Torchbearers
Golf Digest South Africa|August 2016

In Rio,These Golfers are playing for more than a Place in History.

Jaime Diaz
Torchbearers

Those who judge athletic excellence strictly on the basis of “faster, higher, stronger” are probably doubtful that golf is good for the Olympics. But anyone who has ever included “further, straighter, fewer” in the criteria is likely to believe that the Olympics are good for golf.

How much the game will benet by its return – after 112 years – to the world’s greatest sporting event is to be determined. With the opening ceremonies of the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro on August 5, we’re finally about to find out.

The run-up to Rio hasn’t been smooth, in part because the world’s best players are used to tournament hosts acutely attuned to their preferences. But also because of real-life problems, the decision to go to Brazil has seen a lot of big names take a few extra waggles.

Players’ main points of concern:

Zika, the mosquito transmitted virus that has been connected to birth defects, has everyone’s attention, especially men and women in childbearing years. At the time of publication, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Branden Grace, Marc Leishman and Vijay Singh all cited Zika as the reason they dropped out, and Adam Scott admitted the virus was part of his decision not to play.

The good news is, medical officials of the local organising committee reported that there have been no known cases of Zika among the 17 000 athletes, staff and volunteers in 44 test events over several months before the Games. And with temperatures cooling in the Brazilian winter, mosquito incubation will go down drastically. Offcials are predicting fewer than two-dozen cases of Zika among the half-million people expected to visit Rio for the Games.

This story is from the August 2016 edition of Golf Digest South Africa.

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This story is from the August 2016 edition of Golf Digest South Africa.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.