Some top golfers are yet to appreciate Olympics

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After waiting out for over a century, golf returned to the Rio Olympics in 2016. At the time, many of the male top golfers skipped the competition citing the threat of the zika virus. The top three ranked golfers at the time, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy did not heed the persuasions of the PGA Tour or the European Tour to participate in the Olympics. In an interview before the Rio Olympics, McIlroy said that it was not his responsibility to be seen to promote the game of golf in the Olympics.

At the time, I felt that amateur golfers should have been the ones to play in the Olympics instead of the professionals. The culture around golf over the century that it was not part of the Olympics had grown to appreciate other tournaments. For golfers, there are four majors; The Masters, PGA Championship, The US Open and The Open Championship. These tournaments are financially lucrative and the slots to play are very desirable among the professionals.