LPGA golfer thinks something besides Zika is keeping male golfers from Rio

The system is not set up to encourage male participation in the Olympics, says Stacy Lewis

Nearly two dozen male golfers have removed themselves from consideration for the Rio Olympics. You can view this still-growing list here. That is a lot, and it looks even worse because the top four in the current Official World Golf Rankings are all included. Many players have cited Zika or other health concerns as the reasons they will not be competing, but one LPGA player does not think that adds up.

"Those guys play for so much money, and I think you kind of get lost in that at times," Stacy Lewis told Golf Channel last week at the Women's U.S. Open. "If I knew that I had the potential of a $10 million paycheck at the end of the year, I'd probably do my schedule a little bit different, too."

The $10 million is a reference to the FedEx Cup, which was won by Jordan Spieth last year.

"You become a product of that environment," Lewis continued to Golf Channel. "You have that opportunity to win that that money, you become a product of it. And you can't blame them for being that way. They are bred to be that way, with the amount of money that they play for."

So that is a take. And it might not be an incorrect one either. Why is it that, even though the Zika virus is just as dangerous for women as it is men and actually directly affects women more because of how it can affect a fetus, only one female golfer has dropped out of Olympic competition?

One answer to that is that a lot of the men who have dropped out are globally famous. Perhaps they are worried about dangers in Rio beyond the Zika virus (Jordan Spieth did not say the word Zika during his press conference on Tuesday, only health concerns). But the other answer is that they don't prioritize it like the women do.

Which leads us back to Lewis' quote.

The dirty little secret of all of this is that Zika is actually not dangerous outside of pregnancy. Four in five people who get it don't even suffer any symptoms at all, according to the New York Times. And those who do are only mildly affected.

It is true that it has been linked to microcephaly, a birth defect, which is certainly a concern, but it should not cause the sort of disparity we're seeing in withdrawals from the games between men (almost two dozen) and women (one).

I go back to risk and reward. Are the risks for the men worth the reward you get? The answer has clearly become no. Is that because of money? Maybe. But it's also because of prestige. The men are more often given a massive stage upon which to perform than the women are. You can't really fault either party for their decision. Just know it's not necessarily because of the Zika virus that men are dropping like, well, flies out of this event.