Golf is usually a controversy-free sport. Normally we deal with news of the latest tournament on the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, the Champions Senior Tour and the European PGA Tour. There is college golf to follow and locally the high school teams are in the concluding weeks of their season prior to the start of the North Coast Section Championships. Yet there is very little of note in the sport. News of the week includes such outside-the-fairway-ropes items as John Daly closing in on age 50 and a new career in senior golf.
Yet Daly is not alone and controversy is on the horizon as far as men’s professional golf is concerned. You see, this is an Olympic year and because of the questionable efforts of the PGA Tour’s No. 2 man, Ty Votaw, golf will return to the Olympic Games for the first time in more than 100 years. Several months ago I wrote that golf in the 2016 Olympics would have a negative impact upon the PGA Tour and the European PGA Tour schedule because of its mid-August dates. Some of those issues have reared their head this week and will continue to impact the game until the start of the Olympics in Rio in less than 100 days.
Adam Scott of Australia started the initial volley by announcing that he would not participate in the Olympic Games. Scott, a former Masters champion and the game’s seventh-ranked golfer in the world, stated that he could not adjust his worldwide schedule to accommodate participation in the games.
Mind you, because of Olympic golf, the British Open and the PGA Championship will be held just two weeks apart, the World Golf Championships Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club in Akron will move five weeks forward on the schedule, and the Quad Cities John Deere Open will relocate from the week prior to the British Open in July to the same week as the Olympics in August..
Scott, who jets around the world to support his home tour in Australia and to participate in European Tour events, didn’t feel he could deal with his schedule, play in the Olympics, and then be an impact performer in the PGA Tour’s Fed Ex Cup playoffs that commence after the Olympics in late August.
Scott took some hits from others who felt he owed it to his country to play Olympic golf even though there is no team/country title to be had. Olympic golf is all about the individual, so it’s not like Scott and fellow Aussie Jason Day, the game’s No. 1-ranked golfer, could combine to win Olympic golf for golf fans Down Under.
Yet once Scott made his intentions known earlier in the week, the floodgates started to open. Vijay Singh, who would be Fiji’s one and only Olympic golfer, stated that he too would be missing the Rio Olympics. Miguel Angel Jimenez of Spain followed suit and said he would not be trying to medal in the Olympics. A pair of South Africans who would have represented their country, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, also announced that they would be taking a pass on the chance to win Olympic golf. Like Scott, Schwartzel is a past Masters champion, and Oosthuizen won the British Open at St. Andrews in a runaway in 2010.
There has always been the feeling that the World Golf Championships in Akron would have some ramifications for European Tour regulars. While the top 72 golfers in the world would usually jump at the chance to play in a no-cut tournament worth $9.5 million and with a $1.6 million payday for the champion, the movement of the Bridgestone Invitational to the July 4 weekend does have serious implications. That same weekend, the oldest continuous professional tournament in continental Europe, the French Open, will be celebrating its 100th anniversary. Only the British Open has a longer running history on that side of the pond.
Four-time major champion as well as the European Tour’s top draw, Rory McIlory of Northern Ireland, announced this week that he will support his home tour and play in France instead of go for the big dollar grab in Akron. Shane Lowry of Ireland, the defending WGC Bridgestone champ, also will have to make the same difficult choice in the next few weeks. From the European perspective, turning one’s back on the French Open would be similar to a top American professional deciding to avoid the Arnold Palmer Invitational or Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament to play in Abu Dhabi or Japan.
During the next few months we will have more announcements impacting Olympic Golf and other tournaments. In the end, the game’s top performers can’t be faulted. Their careers, endorsement dollars and most importantly their legacies will not be determined by their possession of Olympic gold. A place in the World Golf Hall of Fame will occur because the linkster owns green jackets and claret jugs. Throw in the zika virus and you just might have an Olympic Golf leader board that features Jhonny Vegas of Venezuela and Camilo Villegas of Columbia.
On a local note, the Coastal Mountain Conference South Golf Championship concludes this coming Tuesday at Oakmont Country Club in Santa Rosa’s picturesque Valley of the Moon. The CMC has been around since 1983 and yet the league’s best five players just might be the greatest combination of golfing talent in conference history.
The “Big Five” includes seniors Connor Chesky and Ryan Johnson of St. Helena High School, Jack Hood and Alex Graham of St. Vincent de Paul High School, and sophomore Matt Wotherspoon of Kelseyville High School. Chesky, who has a full-ride scholarship to collegiate golf powerhouse South Carolina, is carrying a 71 average for the season. Johnson, who is headed to the University of Santa Clara, has a 72 average while Graham, Hood and Wotherspoon are averaging 73 for the season. You know things are highly competitive when Chesky shoots a 6-under-par 29 on the back nine at Aetna Springs for a score of 66 and it’s only good enough to beat Hood’s 67 by one stroke.
Graham and Hood are already safely into round one of the high school playoffs because their team is conference champion. Chesky, Wotherspoon and Johnson are 1-2-3 after round one of the conferecne tournament, but it’s no sure thing with Middletown High School freshman Derek Coulter three shots off the pace. While participation is down in high school golf across the Redwood Empire, the CMC has more top-level talent than it ever has. It’s all pretty amazing.
