By Rahul Bajaj
We all know how long it took the Olympics organisations to reinstate golf back in to the games. The other controversy that has just begun is of the number of players backing out of playing the Prestigious games. The number of top golfers that have backed out of the olympics is huge. Most of the players, the Jordan’s and Dustin’s have already exited the very prestigious golf in olympics. People have all sorts of scenarios that go about, one of the main being the dreaded Zika virus, which although seems like a very legitimate claim cannot be the only reason. Because if it was, then players from other sports also would back out with alarming numbers, they aren’t immortals now, are they?
Players like McIlroy and the likes have used Zika as the shield. But the deeper perspective of things, is the Olympics as big a deal for a golfer as it is for any other sportsman? In all the sports, an Olympic medal is something they all crave for. Players are judged by their medals although that’s not the case for golf. Golfers since the last century that passed us have been judged by only the number of majors, PGA tour victories, European Tour wins or the Ryder Cup representations, never by medals. So much so that if you didn’t have google you might have a tough time finding who won the gold in golf the last time it was played in Olympics. Google helped me finding George Seymour Lyon, a Canadian, who won the gold in the Olympics individual golf event in 1904. How many of you ever heard of him, but you all know Sam Snead, Ben Hogan, Jack, Arnie etc. So its always been about the majors.
Even though the olympics is the greatest event of all times, golf has been left out of it. And somehow it feels like the players have gotten so used to it that it doesn’t matter anymore as since their childhood they dreamt of a claret jug or a green jacket not of a gold medal. Yes, representing your country and getting gold for them is a big deal, I agree. But for golfers it’s always been an individual sport, especially after you turn professional. You literally learn from day one to fend for yourself, the country perspective is not deep rooted. As crass as it might sound, when you are conditioned that way, suddenly to see the worth in an event that is big for other sports in general, might not be the same for you as for other sportsmen.
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