It may be time to put the 2016 Rio Olympics return to golf as a medal event on life support. Jason Day is the latest defector, so it is practical that the Rio organisers just forget the whole thing and mail the gold medal to Jordan Spieth, who has yet to pull out. Another potential American winner, Dustin Johnson, might refuse to play based on the worry that he could win the gold medal, only to have the officials reduce it to silver after the fact.
Day is citing the health of his young family as a risk he is unwilling to accept. No one could blame him either, for taking the financial implications into consideration.
Day’s rather succinct statement announcing his decision, “It is with deep regret I announce that I will not be competing in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games this coming August in Rio de Janeiro.”
Day went into further detail in his statement, but the result is not subject to further reflection.
Australian Coach Ian Baker-Finch might have to dust off his clubs and work on his game a bit, whilst spending some time trying to convince Greg Norman or 86-year-old Peter Thomson to abandon retirement for the good of the Commonwealth.
