Australia’s Adam Scott doubled down against Olympic golf on Wednesday in Melbourne prior to the start of the Australian Masters. The 2013 Masters champion said that despite the sport’s return to the Games for the first time in over 100 years next summer in Rio de Janeiro, he’s not sure if he sees himself competing should he be eligible.
“It’s not really a priority of my scheduling next year and I’ll still base my schedule around the majors,” Scott said, according to EuroSport. “Looking at the schedule some time off looks quite good actually. That’s nothing to take away from the Olympics, but I’m just not sure that they have got it quite dialed in for the format and might have missed an opportunity there to do something pretty special for golf.”
Scott makes a reasoned argument. With golf’s inclusion in the Olympics, the PGA and European Tours have done some tweaking to their respective schedules in 2016. The PGA Championship was moved up on the schedule significantly to accommodate the Olympics, meaning that the final three majors of the year will be played within a seven-week window.
The Open Championship and PGA Championship will be played over a three-week stretch from July 14-31. After another week (Traveler’s Championship), the Olympic competition will kick off in Brazil. Talk about some jet lag.
Adam Scott says Olympics “just another tournament” and questions how it will grow the game and “it doesn’t get strongest field.” #spot on
— Ted Bishop (@tedbishop38pga) November 19, 2015
Scott added that the format and field were uninspiring as well. Both the men’s and women’s compeitions will be typical 72-hole stroke-play events with only the top-15 in the world rankings automatically qualifying (if they are among the top-4 from their country), capped at a 60-person maximum.
“I would have liked to have seen it be a little more creative than a 72-hole stroke play event,” he said. “I’m not really sure how just having another golf tournament is really going to enhance the game or grow the game any more than any other tournament just because it’s the Olympics. And certainly with the field criteria, it doesn’t necessarily get the strongest field in the game. Some kind of a team event, even a mixed team event with the guys and girls would have been really interesting and something different.”
Scott previously spoke about the possibility of his non-participation in the Olympics at the Wells Fargo Championship in May and only reiterated this week what he said then. Currently, Scott is ranked No. 12 in the world, the second-highest ranked Aussie behind No. 2 Jason Day. Marc Leishman (38th) is the only other Aussie ranked inside the top-70 in the world.
