Jason Day - Olympic gold?

[pauly]

LOL smarter, love it

i for one don't really have an opinion on whether golf should be in the olympics - another big event where all the big players are playing as an avid spectator is 100% a plus - but with nobody showing up i wont be interested in watching

being it's not the event they train their whole lives to play in and it's dangerous as balls down there (zika included) I would assume practically nobody would be going, jason, jordan and rickie will be next.

the golf course, like every golf course (with water hazards etc) is a great breeding ground for mosquitos

[Daves]

The bigger issue for the Olympics (not Golf so much) is how many spectators will actually turn up in Brazil. It has the potential to be a massive financial disaster, in a country that probably couldn't afford, it even if it is successful.

[goughy]

The bigger issue is will it even be ready to go ahead? It was only weeks ago some infrastructure built for the games was collapsing. Plus other stuff isn't even finished yet with only a few months to go.

[Icestorm959]

Surely most of the infrastructure they can just re-use from the World Cup?

[jimandr]

The bigger issue for the Olympics (not Golf so much) is how many spectators will actually turn up in Brazil. It has the potential to be a massive financial disaster, in a country that probably couldn't afford, it even if it is successful.

While you weren't referring to golf in that post, I think the attendance at the golf event is an issue that very few have thought about.

It would be a poor look to have the best players in the world playing for the gold medal in front of hardly any spectators, but how many are they likely to get in Brazil? It depends on the ticket price I suppose, but I wouldn't think many locals would be prepared to pay much, and the tourists wouldn't be thinking about golf when planning their Olympic experience. The crowds might be quite good next time the Games are in a golf-playing nation, but they may not be.

I've also just had a horrible thought when thinking about the Olympic Golf. Who will do the commentary? I wouldn't think every country would send their own commentary team in the same way as they do for most other sports, but does that mean we would have to put up with Johnny Miller yelling GOLD, GOLD TO THE USA, GOLD. Hopefully, there will be a neutral and impartial commentary team, but it would be awful if there wasn't.

[timah!]

G-Mac out now too...


Insert witty tapatalk signature here.

[Lagerlover]

Welcome timah.

Nice first post.

[Dotty]

Welcome timah.

Nice first post.

A new member would have missed this.

It's now pre-set on the sign-up page.

[darkeststar07]

Brendan Grace pulled out as well

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[Captain Nemo]

The whole olympics in general will be a fizzer!

[jimandr]

Doing a google search using the term Olympic Withdrawal isn't the most reliable method of obtaining information, but I read it on the internet, so it must be true.

From my search, it appears the only people withdrawing from the Games, allegedly due to the Zika virus, are male golfers and male USA basketballers.

Which tells me those golfers and basketballers didn't want to play in the first place, and they are using the virus as a convenient excuse. It certainly seems that once one makes the decision, many others follow.

Maybe none of the female athletes are planning to have babies, ever, but it seems very strange that none of the high profile women in any sport are making themselves unavailable. Not even the married ones such as Sally Pearson.

And, reading between the lines, Jason probably won't go either. Which leaves the current team as Scott Hend and Marcus Fraser. Yikes!

[3Puttpete]

Doing a google search using the term Olympic Withdrawal isn't the most reliable method of obtaining information, but I read it on the internet, so it must be true.

From my search, it appears the only people withdrawing from the Games, allegedly due to the Zika virus, are male golfers and male USA basketballers.

Which tells me those golfers and basketballers didn't want to play in the first place, and they are using the virus as a convenient excuse. It certainly seems that once one makes the decision, many others follow.

Maybe none of the female athletes are planning to have babies, ever, but it seems very strange that none of the high profile women in any sport are making themselves unavailable. Not even the married ones such as Sally Pearson.

And, reading between the lines, Jason probably won't go either. Which leaves the current team as Scott Hend and Marcus Fraser. Yikes!

The golfers and basketballers don't need the games. Without the olympics, what do the others have? Is tennis still an Olympic sport? They might be next.

[AlexMc]

Golf Australia has just announced JDay is out...

[aussieashley]

How many of the top 10 or 20 golfers are actually going?

[Jazz18]

Golf Australia has just announced JDay is out...

It was only a matter of time.

[goughy]

Most of the Olympic athletes only really have the world champs and Olympics to really make their mark, and with any luck set themselves up for the future. For the others, the Olympics is an after thought.

Most of them are probably more concerned with making it through the opening ceremony alive.... The stadium could quite easily collapse, based on the quality of some of their other constructions.

[PerryGroves]

Most of the Olympic athletes only really have the world champs and Olympics to really make their mark, and with any luck set themselves up for the future. For the others, the Olympics is an after thought.

Most of them are probably more concerned with making it through the opening ceremony alive.... The stadium could quite easily collapse, based on the quality of some of their other constructions.

As "they" said about Sydney and Athens.

[Jazz18]

Most of the Olympic athletes only really have the world champs and Olympics to really make their mark, and with any luck set themselves up for the future. For the others, the Olympics is an after thought.

Most of them are probably more concerned with making it through the opening ceremony alive.... The stadium could quite easily collapse, based on the quality of some of their other constructions.

I guess it would be hard to do but I'm surprised they haven't postponed it given all the bad press about the various issues.

[3Puttpete]

As "they" said about Sydney and Athens.

(Insert host city) is in a race against time...

[Dcanto]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hNMNCMSo5Mk

Don't forget Atlanta.

[hacker]

How many of the top 10 or 20 golfers are actually going?

T10: Day(out), Spieth(undecided), DJ(in-for now), McIlroy(out) Stenson(in), Bubba(in), Rickie(undecided), Scott (out), Willet(in), Rose(in)

T20: Sergio(in), Grace(out), Reed(dunno), Oosthuizen(out), Koepka(dunno), Matsuyama(undecided), Kucher(in*), Furyk(dunno), Zach(undecided), Mickleson(dunno)

All the undecideds have mentioned health concerns when asked.

The dunnos are Americans who are outside the T4 in T15 who I can't find a comment from.

[coalesce]

All those ins can't all be in - there's only a certain number allowed per country

[aussieashley]

All those ins can't all be in - there's only a certain number allowed per country

I think the top 15 are automatically in, and there's a max of 4 per country if they have more inside the top 15. Or something like that.

[goughy]

Sally Pearson didn't want to use the same excuse as everyone else so she's torn her hammy to keep her out of Rio!

[coalesce]

From http://www.igfgolf.org/olympic-games...cation-system/

The IOC has restricted the IGF to an Olympic field of 60 players for each of the men’s and women’s competition. The IGF will utilise the official world golf rankings to create the Olympic golf rankings as a method of determining eligibility. The top-15 world-ranked players will be eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country. Beyond the top-15, players will be eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top-15

So for the men, the current top 15 is:

1 Day AUS (Out)
2 Spieth USA
3 Johnson USA
4 McIlroy (Out)
5 Stenson SWE
6 Watson USA
7 Fowler USA
8 Scott AUS (Out)
9 Willett GBR
10 Rose GBR
11 Garcia SPN
12 Grace RSA (Out)
13 Reed USA
14 Oosthuizen RSA (Out)
15 Koepka USA

So that would mean for USA it would be Speith, Johnson, Watson, Fowler - no-one else would be allowed. That means a max of 8 of the top 15 will be playing (unless the T15 changes to bring in some non-US players, or anyone out changes their minds).

16 currently is Matsuyama of Japan, so he'd be in, but 16-20 are from the USA so they wouldn't. So max of 9 of the top 20.