Rio Test Event No-Shows Invalidating Olympic Golf!?

There is plenty of apathy toward Olympic golf and certainly one can understand if the ill will is prompted by the format or clogged golf schedule.

But to suggest that a weak field for next week's one-day test event is proof positive seems like a silly stretch. It should be remembered that this test event is one day, and a day that has moved around with great uncertainty. It's hardly a shock that the world's best players were not clamoring to get to Rio for 18 holes.

My colleague at GolfDigest.com, Joel Beall, counted the weak field as business as usual for Olympic golf's return. I can accept that point of view, but it was AP's Tim Dahlberg's column that made no sense, unless it was a continuation of the weird Associated Press (sans Doug Ferguson) hatred for golf in the Rio Olympics.

Dahlberg cites the availability of a jet provided by the PGA Tour (to Rio...an overnight flight) as proof positive that golf in the Olympics is dead on arrival.

The refusal of any players to go to Brazil for the test event does more than reflect a widespread ambivalence toward the Olympics. It's a statement that chasing dollars on the PGA Tour is far more important than chasing Olympic gold.

That may change as the Olympics draw closer. But for now playing for Olympic gold seems more like an abstract concept than anything else.

Or more simply, that it's a long way to go for one round of golf?