Olympic Golf, RIP

By now you've heard the news.... Yesterday we absorbed Dexit with a side order of Lexit, thought our indigestion from absorbing Mexit, Ooexit, Schwexit and Scexit had hardly passed....

What went wrong I hear you ask?  That's easy, EVERYTHING.  

Unfortunate. That’s the word that comes to mind as golf’s return to the Olympics

unravels and unwinds like the elastic-wrapped core of an old balata golf ball. 

Unfortunate. Jason Day of Australia, the World No. 1, now out as of Tuesday morning, citing the hovering threat of the Zika virus, stating that his priority is his young family over golf. For each top player eligible to play in Rio, this is a personal evaluation and decision; if you are not Jason Day, or Rory McIlroy, or Adam Scott, do you have any ground to question them? 

Losing the World No. 1, somebody who’d been discussing the Olympics for months with enthusiasm, is a huge blow. McIlroy, the World No. 4, is out for Ireland. Australia’s Scott, gone. Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Branden Grace of South Africa, out. So is Marc Leishman (Australia), Vijay Singh (Fiji), Graeme McDowell (Ireland) and Tim Wilkinson (New Zealand).

I'm a resilient sort, so I've managed to cope with my disappointment over Tim Wilkinson dropping out, but Vexit was a cruel blow.

His call to pull out of the Olympics wasn’t an easy one. He said it was one made “with a heavy heart.” Shane Lowry? Talking about the possibility of the Olympics a few months back put a smile on the lad’s face that would stretch from Dublin to Dingle. That guy would show up wearing the colors of his beloved Ireland if you were staging a Frisbee competition in a local park. 

But no longer is there an Olympic dream for Lowry, who got married this year and one day soon intends to start a family. Not this time, anyway. So who will be next? Are we really to believe that not a single LPGA player has trepidations about playing in Brazil? If they turn up in unison in Brazil in less than two months, it will be quite a statement.

You sure you want to go with "heavy heart" as relates to Shane?  That's needlessly hurtful in my book, and I'd have softened the blow by using something in the euphemistic range, say a big-boned heart.  But that's not important now....

Let's go back to the Tour Confidential panel and their thoughts on Sunday evening past.  Representing the golf establishment is Alan Shipnuck, responding to the IOC's Barry Maister's comment we had Monday:

Shipnuck: Obviously. The entitlement and point-missing among the top (male) golfers is depressing. They are on their way to getting their dying, boutique sport tossed from the biggest athletic happening in the world. Then they won’t have to worry about playing in the Olympics beyond 2020. A small win for these selfish players but a big loss for the sport to make new fans and reach new markets.

And for the anti-crowd, I give you Boris Johnson Josh Sens:

Sens: I don’t disagree, and maybe this is all Monday morning caddying on my part, but Olympic golf felt like a forced idea from the beginning. It wasn’t hard to imagine all along that many of the top players would opt out for either money or scheduling reasons. We couldn’t have foreseen Zika. But we could have foreseen reluctance on the part of many players, not to mention a certain amount of apathy from fans. So in a sense, you could say that golf set itself up for failure in the first place with its Olympic aspirations.

Luke Kerr-Dineen attributes the defections to these three causes:

1. Zika;
2. Crazy schedules;
3. Lack of Excitement. 

Those are the three principal issues, though Luke isn't inclined to go for the jugular, so let's dive a little deeper:

On the Z-word, I think this fits comfortably into the Brexit and Trump context, whereby the huddled masses have had the bad taste to revolt against the elites.  Everyone in a position of authority has minimized the threat that this presents.....But, and it really should be BUT, is that assessment based upon actual competence and do they have our interests at heart?  

But before we move on from this count in the indictment, let's remember that Zika is hardly the only issue the guys face in Rio.  There was that State of Calamity declaration a week or so ago, and you have dropped the Olympics into a country that is coming apart at the seems..... There are legitimate safety, transportation and public health concerns to be faced...  How confident are you of Brazilian authorities ability to manage those?

On the second point, Luke's construction is oddly passive, as if that schedule is handed down from the almighty.....  What became apparent is that those running the major tours, and of course our Nurse Ratched is first among equals here, refused to make any accommodation in their money grabs.....

I'm actually quite pleased that the Day-break hit during the week of the Bridgestone, which has pride of place among tournaments that need to die a painful death.  Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, has a formulation that is spot-on... In speaking of global warming, he notes that he'll believe it's a crisis when those telling him it's a crisis act as though they believe it's a crisis.....

So our hero, the Patriarch of Ponte Vedra Beach, is telling these guys that they need to show up in Rio for God and Country (and, you know, the children), but you'll have to pry our Akron snooze-fest from our cold dead hands.  I'll point you back to Shipnuck's comment above, which is basically that the guys should suck it up and play and hope that it all works out.  

As the format, well we've been blowing that horn for quite a while....But it's actually far more troubling than that.  Yes, it's dreadfully boring and our thought leaders don't seem to understand our game or the fact that a bad debut could be disastrous.  It's almost like they had other priorities....

But the players know that so many compromises were made that the tournament is a glorified exhibition.  Remember, it's a sixty-player field and no more than thirty of those would have been world class players...  That's much more the Hero World Challenge than the Open Championship....

Our game doesn't fit the Olympic profile, mostly because the best players win so infrequently.  Now there many ways to imaginatively fir this square peg into the round hole, but pretending that it's round isn't helpful.  

So, with my rant winding down, where does that leave us?  Well, that segues nicely into Shack's rant at Jordan Spieth for his comments in Akron:

“No matter what I do, it’s already – there’s already been enough players (withdrawing) that I think it’ll definitely have an impact,” Spieth said. “Pending some crazy, great finish or whatever, I think there’s a significantly lower likelihood now of it staying in the Olympics than there was six months ago.”

It's hard to argue that he's wrong about that, as it's devolved into a worst-case scenario for him...  No upside and the palpable downside of losing to a weak field.  But here's a sampling of Geoff's vitriol, first in response to Jordan above:

I have an idea for Jordan! Let's get to The Open early this time like you plan, and leave the IOC-politicking to the guys in suits.

You can certainly make the case that Jordan wasn't well-served by these comments, but you'll know where Geoff sides with his earlier snark:

Yes, there's a lot to chew on with all of the Olympic golf WD's by the male golfers. 

There is little doubt that Rio is a dangerous, strange place that isn't high on many summer must-visit lists. The idea of the Olympics landing in the middle of a busy schedule stinks. But we've known that a while. And Zika virus is a scary thing if you want to start a family in the immediate future,though few in Brazil are as worried as male golfers who fancy themselves as possible sires for a future King.

Oh, and no one working at the Olympic golf course has contracted the virus.

Forgive me, but "Go to Rio - No one has actually died yet" leaves me cold as a rallying cry....

 And yes, the LPGA players' reactions have been different:

While the men drop like dominoes out of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, top

LPGA players remain committed to the cause. World No. 1 Lydia Ko said she has to “trust the experts” in handling the health situation. 

“It’s not every week, not every year you get to do this,” said Ko, 19, of New Zealand, “to represent your country amongst the world best athletes in other sports. So I’m super excited about it, and there is just so many positives from Rio that golf can take.” 

To date, no LPGA player has said she will skip the Rio Games in mid-August.

That sound you hear is your humble correspondent slapping his forehead.... This is a "No s***, Sherlock" point, as the women are starved for exposure and will take any opportunity to share the stage with the men.

This is indeed a very sad result....  I just resist the easy temptation to shoot the messenger.