The 35-year-old questioned whether it would ever be compared to The Masters, US PGA, US Open or The Open as he appeared to criticise the qualifying system.

McIlroy made the comments when he landed at Le Golf National in Paris on Monday evening after a practice round on the Old Course at St Andrews.

“It’s hard to say (whether the Olympic golf tournament will be a major tournament) because even this week, given the way the qualifying system works, not all the best players in the world are there,” McIlroy told BBC Sport NI.

“You would think that if you want to win something really prestigious in sport you would want the best players playing, but that’s not quite the case here.

“It still means a lot to me. If I won a medal, especially a gold one, it would mean a lot to me.”

However, the world No. 3, who has not won a major in a decade, admitted that success at the 2024 Paris Games would be “probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest (achievement) of my career over the last 10 years.”

The Northern Ireland golfer’s comments differ from those he made ahead of Rio 2016, when he withdrew from the competition.

“I didn’t start golf to develop myself,” he said at the time.

“I got into golf to win championships and win major championships.”

The reason for this is that there has been a disagreement in the sport over the PGA Tour and LIV Golf.

The latter has attracted some of the world’s best players who used to play regularly on the PGA Tour. The tour is currently working on a new commercial deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which finances LIV Golf, in a bid to unify the professional sport.

McIlroy, who competes for Ireland, has previously said he had to “get over my previous dislike of the Olympics” and that he struggled with the question of which country he would represent.