By the time this week ends, there will be less than 100 days until the opening ceremonies for the XXXI Olympiad, also known as the 2016 Rio Summer Games.
There will be gold medals awarded, 56 of them, one in each of 28 sports for men and women.
Golf is in there.
Adam Scott doesn’t care. Neither does Vijay Singh, Louie Oosthuizen said count him out too. You can also add former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel to the “we don’t care” list.
The big question we ask today: Does anyone really care about this, you know, golf in the Olympics?
The star sports are track and field, swimming, boxing. Track and field and swimming are especially defined by Olympic gold medals. That’s the summit of the mountain for those competitors, the top, the ultimate.
Golf? Not so much.
To prove it, we pose these simple choices:
Green Jacket or gold medal?
Claret Jug or gold medal?
Wanamaker Trophy or gold medal?
U.S. Open Trophy (it still remains nameless) or gold medal?
Thought so.
EVERYONE we asked said they’d take a major golf championship over a gold medal.
Makes perfect sense.
Before the Olympic Games are done, folks who play handball will win gold. Badmitton players will win gold, table tennis players will win gold, sailors will win gold, mountain biking gets a gold, so does archery and fencing.
So you see, it’s not that special in the world of golf, where the Top Of The Proverbial Mountain is one of those four majors.
Recently Jack Nicklaus scolded players like Scott, Singh and Oosthuizen for opting out.
To which we ask: “Hey Jack, which of those 18 majors would you give up for a gold medal?”
To which, Jack might reply: “It’s not the same.”
Bingo.
The Olympic format will be just another 72-hole event and it’s basically a 15-man competition, meaning all the guys and gals in the world’s top 15 will play. There may also be some really lousy players from some smaller, obscure countries, no doubt, who can’t even dream of breaking 80.
The Gil Hanse-designed course will play about 7,100 yards for the men. No big deal. It’s new so no one will have an advantage.
Afterward, it will be a public venue to promote golf in Brazil.
What it is not promoting is an orderly major championship schedule this season.
The U.S. Open is July 16-19 at Oakmont with the Open Championship July 14-17 at Royal Troon.
The PGA gets the shaft. It has to go just two weeks after the Open Championship, July 28-31 rather than a couple of weeks into August where it normally falls.
Now add the PGA Tour Playoffs and the Ryder Cup and this is all messed up.
So those are the facts as they stand.
We’ll close wondering again, which major Jack would surrender for a gold medal.
We still know what that answer would be.
2 Comments
beege
Totally agree with your thoughts on the Olympics and their lack of interest or relevance for that matter. Add one other imminent element which is the threat of the Zika virus and you have a combustible concoction for many players. Noting here that the four golfers who have opted out so far are all international players–who will be the first American to bid adios to Rio?
Editor In Chief
The American golfers won’t opt out, can’t wait to get their Ralph Lauren gear and pricey Oakley sunglasses. Another dilemma, Jordan Spieth will be marching in the opening ceremonies sporting his Ralph Lauren-designed outfit which I’m sure will thrill the living daylights out of Under Armor.