Golf in good shape for Rio: Finchem

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem says golf's place at the Olympics is secure despite many star withdrawals.

The 970,000 square meters golf venue for the Olympic Games Rio

The PGA Tour boss says golf's place at the Olympics is secure despite many star withdrawals. (AAP)

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem says that golf will be in good shape heading into this year's Rio Games, where he predicts "a superb Olympics", despite the recent withdrawals of several elite players.

Australia's former world number ones Adam Scott and fellow major winners Vijay Singh, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, are among those who have already announced that they will skip the event.

However, Finchem felt there was generally "a real enthusiasm" for the Olympics in professional golf.

"It's a combination of things, really," Finchem told an Olympics news conference on Tuesday.

"Starts with a compacted season, affects the players in different ways, the way that the (PGA Tour schedule) changes were for the season this year.

"Part of it is prioritisation, I would admit, although I think in general there's a real enthusiasm, certainly for the concept of golf in the Olympics."

With the Olympic men's golf competition to be played from August 11-14, the year's final major, the PGA Championship, has been brought forward to late July from its traditional date in the second week of August.

As a result, the PGA Tour's busy June-July schedule has been compressed more than usual and now includes three major championships in just seven weeks.

"In golf, and in most of the individual sports, you just got to accept the fact that not everybody's going to play every week," said Finchem.

"Not everybody's even going to play in top events. Most of the top events have lost players for strange reasons at one time or another, and these aren't strange reasons, really. These are more like concerns.

"We have had a combination of things that have created some issues this year, but we seem to be doing OK and I think we're going to have a superb Olympics once we get down there."

Asked if he had any concern that additional withdrawals from Rio could be damaging to golf's future inclusion on the Games schedule, Finchem replied: "I think right now we're looking pretty good.

"Every four years it happens, and you want to take advantage of that. We don't go around saying gloom and doom. We say, 'Look, let's take advantage of the upside here if we possibly can.'


Share

3 min read

Published

Source: AAP



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world