It turns out Rory McIlroy did watch Justin Rose win gold in Olympic golf

Rory McIlroy, it turns out, did watch the Olympics after all, and was really happy that his Ryder Cup teammate Justin Rose took home the gold medal.

“He said he was very, very proud. He said he was pulling for me,” Rose said Monday after missing his Sunday night flight home to England because he was celebrating. “He said he could see how much it meant to me, and congratulations. He was very complimentary.”

You may recall that McIlroy, who dropped to No. 5 in the world golf rankings after Henrik Stenson won the silver medal on Sunday, said before last month’s British Open that he would likely not tune into Olympic golf on TV. Well, apparently one of the notorious Big Four Rio no-shows (along with top-ranked Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson) did take in the final round at least.

Rose also noted that, despite McIlroy taking a pass this time around, the four-time major winner was a big proponent of the sport remaining in the summer games rotation.

“He made the point that he really wants golf to succeed as an Olympic sport,” Rose said. “He has some of his own personal opinions on it that are very personal to him, and that’s fine. But as a whole he’s very much behind golf succeeding in the Olympics.”

And, yes, Rose confirmed, Rory was among those planted on their couches for Sunday’s dramatic finale.

“So I guess he watched,” said Rose.