Da Silva is grouped with Korean Byeong Hun An – whose parents both won Olympic medals in table tennis in Seoul 1988 – and Canadian Graham DeLaet, a symbolic gesture as his countryman George Lyon won a gold medal the last time golf was played at the Games in 1904. “But it’s cool. If I was a Capybara I’d love to live at the Olympic golf course”.
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“I have had a very warm welcome from fellow US athletes and other athletes from around the village, nearly thanking me for being here”, Fowler said Tuesday.
As for Rickie Fowler, well, he’s been in Rio since before the opening ceremony.
“But I think it sits in a unique category all by itself”. “I wouldn’t want to get in a fight with it, that’s for sure”.
“What (the Olympics) stands for and seeing how much it means to the other athletes here, it seems like a pretty awesome event”, Fowler said.
To be fair, this wasn’t an exercise in finger pointing or Monday morning quarterbacking. They were the two Americans who would have qualified no matter who withdrew for whatever reason.
The gag raised smiles among the assembled reporters given the number of top male players who had passed on going to Rio de Janeiro citing health scares, the Zika virus in particular, as the reason.
For those who did make the trip to Rio, however, the reality has been much different than the picture that had been painted. Watson is geeked to catch some team handball. All four planned to attend the swimming finals Tuesday night to cheer on golf nut Michael Phelps.
Their active schedules would seem to dismiss preconceived security concerns.
“I live in Houston”. I’ve always used bug spray. “It’s nothing new”, he said. Instead, each told a similar tale of conviction.
Representing your country, be it at a Ryder Cup or the Olympics, transcends golf’s historic motivations of individual accomplishment, and if some failed to see the big picture through the fog of uncertainty, it’s as understandable as it is unfortunate.
He may not have been a favorite to win any of the four major golf titles this year, but British Open champion Henrik Stenson of Sweden is listed as +575 chalk (bet $100 to win $575) to take home the gold medal in the men’s golf tournament at the Rio Summer Olympics at sportsbooks monitored by Odds Shark.
Whether Spieth, Johnson, McIlroy and world No. 1 Jason Day will spend the next few days wistfully eyeing the competition from Rio will probably remain a mystery.
The course they’ll be taking on was specially built for the Olympics at Reserva de Marapendi and designed by Gil Hanse. “What would you do to be an Olympic athlete?”
Rose remembers his late father Ken regaling him with tales of a visit to the Games and those stories helped give the golfer a perspective that stretches beyond the confines of his chosen sport. And he had more than just the best players in mind when he created it.
“There were amusing circumstances this year that led guys to not participate”.
“I’m looking forward to showing him around a little bit”, Fowler said.
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“I don’t think I’ll ever forget Matteo presenting to a group of formidable International Olympic Committee members in English – not his first language – at the tender age of 16”, Dawson said.
