Thought for the Day
It doesn’t take a very big person to carry a grudge
Rocky road to Rio
Louis Oosthuizen, currently ranked 12th in the world, is the latest big name to decide not to compete in the Olympics this summer. He joins Vijay Singh and Adam Scott, the other two high-profile golfers who have decided they have more significant priorities than trying to capture a gold medal.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Ask Andy Murray if he would prefer to give up his Olympic medal or Wimbledon singles title and it is almost certain he would forego Olympic glory – even if it was that 2012 win over Roger Federer that many believe gave him the confidence to beat Novak Djokovic, a man against whom he had a poor head-to-head record, in straight sets the following year in SW19.
All sports have their competitive holy grail, the title or achievement that means most. In some cases it’s simply to be ranked number one, in others it’s an Olympic or World Championship but in golf, as in tennis, the season and an individual’s career centres on the four grand slam events. It would be difficult, if not impossible to find a pro golfer who didn’t put winning a major above a gold medal (unless he or she already had so many that another one assumed lesser importance, and even then I don’t think they would swap).
Of course, we must blame Jack Nicklaus for this state of affairs. Because he is the most successful golfer of all time, if we measure his career by majors alone, the template he established has been passed down to subsequent generations. His first win as a pro was the US Open and it helped him appreciate that a golfer does not have to play at his absolute best to win a major, but many believe they do and in consequence push too hard and cock it up. So Jack planned his whole season around the majors, and was never shy about saying so and it is easy to forget that he was the first to do this quite so openly.
Any sensible competitor studies the best to see what they can learn and the champions who have followed Jack inevitably subscribe to his view that golf’s four grand slam events come first in prestige and anything and everything else must play second fiddle, even the Olympics. The problem is, to accommodate the Games, two of our four majors, the Open and US PGA Championship, are being squeezed into a shorter timeframe, which is buggering up golfers’ preferred schedules. The Open finishes on July 17 and the PGA starts less than a fortnight later, on the 28th. This is to accommodate the Olympics, which starts on August 5, less than a week after the conclusion of the PGA (although the golf competition doesn’t start until the 11th).
This logjam, with two majors and the Olympic Games coming in a four-week period, is the reason why some at least are willing to forget Rio, and there’s a strong possibility that the three already mentioned won’t be the last.
Desperate marketing
Among my favourite events every year are the HSBC Championships that take place in the far east because in advance of the competition itself the main sponsor has the leading contenders posing for publicity pictures that always raise a smile.
This year’s HSBC Women’s Champions 2016 at Sentosa Golf Club was no exception and the press release announced: ‘New Zealand’s Lydia Ko (1), South Korea’s Inbee Park (2) and US star Lexi Thompson (3) were joined by China’s Shanshan Feng (9) for a rocking work-out. They almost manage not to look embarrassed.
[Picture credit: Getty Images]
Quote of the Week
If you dub a shot, don’t berate yourself unduly. Golf is supposed to cure ulcers, not create them
Arnold Palmer