The golfers are a disgrace. Too precious to be seen to mix with the likes of "common sports men". The likes of Roger Federer or Serena Williams who are bigger and more famous than these spoilt brats have all done the olympics. And they wonder why people have a negative attitude to golf. I guess Rory and co actually love the exclusivity.

Rory forgets he is paid big money by companies like Nike who sponsor thousands of Olympics sports men and women. That money they are paying him is not just for hitting the golf ball.

But above all the money and sponsors the chance to win a Gold for your country is the biggest honour any sports person can have. The whole of Ireland care more about the gold than all of his majors combined.

I'd love for the one of the Olympic particpants to win the remaining Majors this year. If Rory, Spieth, Day and Johnson never win another major I will be very happy.

i dont get what all the fuss is about with the withdrawals from the olympics

golf should never have been made an olympic sport in the first place, it's just an example of the commercialism of the olympics and the IOC wanting to get as many high profile sports as possible under the olympic umbrella

i'll watch almost every minute of the coverage of the open this week, when the olympic golf is on i doubt i'll watch any of it, and that would have been the same if all the big players had been there.

I agree. I cheer every time one withdraws and shows it for the farce it is.

I've had a £2 each way bet on Matt Kuchar for the Open. 50/1.

I doubt for a second he forgets who writes him the cheques, just the opposite. I think the fact he'd have had to wear New Balance rather than Nike apparel at such a high profile event probably influenced his decision.

Very much agree. Like many sports, e.g. football, winning Olympic gold is about a big achievement as winning the domestic pre-season Charity Shield. Hugely popular big commercial sports shouldnt be added to the Olympics, especially when the very best players of these sports have no desire to win an olympic gold.

I also think too much abuse gets thrown at sports stars who air a genuine personal viewpoint. No wonder most sportsmen are so bland in interviews.

conditions this morning look absolutely perfect

monty making a solid start on home turf, -3 at the turn, 5 birdies for him after dropping 2 shots at the first

G'won big Monty. Would love to see him do well. Home course as well.

4 rounds might be the struggle for him

Number of top 16 mens tennis players who are eligible for the Olympics = 16
Number of top 16 mens tennis players who have pulled out = 1 (Dominic Thiem, probably because he is knackered from playing far too many events the first half of the year).

And the tennis event isnt ranked at the Olympics this year.

I for one minute dont think tennis should be an Olympic sport but fair play to the top players for treating it with respect, especially its position between 2 important Masters events.

I agree tennis and hold arent olympic sports but fair play to the tennis lot. They see it as a major event and will do anything to compete. Really disappointed in the golfers

Early days but a very American dominated leaderboard so far, which falls In with the open history of this course

Perfect day for scoring at Troon today. Front nine is pretty easy with a couple of par 5's but the back nine is not to be messed with.

If you are going to miss then well short seems to be the play as you have a relatively simple putt or chip straight up the greens, go long and you are simply asking for trouble.

McIlroy such a frustrating character - one mistake and the red mist descends and shots go a begging.

Yes I think sky were close to one of their writing off one of the rest of the field moments with Mcilroy .

He won't get anywhere near woods never mind Nicklaus majors record.

Not even sure he will get to double figures in majors too much competition

These David Tennant adverts have started to take effect on me twice every 15 minutes. I will pick this tournament back up for a couple of hours tomorrow and then concentrate on the weekend coverage ...

A pretty lame European challenge thus far on a course that should give us a big advantage - most of these players must have grown up playing this style of golf I would have imagined.

It doesn't seem like the open with ads and stuff

Like lots of us, McIlroy likely sees the Olympic ideal being about amateur sports such as curling.
Bring in the multi millionaires and it is just a circus. A circus that blots out everything else.

Really not liking the open on sky they just featuring a select few in the coverage crowd seem flat as well, we are not seeing any Europeans on coverage hardly or the unknown Brit that the BBC would but sky have no interest in as they only want the names .

Crowd looks very poor as well the pricing issues have been well documented last few years

Will somebody explain to the loudmouth aussie the meaning of silence on the shot, so annoying.
Missing Ken Brown.

Why do the American players love this course so much

It never seems to get bad weather too often when the open has been there which helps , interesting that level par is way down in 60th place at the moment.

The likes of kjelson has finished strongly but we didn't see any of that, if the weather is poorer tomorrow lets see how things change.

Good day of golf milksion playing well good coverage by Sky they do show the other 3 majors

Yeah I gave up once they started featuring players hitting balls at the range, plus the adverts I couldn't get into it at all ... would have been better if we had 2 x 2 minute adverts as 4 in an hour breaks up the coverage too much for me.

Crowds were as bad as I can remember - no doubt that is because the Open sold it's soul to the corporates many moon's ago ....

glad it wasn't just me who noticed the poor crowds those stands were empty

Rain forecast all day tomorrow - might shake things up a bit..