First Rio Test Event Pictures Surfacing!

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As much as I'd love to be watching the golf played this week in Rio, the Olympic test event is best played in semi-privacy with the big reveal coming this August.

Still, with luminaries assembling in Rio to watch the Strapffs and Barcellos' of the world test out Gil Hanse's Rio Olympic course (Bob Harig explains), we have to at least enjoy the driplets appearing on social media.

From Alexandre Rocha showing the course with a mini-review:



Big stars are racking up major miles!

The one and only Instagram post from Olympic golf Rio. So far:


My chat with Gary Williams on Morning Drive explaining why it's a better scenario not to see the "test event" on TV with stars this week:

Rio Test Event No-Shows Invalidating Olympic Golf!?

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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?

Report: Rio Olympic Course Boosting The Environment

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Dan Palmer at Inside The Games says documents released by the State of Rio de Janeiro Department of Justice indicate that the Olympic golf course is boosting the environment.

The course was long assumed to be a virtual toxic waste dump, but that was when the locals were envisioning a turf nursery and before they started testing the waters.

Documents released by the State of Rio de Janeiro Department of Justice reportedly say the course in Barra da Tijuca has "contributed to the growth of local vegetation" in the Marapendi area.

The document is in Portugese, so I'm still working on a translation.

Lydia Ko: Olympics Are Priority No. 1

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I'm fairly certain world No. 1 Lydia Ko has always been excited about the Olympics, as have all of the women getting their first chance at a gold medal. But it's still fun to see players sounding more and more excited about golf's return to the Olympiad.

From an unbylined AP story:

Ko, who will defend her New Zealand Open title from Friday, said there was ''so much excitement and vibe'' around the Olympic tournament, ''especially as it's the first time women will play at the Olympics in golf.''

The 18-year-old New Zealander said ''ever since they announced that golf will be in the Olympics I said, 'Hey, I want to get myself on that team.' For any athlete to say you're an Olympian is a whole new proud feeling, and to represent your country on such an international stage it's going to be a pretty special week.''

The Zika Virus And Olympic Golf...

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While most of the various grave threats posed by Rio's Olympic golf course have passed or been overblown, the Zika virus would seem the most problematic since it is transmitted through mosquito bites.

On the news that PGA Tour LatinoAmerica is briefly postponing two events to let the mosquitoes pass (per Golf.com's report by Marika Washchyshyn), UPI's Tom LaMarre says all inquiries are being made.

"We're having discussions about the precautionary steps we feel need to be taken in and around the golf competition, and making plans to implement them to the maximum degree," said Ty Votaw, vice president of the International Golf Federation.

Votaw said special mosquito repellant might be distributed to fans, and officials plan to create movement in the ponds to eliminate standing water.

Golf Really Bothers People Files: Rio Golf Course Vol. 39,301

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I get that there is a lot to dislike about golf in the Olympics, or the Rio Games or rich people building a public course to make money from condo sales.

Yet to show just how angry golf makes some people, check out the Financial Times' Jules Boycoff citing the building of the Olympic course as a brazen act of transferring public wealth into private hands. Meanwhile, poor people are being evicted, the waters are so polluted that athletes may get sick, and yet the golf course is example A of all things wrong with these games?

Golf makes people do strange things!

From Boycoff's piece:

Nowhere has the transfer of public wealth into private hands been more brazen than in the construction of the Rio 2016 golf course. The Rio Olympics mark the return of golf to the Games after a 112-year hiatus. As was touted in Rio’s original Olympic bid, the metropolis already has two elite golf courses that have staged major tournaments. One of these could have been renovated to meet Olympic standards.

The ball would need to be going thirty yards shorter and the crowds limited, not to mention mountain climbers in one case, if this were true. Anyway, go on...

But in an audacious maneuver Mayor Paes decided to locate the golf closer to the Olympic complex in Barra da Tijuca, a wealthy western suburb, even if that meant plunking the course inside the Marapendi Nature Reserve, home to numerous threatened species.

In doing so, Paes teed up a staggering deal for billionaire developer Pasquale Mauro. As long as Mauro paid the bill for the golf course — between $20 and $30 million — he’d also win a contract to build 140 luxury apartments around it.

While the mayor’s office has pointed out the benefits of no public money being used in the construction of the site, these units start at $2 million, with penthouse condominiums pushing upwards of $6 million. It doesn’t take a math whiz to calculate the value of this multi-million dollar sweetheart deal, gift-wrapped by City Hall.

While the Mayor and Mr. Mauro will not be winning any Nobel Peace prizes anytime soon, to suggest that the course was built at public expense seems a huge stretch. However, the anger the sport evokes will be part of the (neverending?) battle for golf to overcome this August.

R&A Chief On Match-Fixing, Shorts, Olympics, Trump

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In his most extensive interview to date (unbylined BBC story), new R&A Chief Martin Slumbers acknowledged that the group is monitoring the potential for betting irregularity issues coming to golf, is open to considering shorts for practice rounds, is excited about golf's Olympic moment, and is continuing the organization’s effort to punt on the issue of an Open at Trump Turnberry.

Interestingly, just last week new European Tour head (and fellow fast play advocate of Slumbers) Keith Pelley, said there was no concern betting scandals like those in tennis could find their way to golf. (He's sounding a bit like Tim Finchem a decade ago suggesting there was no need for drug testing in golf.)

Slumbers doesn’t agree even though no evidence has surfaced suggesting anything has taken place like tennis has seen. Still, with bookmakers offering daily wagering on head-to-head play in groups, the opportunity is there for match-fixing.

"I think the events of the last few months will bring it more to the top of those agendas, yes," he said.

"If there was evidence starting to build of inappropriate betting, the game is run by some very responsible and sensible people who have the game at heart and I'm sure will do the right thing. We are certainly keeping this under careful attention.

Rio Test Event Participation Facing "Compaction" Issues

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Commissioner Coterminous wheeled out his first gem in a while, describing for AP's Doug Ferguson the issues facing golf's effort to get players to Rio for the necessary "test event" to fulfill all obligations with the International Olympic Committee.

"We've got a good list of players who are, quote, interested in coming," PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said. "But we don't have a long list of players who are committed to coming. That's the case with the guys who are currently playing on the PGA Tour, just because of the schedule, looking ahead to the summer, seeing the compaction. So I don't know."

Golf A Step Closer To Paralympics Inclusion

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Arguably the biggest bummer in golf's 2016 return to the Olympics: the failure to be recognized in time by the International Paralympic Committee, which would have opened the doors to golf in the Paralympics (where it belongs).

Dan Palmer reports on a key step in that process as the International Golf Federation is now a member of the IPC, setting up the possibility for future inclusion in the games.