IGF confirms draw for men’s Olympic Golf in Rio 2016
August 08, 2016: The International Golf Federation has announced the draw for the first and second rounds of the Men’s Golf Competition at Rio 2016. At 7.30am local time on Thursday 11th August, history will be made when Brazilian, Adilson da Silva, hits the opening tee shot and golf’s return to the Olympic Games will be complete. Anirban Lahiri will be the first Indian golfer to tee off at an Olympic event when he starts his round with Bubba Watson and Martin Kaymer at 0914hrs on Thursday.
SSP Chawrasia will be among the third last group at 1047hrs local time. His group includes Irishman Seamus Power and Taipei’s Wen-Tang Lin.
Two further Olympic connections are celebrated in the first group. Canada’s Graham DeLaet, whose countryman George Lyon won the Olympic gold medal in 1904, the last time golf was part of the Olympic programme, will tee off second. And, Byeong Hun An, the son of two Olympic table tennis medalists at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, will complete the group.
Three-time major champion Padraig Harrington from Ireland and Italy’s Matteo Manassero, both of whom formed part of the International Golf Federation’s delegation that presented golf’s case for inclusion in the Games at the 2009 IOC Session in Copenhagen, will play together in the second group out at 7.41am. The Irishman and Italian will be joined by New Zealand’s Danny Lee.
Other notable tee times include 2016 Masters champion Danny Willett from Great Britain who will play with American Matt Kuchar and China’s Haotong Li at 9.03am. Siddikur Rahman, who carried Bangladesh’s flag during the Opening Ceremony, will begin their first round at 10.14am in a group with the Netherlands’ Joost Luiten and Ricardo Melo Gouveia from Portugal.
At 10.58am, world number seven Rickie Fowler from the USA, former US Open champion Justin Rose, from Great Britain, and last month’s winner of the Canadian Open, Jhonattan Vegas, will begin their bid for Olympic gold. And, at 11.09am The Open champion and world number five Henrik Stenson will play alongside Thailand’s Thongchai Jaidee and Rafa Cabrera Bello at in Thursday’s final group.
