Golf returned to the
Olympics at the 2016 Rio Games after a 112-year absence
but it was marred somewhat as a number of high-profile
players stayed away as they prioritised winning majors
over a shot at a medal.
Because of the game's
lengthy absence from the Olympics it means that, unlike
athletes in many other sports, golfers grew up dreaming
of making the winning putt to clinch one of golf's major
championships as opposed to a gold medal.
Ahead of the Rio
Olympics, several of the top men's golfers cited the
Zika virus as their reason for not attending despite
having played events in other potential hotspots. For
their part, most every top women's player competed in
Rio.
Fast forward five years
and not much has changed as the global COVID-19 pandemic
has offered some players a built-in excuse for not
adding more miles to an already-busy travel schedule
during a key stretch of the season.
Not helping matters is
that some players have not been shy to say that winning
major championships remains the pinnacle of the sport
and, therefore, more of a priority than the Olympics.
World number one Dustin
Johnson, Englishman Lee Westwood and Australian Adam
Scott are among the high-profile names who have decided
to skip the Tokyo Olympics, citing a condensed PGA Tour
schedule or family commitments for their reasons.
"It's right in the
middle of a big stretch of golf for me," Johnson said in
March when he announced his decision to skip the Tokyo
Olympics. "It's a lot of travelling at a time where it's
important to feel like I'm focused playing on the PGA
Tour."
The July 29-Aug. 1
Olympic men's competition begins 11 days after the final
round of the British Open, the year's last shot at major
glory, and concludes two-and-a-half weeks before the
start of the PGA Tour's lucrative season-ending
playoffs.
The women's
competition, which runs from Aug. 4-7, falls right in
between a pair of majors: beginning 10 days after the
Amundi Evian Championship in France and ending 12 days
before the Women's Open in Scotland.
(Reporting by Frank
Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
