RIO 2016
LEISHMAN, THE COURSE: ASSOCIATED PRESS; LEXI THOMPSON: THE CLUB AT KINGSMILL from his family his main reason for not going to Brazil. The man who bellowed“ C’ mon Aussie!” after holing a critical putt on the 72nd hole at Augusta National in 2013, was somewhat surprised at the reaction, but has remained steadfast in his decision.
After playing six times in a tough eight-week stretch earlier in the season, Scott said“ I just didn’ t get to see my family enough. I think I’ m seeing them six days in seven weeks and it would have been six in nine weeks had I gone to the Olympics. Those are just the hard decisions you have to make. That’ s the way it is, unfortunately, and that’ s the event I decided to skip.
“ The tough part was to choose not to represent Australia. But I feel like I do that every week. I’ ve lived my life representing Australia and I feel I’ ve tried to do the best job I can of that. Not everyone will understand my decision or like it, but not everyone is in my position where I feel that’ s something I’ m not willing to sacrifice some family time for.”
Dawn Fraser, an Australian national hero and swimming legend who won four gold and four silver medals in three Olympic Games starting in 1956, blasted Scott on Facebook for his decision.
“ Very sorry to hear that Adam Scott cannot fit it into his schedule to play for Australia at the Olympics,” she wrote.“ Well done Adam. Great to put your country on hold so that you can
The Olympic golf course in Rio, with the city’ s skyscrapers in the background. fulfill your own schedule. How much money do you want in life? Not showing much for your country.”
NBC broadcaster and former U. S. Open champion Johnny Miller also piled on.
“ Playing for your country is a lot bigger than playing for yourself,” he said.“ I would say I don’ t care how tired you are, and I wouldn’ t even care where you place in the tournament, but you need to be there to represent your country.”
Leishman, on the other hand, could hardly be faulted for not playing, and Zika was the only reason why. One hundred days before the start of the Games, he said he withdrew because of fears over the strength of his wife Audrey’ s immune system.
“ Last April, my children and I almost lost my wife to toxic shock syndrome,” he said in a statement.“ Since then, Audrey has been prone to infection and is far removed from 100 percent recovery of her immune system. We have consulted with Audrey’ s physician and, due to her ongoing recovery and potential risks associated with the transmission of the Zika virus, it was a difficult yet easy decision not to participate … I cannot risk placing her health in jeopardy.”
Despite all the defections, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem insisted he was somewhat sympathetic to the players’ concerns and does not believe their decisions not to play will hurt golf’ s chances for staying on the Olympic program beyond the 2020 Games in Tokyo.
“ The reasons they( the IOC) like golf is that it’ s growing around the globe, it’ s bringing people to the game,” he said.“ It’ s one of the few sports that’ s actively very popular on every continent— just to different levels. And it’ s a sport that works quite well with sponsorship, and they’ re in that business.”
Growing the sport also means growing profits for all the major organizations in golf, not to mention manufacturers of equipment and apparel and golf course designers who have saturated the American market with venues but see great opportunities to ply their trades in other countries around the globe. Is it any wonder that Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Johnny Miller, all with their own golf course design businesses, have been among the top cheerleaders for golf in the Olympics?
And so is LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan, who estimates that 80 percent of the players in the women’ s Olympic tournament will be LPGA members.
“ From my perspective, the Olympics is going to give women’ s golf a global media platform and coverage that we just don’ t get on a regular basis,” Whan said earlier this year.“ The guys get it a lot. They get global media coverage that’ s incredibly massive but we only get it three or four times a year.
“ We have an opportunity to engage fans, and you don’ t have to leave us when the Games end. We’ ll be there for the next 34 weeks.” The players on Whan’ s tour echo his sentiments, for the most part.“ Yeah, I think the whole experience is such an amazing opportunity, right?” Paraguayan Julieta Granada said before the Kingsmill Championship in May in Williamsburg.“ Like I think every athlete in any sport, that’ s what they dream of. So just to be able to be there, it’ s amazing, and to experience all these things as a player, it’ s on another level, right. So I’ m definitely looking forward to it. I’ m going to stay there( in the Olympic village), and I’ m going to get to experience it all.”
Said American star Lexi Thompson:“ It means the world to me to represent my country. … There’ s nothing like waking up, putting your country’ s colors on and going and representing.”
A longtime sportswriter for the Washington Post, author Leonard Shapiro is a contributor to Virginia Golfer.
vsga. org J ULY / A UGUST 2016 | V IRGINIA G OLFER 29