Dustin Johnson has already decided to skip the long-delayed 2020 Summer Olympics, ditto for Aussie Adam Scott.
Jon Rahm might soon be added to that list, given his take on the restrictions placed by the Olympic committee, although the world’s No. 2 is eager to win a Gold Medal for Spain.
“The Olympic committee are not making it very easy for us to choose (to play), simply because up until not too long ago we couldn’t go to our site or tournament hotel until Wednesday and we had to stay in the Olympic Village until then,” Rahm said this week as he prepared to compete in the Byron Nelson.
“As I understand from what I been told,” Rahm continued, “there is at least a one-to-two-hour drive to the golf course. That’s a lot of time to be in the car going to and coming back from the Olympic Village, and then you can only go to the hotel on Wednesday. Your family is not allowed (to come). You’re not allowed to go to any other events. There are just so many restrictions.
“I can understand why a lot of people are prioritizing the FedEx Cup events and great golf events,” he continued. “The Olympics are relatively new for the golf, and I don’t blame them. In my case I want to play. It’s an absolute dream of mine to be an Olympian. I’ve been able to win championships representing Spain as an amateur at almost every imaginable level, and to bring back the gold medal would be something amazing.
”I want to play,” Rahm emphasized. “They’re not making it very easy, but I do want to play.”
There are a lot of problems, logistically with the events in Tokyo.
The golf competition is scheduled for July 29 through August 1. That’s just two weeks after the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s in the U.K. and just a week before the WGC-St. Jude in Memphis.
That’s a lot of traveling.
The men’s Olympic golf competition is slated for July 29 – August 1, two weeks after The Open Championship and one week before the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. The venue is well outside Tokyo and as Rahm described, a pretty good haul from the Olympic Village.
The date pretty much stinks as well. The FedEx Cup playoffs start August 19 and with all that money on the line, the top guys don’t want to be travel-weary heading into the playoffs.
Visit Knoxville, Shoot 61!:
Needless to say, more often than not you have to go really low in those Korn Ferry Tour events and it’s looking like the Knoxville Open, cleverly named the “Visit Knoxville Open” was no exception on Thursday.
Another former University of Georgia golfer is trying to make his way to the PGA Tour and that would be Greg Sigg, who birdied half the holes at the Holston Hills Country Club, not far from the University of Tennessee campus.
Sigg shot a career-low 61 and was the first round leader by two shots over Kyle Riefers, who was seven-under and carded a 63 on the par 70 layout.
“Anytime you see your name at the top of the leaderboard you’re doing something right,” said Sigg. “I grew up on a pretty similar course like this (Augusta Country Club) with bent grass greens, so I’m very familiar with them.”
Sigg competed in the same group as Reifers all day as the duo went back and forth. Each player was 6-under through 12 before Sigg birdied three of his last four to reach 9-under.
5 Comments
baxter cepeda
It’s a very challenging situation no doubt. But Rahm made it clear he wants to play; expects to play.
2 weeks after the British hardly makes one feel bad for golfers; especially considering most have private jets.
The wGc the following week; so what. Take an extra day of rest; play a couple 9 hole rounds and get on with it.
The safety measures are an unfortunate reality of an ongoing pandemic which still kills 500+ people a day in America alone; but it is possible some of these restrictions could be eased based on evidence from studies on the vaccines success.
The Olympics may be new to golf but players have to be smart enough to see the value of just competing in an Olympics, much less winning hardware. It’s arguable hideki would be celebrated more in Japan for gold than green.
There’s gonna be a few money players who will pass; but imo most guys realize it is in their best interest to play. Success in the Olympics can mean money from countries; 7 figure contracts from sponsors for 4 years until the next Olympics; and medals have sold for over 1$million. There’s definitely some money going around for their efforts.
Of course, most of these guys don’t need the money. But it’s very valuable for golfers to show it’s not all about the money. Kuchars huge mistake when he tried to pay a Mexican caddie $5 thousand is well balanced by his magical run to a bronze in Rio.
We all remember the top 3 at Rio. Can you even name the winner of the fed ex cup that year?much less second or third? Of course not.
Imo winning a gold medal is already bigger than winning a fed ex cup. Players will make their choices.
Tom Edrington
The heck with the Gold Medal, I’ll take the $15 million; lots of broke Olympic athletes have sold their gold medals over the years…
baxter cepeda
The Olympics will not hold anyone back from 15$ million. One or two groggy practice days after returning from Japan will not make that big a difference.
I just hope they get to loosen some of the regulations for everyone.
Tom Edrington
I’m boycotting these Olympics in large part since it’s on the other side of the planet and results will be known before they are shown on television….pretty simple….in this day and age, folks are not keen on watching stuff that has already happened.
baxter cepeda
Boycott the Olympics because some things are tape delayed seems rash.
They air many events live on their cable channels. It’s the coverage on nbc that might be tape delayed; but they often show that stuff live before also.
Gotta assume the golf coverage will be live. And then replayed.
Personally rarely watch sports live. Especially the Olympics; hard to keep up with the record list.
I get there’s reasons to shade the IOC, as with the ncaa, but at the end of the day it’s still the Olympics; as it’s still the ncaa tourney.
The Olympics are the last of nbc must see tv imo (aside from golf coverage).