I must admit it did come as a bit of a surprise when I heard Rory McIlroy had decided to represent Ireland rather than Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the next Olympics.
As a British Olympian I would obviously have rather he chose us, because, let’s face it, he’ll probably be the favourite for gold when Rio comes round.
But you have to respect his choice and the fact that he’s thought long and hard about it.
I’ve always been of the opinion that you should play for the country you feel the most allegiance to, so when McIlroy said a couple of years ago that he felt more British than Irish I thought Team GB was the way he would go.
Only he will know what has changed between now and then the reaction to that comment two years ago probably played its part – but you have to respect his decision.
He probably feels loyalty to both teams and at least he isn’t one of these people who has a tenuous link to a country but wants to compete for them because their “proper” country is harder to qualify for.
I’m pretty confident that McIlroy’s popularity won’t be affected over here.
We’ll be seeing plenty of him over the next few months in the Scottish Open, The Open and the Ryder Cup.
And I’d be amazed if there was one person in any of the galleries at those three events who said anything negative to him.
Golf’s not that type of sport.
What I do think the McIlroy Olympics story shows is that the issue of who an athlete represents should be taken out of their hands.
It should be about the honour of representing your country, not the honour of deciding which is your country.
I’ve been to two Olympics now and I can’t get my head round some of the qualification and eligibility criteria, and I bet plenty of you can’t either.
Choice is normally a good thing, but when it comes to who you represent at an Olympics, I’m not sure that it is.
* The World Cup has been pretty addictive.
I’ve been watching more than my fair share of the games, and most of them have been really exciting.
I don’t want to encourage gambling, but I’ve opened an account at the bookies to make it more interestingjust a few pounds!
Things started off well with a couple of correct results, but it’s gone downhill lately.
I’m still feeling pretty good about my bet for the tournament winner though, Germany.