Golf in the Olympics is officially a disaster. The top four players in the world all withdrew from going to Rio, highlighted by Jordan Spieth's WD at the last minute. The ninth best player in the field is Rafael Cabrera-Bello. No offense to him, but that's awful for an international tournament like the Olympics.
Players have cited all manner of things including the Zika virus and the general schedule, but the bottom line is winning a gold medal just does not mean enough for them to take any kind of risk of going to these games.
Here is the list ranked by Official World Golf Ranking at the time they withdrew.
- Jason Day (No. 1) -- Australia
- Dustin Johnson (No. 2) -- United States
- Jordan Spieth (No. 3) -- United States
- Rory McIlroy (No. 3) -- Northern Ireland
- Adam Scott (No. 8) -- Australia
- Branden Grace (No. 11) -- South Africa
- Louis Oosthuizen (No. 14) -- South Africa
- Hideki Matsuyama (No. 17) -- Japan
- Charl Schwartzel (No. 23) -- South Africa
- Marc Leishman (No. 37) -- Australia
- K.T. Kim (No. 41) -- South Korea
- Francesco Molinari (No. 56) -- Italy
- Hideto Tanihara (No. 69) -- Japan
- Graeme McDowell (No. 73) -- Northern Ireland
- Victor Dubuisson (No. 78) -- France
- Matt Jones (No. 84) -- Australia
- Miguel Angel Jimenez (No. 166) -- Spain
- Vijay Singh (No. 210) -- Fiji
- Brendon de Jonge (No. 319) -- Zimbabwe
- Angelo Que (No. 320) -- Philippines
- Tim Wilkinson (No. 340) -- New Zealand
This is not a list the IOC wants to see in the first year it admits golf back into the Olympics since the turn of last century. The future of the sport in the Olympics is now officially in doubt, and we are going to get one of the more forgettable global golf tournaments in years.
The projected SoF for the #OlympicGolf event in #Rio2016 has now dropped to 48 points. Same as Byron Nelson or Dubai Desert Classic. #OWGR
— Nosferatu (@VC606) July 11, 2016
