Rory McIlroy has hinted that the complications of politics had an impact on his decision not to go the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
The Northern Irish golfer would have represented Team Ireland and not Great Britain at the Games.
But ultimately he was among a long list of golfers to pull out of the Rio Olympics, with McIlroy citing the threat posed by the Zika virus.
He later said that he would only watch the sports "that matter" at the Games, although he admitted that he was "glad to be somewhat proven wrong" by the success that golf proved to be in Rio after over a century away from the Olympics.
But speaking in Shanghai ahead of the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament, the four-time major winner touched on other issues that affected his participation at the Games.
"The participation in the Olympics, for me it's just a little more complicated than for some other people, (because of) where I'm from and the whole politics of the thing," he said at the press conference according to AFP.
"It's a difficult subject for me," he added.
After speculation about who he might represent at the Olympics, in 2014 he revealed that he would represent Ireland over Great Britain, reasoning that: "I was thinking about all the times I have played for Ireland as a boy and everything. For me it is the right decision to play for Ireland."
After McIlroy and Shane Lowry withdrew from involvement in Rio, Padraig Harrington and Seamus Power ultimately represented Ireland.
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