Top Quotes: Rory rips Rio; Phils lips out
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Rory McIlroy
“I don’t feel like I’ve let the game down at all. I didn’t get into golf to try and grow the game. I got into golf to win championships and all of a sudden you get to this point and there is a responsibility on you to grow the game, and I get that. But at the same time that’s not the reason that I got into golf. I got into golf to win. I didn’t get into golf to get other people into the game.” – on his decision not to participate in the Olympic Games in Rio
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Rory McIlroy
“I’ll probably watch the Olympics, but I’m not sure golf will be one of the events I’ll watch. … Probably the events like track and field, swimming, diving. The stuff that matters.”
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Rory McIlroy
"I've spent seven years trying to please everyone, and I figured out that I can't really do that, so I may as well be true to myself." – as a follow-up after receiving criticism for his anti-Olympic comments
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Brandel Chamblee
“I think it's likely that, at the end of his career, he'll regret that moment more than any other moment in the history of his career. It is an insult to everyone who goes and plays in the Olympics.” – on McIlroy’s insinuation that golf doesn’t “matter” when compared to other Olympic sports
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Phil Mickelson
“I shot one of the most incredible rounds and feel like crying.” – on his lipped-out putt and failed bid for the first ever round of 62 in a major
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Phil Mickelson
"Well, it was obvious right there. There's a curse, because that ball should have been in. If there wasn't a curse, that ball would have been in and I would have had that 62."
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Phil Mickelson
"I didn't. But I do now." – when asked if he believed in the Golf Gods
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Ernie Els
“I said, ‘Let me go. You take your time. And he said, ‘You sure? You sure?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, make some history today.’ He hit the best putt he could.” – on his decision to play out of turn in order to cede the stage to Mickelson and his bid for 62
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Jordan Spieth
“Most of the questions I get are comparing to last year and, therefore, negative because it’s not to the same standard. …So I think that’s a bit unfair to me, but don’t feel sorry for me. I’ll still be OK. But I would appreciate if people would look at the positives over comparing to maybe hopefully what would happen to me a few times in my career, a year like last year.” – after his tenth straight major round in which he failed to break par
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Clement Sordet
“I tried not to think about, but that’s why I had this on my hat,” he said Friday. “I was just trying to enjoy my last day at The Open.” – the Nice native on the attack in France that killed 84 people
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Gary Player
"I'm bitterly disappointed. In America today, their plus-minus combined with car accidents and guns, 100,000 people killed a year, and you're going to go and play in a golf tournament where Zika is the great word. I think there's a greater chance of that happening to you in America than getting Zika. I was just in Zambia, where you have Malaria, and it didn't concern me at all.” – the captain of the South African team, which has lost three players (Branden Grace, Louis Oostuizen, and Charl Schwartzel) to withdrawals
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Peter Dawson
"There's no doubt that the number of withdrawals hasn't shown golf in the best light, and we have to accept that. But we do understand why these individual decisions have been taken. Personally, I think there's been something of an overreaction to the Zika situation, but that's for individuals to determine." – on the number of high-profile withdrawals from golf’s return to the Olympics
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Henrik Stenson
“For once it's a competitive advantage to be 40 and not looking to have any more kids.” – on his decision to play the Rio Olympics while his colleagues blame the Zika virus for their withdrawal
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Billy Horschel
Ppl giving me a hard time about my hat being backwards... Grow up! Hat was drenched from the rain and was dripping from the bill. … I showed no disrespect to the game, Royal Troon, or @theopenwith my hat backwards. Hat backwards is a look/style. Get over yourself” – responding on Twitter to criticism concerning his backwards hat following a round of 14-over 85 Friday
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Darren Clarke
“I don't do gum!! It was a small sticker from my hat that fell down when I was putting,and it never touched my mouth!” – responding on Twitter to a video that appeared to show him dropping gum, picking it up off the ground, and putting it back in his mouth
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Andrew “Beef” Johnston
“I walked over and I could see my mom crying, which was even funnier. And that got me going a bit. I was like, ‘Oh my God, don’t look at my mom. Please, go over there.’” – on the reception he received walking up the 18th fairway Saturday
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Bill Haas
“I certainly don’t think Phil (Mickelson) and Henrik Stenson are feeling the pressure tonight sleeping knowing that Beef and Bill Haas are behind them.” – on entering the final round in solo third, five back
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Dustin Johnson
“It's another unfortunate situation. But, yeah, I shouldn't talk about it.” – when asked about the penalty assessed to Anna Nordqvist at the U.S. Women’s Open, not long after his own rules debacle at Oakmont
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