So in the beginning, the comments were predictable. Team match play is both an exciting format for casual or new viewers and a hedge against the individual stroke play playing out like a snoozer.
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And then, as the tournament grew near, the world’s best golfers began to drop out.
In a final round Sunday so tense that no one led by more than one shot until the end, Rose won on the last hole with a 40-yard pitch to 3 feet for birdie and a 4-under 67, giving him a two-shot victory over Henrik Stenson to win the first gold medal in golf since 1904 in St. Louis. I’ve never seen my little boy in tears, and I might start crying myself.
“I got realistic, ” Player said. I’ve never seen that before. He said he could see how much it meant and congratulated me.
So when avid all-sport Olympic watcher Leo got to speak with his dad, he was weeping with joy after seeing Rose had gotten his medal to stand among the heroes on his telly. I have been thinking about Rio for a long, long time.
Do you agree or disagree with Justin Rose that the players who skipped golf’s reintroduction to the Olympics will feel as though they missed out? Now had Kuchar, who still is looking for his first win in a major (though he did win the Players Championship in 2012), carded a similar third-place finish in last weekend’s John Deere Classic, he would have pocketed a couple hundred thousand dollars. “I would even put them before golf”.
A four-ball match-play team competition would slot into the Olympics mix nicely.
Golf careers are not defined by the Olympics. “That’s what makes them great – wanting experiences like this”.
“It’s amusing, we were walking down 14 or 15 and he said, ‘Where do we lie as far as the medals?’ I said, ‘We’re in pretty good shape, ‘ and he said, ‘Well good that’s freed me up, ‘ ” Fulcher said recalling a conversation with Rose in the final round. So why not go with an aggregate total for two-man teams, and allow the players to also play for individual medals?
For the star players who bailed out on the Olympics, with real or convenient excuses, it was a missed opportunity.
“They’re all great competitors and to be sitting at home watching other guys getting the glory is not going to sit well with them”. And they’re going to have to wait four years. “It’s the opportunity of a lifetime and I’m thrilled I came here”.
“We had one of the best golf events I’ve ever been involved with on many levels”, Dawson said.
“If I end up holding the gold medal at the end of Saturday and standing on the podium, I think it’ll be extra special. We’re certainly going to have some fun with [bragging] on the range”.
McIlroy sent gold medal victor Justin Rose a congratulatory text message. How about that? No money, just a gold medal. They have the golf course for two weeks; they might as well maximize its use.
Kristin Armstrong, 42, won gold in the women’s cycling individual time trial, which involves biking 29.7 kilometers (about 18 miles), as fast as you can, by yourself. But humbling, as well. The fact that it meant something a lot more to him for some reason, I can’t explain that. We’re so blessed. When you look at these other countries, and these athletes that train for years – not just hours, years – and they got 30 seconds or they got a minute or they got under ten seconds. “I think it’s done golf a great deal of good”.
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“There’s always details we can improve, but I don’t think we can improve the spirit and the enjoyment that people extracted from the last four days”.
