It all started during the 2015 Christmas holiday season. I was recovering from knee replacement surgery, was at home more than I had ever been, and was watching a whole lot of television. While channel surfing I found myself watching an awful lot of the Golf Channel. At the corner of the screen was a timer. It stated “217 days-1 hour- 48 minutes” until the commencement of the Rio Olympics on Aug. 5. The Golf Channel was on the bandwagon, promoting the Olympics and the return of golf as a contested sport for the first time since 1904.
From the start of the announcement in 2009 that golf would be an Olympic sport in 2016, I have been off the Olympic golf bandwagon, regardless of what Ty Votaw of the PGA Tour and Peter Dawson of the Royal & Ancient may say. My principal issues are twofold. I think the leadership level of the Olympic movement is a cesspool of crassness, one featuring bribes, payoffs, questionable officiating and the like. Why would a relatively squeaky clean sport like golf want to rub elbows with the Olympics? My other issue is that in a sport that has its four majors as well as high-caliber events such as the Fed Ex Cup, the Race to Dubai, and the World Golf Championships, where does the value of an Olympic medal in golf fit in? Would you rather own a green jacket, a claret jug or an Olympic gold medal? Part of me thinks I’d rather go with the prestige of winning the Quad Cities Open over victory in Olympic golf. The field is stronger.
I have a third issue that has come to light during the last few weeks. The format of Olympic golf is questionable. Some of the best golfers in the world will play in the Olympics because they meet the eligibility standards. On the other hand, some of the best golfers in the world will not play in the Olympic games because they don’t meet the eligibility standards. No, this is not a typo. The powers that be came up with a flawed criteria for entry into Olympic golf.
The field for the 2016 Olympic golf tournament features 60 men and 60 women. It will be a 72-hole stroke play tournament. In the event of a tie, there will be a three-hole aggregate playoff to determine the winner. The field will be finalized by July 11 and those getting into the field qualify based on their status in the world golf rankings. However, the final criteria for entrance into the tourney is a convoluted one. While the Olympic tournament will only recognize an individual gold, silver and bronze medal winner, it will limit contestants based on their country of origin. Each nation will be limited to two contestants unless that country has a multitude of golfers ranked in the top 15 in the world. However, the real glitch in all of this is that nations with more than four golfers in the top 15 are nonetheless limited to four contestants. This format directly impacts the American men and the Korean women.
If the Olympic deadline were today, the four Americans in the field would include world No. 1 Jordan Spieth, No. 4 Bubba Watson, No. 5 Rickie Fowler and No. 8 Dustin Johnson. Beyond Dustin Johnson, no other American can get into the Olympic field regardless of their world ranking status. On the outside looking in would be such world class professionals as No. 9 Patrick Reed, No. 12 Jim Furyk and No. 15 Brandt Snedeker. Others barely outside the top 15 include Zach Johnson, Brooks Kepka, Kevin Kisner, Phil Mickelson, J.B. Holmes, Kevin Na, Jimmy Walker and Matt Kuchar. They are all ranked within the world top 25. Limiting Team USA to just four golfers would make sense if Olympic golf were a team event, but as an individual stroke play tournament only, it doesn’t make much sense to keep out a top-10 golfer such as Reed let alone 10 other golfers who find themselves ranked within the world top 25.
Trying not to be too jingoistic, others such as world No. 29 Paul Casey of England and world No. 31 Charl Schwartzel of South Africa are also ineligible because they are the third-best golfers in their respective countries as determined by the rankings. None of these omissions are all that glaring except when one considers who is in the Olympic field. Because we’re talking about multiple countries competing in the Olympics, representatives from certain nations are not only well outside the realm of competitive golf, but will do very little to enhance the field in Rio. Currently, Camilio Villegas of Columbia is among the 60 men in the Olympic field. His world ranking is No. 221. Vijay Singh, well past his 50th birthday, would get to represent Fiji. He is ranked 262nd. Jhonny Vegas of Venezuela is also in the field and he is ranked 291st. Most glaring is Brazilian Adilson da Silva, and on-and-off European Tour golfer who finds himself ranked 359 on the world golf list. Patrick Reed is out, Brandt Snedeker is out and yet da Silva is in. Sure doesn’t seem like the field will be as tough as the Quad Cities Open.
The women’s issue is just as glaring. Currently there are seven Korean women ranked in the world top 12. Only four will get into the Olympics, including Inbee Park, Sei Young Kim, So Yeon Ryu and Hyo Joo Kim. Number nine Ha Na Jang, No. 10 In Gee Chun and No. 12 Amy Yang are outside the Olympic cut line. The Americans have two women within the top four, namely Stacy Lewis and Lexi Thompson, and Cristie Kerr is just inside the cut line at No. 14, but that will be the extent of Team USA from the female perspective. Others such as Brittany Lincicome, Morgan Pressel, Allison Lee, Jessica Korda, and Michelle Wie are barely outside the top 15 and do not qualify for the Olympics.
Golf returns to the Olympics for the first time in 112 years. Yet even with the influence of the leadership levels of the American PGA Tour and the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the Olympic golf tournament will be little more than a convoluted exhibition. Sure Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlory and Jason Day will be there, but five-time major winner Phil Mickelson who is the 20th ranked golfer in the world, won’t. Three-time major winner Vijay Singh will be there, even though he is a senior golfer and even though his world ranking is 242 places beyond Phil. It’s shades of the Jamaican bobsleigh team.
It’s bad enough that the Olympic leadership committee is stained with years of taint. It’s bad enough that the American and European PGA Tours had to adjust their schedules for Olympic golf, similar to the way the National Hockey League needs to adjust every four years. It’s bad enough that the zika virus will be a big-time news issue in August in Rio. However, the biggest travesty of all is that we won’t be able to see the top 60 men and top 60 women compete for Olympic gold. In the end, that gold medal may seem to be a lot more like an aluminum one.
