see that pound for pound we are one of the best sporting nations.

Also your tatty muncher barb is quite hurtful.

How can it be hurtful? Seriously, that's as pathetic as Islamic over-reaction about cartoons.

In what way are Ireland pound for pound a good nation? I can't think of anything they excel at.
Harrington, Lowry, some egg chuckers in a colonial game, a few leprechauns riding horses and a female boxer, that is it.

Because your making fun of the potato famine- not cool.

Didnt say we excel in anything but for the population i think we overachieve in many sports, unlike say new zealand who excel in one and are gash at everything else.

Being offended by something that happened hundreds of years ago is even more petty than being offended by being called a Ginger-Nut or a Sweaty Sock .

I actually think the Irish look to be offended on occasion. Plenty Scots also suffered at the same time from famine and clearances but I don't see them feigning fake offence at jokes like that.

What sports do Ireland over achieve in? Horse racing?

Hmm, Id always think of New Zealand as a better sporting country than Ireland but maybe thats just becasue of Union, though they ddi win the League world Cup as well.
I think all in all Id rather be brilliant at one sport than average at a few, though they do play cricket and league as I said.
In individual sports Id imagine Ireland and NZ are reasonably similar. However they are way better at the olympics, 42 golds to Irelands 9 and 100 overall to Irelands 28.