Golfer misses Majors to play in Rio! And Mickelson hits a 200-yard putt..

1 Golfer misses Majors to play in Olympics shock

Who would have thought it? A professional golfer has pulled out of two Majors in order to prioritize his efforts for the Olympics – all of which is good news for Luke Donald who will now be at Troon.

While the world and his wife have pulled out due to Zika – Dustin Johnson became the latest casualty this week – and scheduling concerns Jaco can Zyl has withdrawn from both this week’s Open and the PGA in order to focus on Rio. The 37-year-old is in line to make South Africa’s team after Charl Schwartzel, Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace opted out of the Games.

“I expect that there will be a camp that will criticise me but I feel very passionate about golf’s debut at the Olympics,” van Zyl said. “Rory said in a recent press conference that we play four ‘Olympics’ a year because Major titles are what we play for, but I don’t agree. To me, the Olympics is the pinnacle of all sporting events, and to have the chance to represent Team South Africa on sports’ biggest stage is an honor I don’t take for granted.”

Van Zyl has previously played in four Majors and missed the cut in all of them. He also chose not to play in this year’s WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral due to ‘visa issues’.

“I need to go to Brazil with the rest of the South African team knowing I am in peak mental and physical health and that I can give my best over four rounds. The Majors will still be there next year, but I don’t know if I will get another chance in 2020.”

2 How the World No 581 got paired with Stenson and Kaymer

Two weeks ago Ryan Evans was missing the cut in Germany, his ninth blank weekend of the season. Since then he has qualified for his first Open Championship after a brilliant display at Woburn and this week played in the marquee group at the Scottish Open.

Evans moved up to first reserve for Castle Stuart and so began the eight-hour drive (he trimmed half an hour off the time) from Birmingham to the Highlands and arrived still as the first alternate.

By 7am he was on the range, by 9.30 the morning groups had all teed off without any withdrawals but just after midday he got the big news that Chris Wood had a neck injury and that he would be playing with Henrik Stenson and Martin Kaymer a little over an hour later.

And he fared pretty well, outscoring Stenson by three shots before making the cut and eventually tying for 54^th and pocketing over 13,000 Euros.

Now 1st reserve for the @AAMScottishOpen let the 8 hour drive commence. Hope the drive is worth it!! pic.twitter.com/nJkIXbUVLE

— Ryan Evans (@EvansRyan9) July 6, 2016

3 Wind blows, links course toughens up shock

Castle Stuart is generally thought to be a bit too easy and a bit too wide despite its spectacular surrounds. The three previous winning scores have been 19, 17 and 17 under – Graeme McDowell, the winner at Loch Lomond in 2008, said the event had ‘lost its identity and prestige’ by moving to Castle Stuart and added that the course was ‘too one-dimensional’.

And then the wind blew and blew the right way and the European Tour were forced to issue a statement of apology for some poor setting up of the course. The par-5 18^th, which measures 607 yards, was the main focus of the criticism given that it played straight into the wind. Fourteen players made double or worse, 15 players failed to break 80.

“We received a number of concerns from players regarding the course setup for the first round of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open,” the statement read. “We acknowledge we should have moved a number of tees forward to accommodate the strong winds which were forecast for Thursday’s first round. We didn’t, and accept responsibility in that regard.”

Home hope Russell Knox was one of the many to bogey the hole.

“It’s a terrible setup in my opinion: 600 yards straight into a 30 mile-per-hour wind. I hit three good shots, and three bad putts.”

As for McDowell his opinion of Castle Stuart has improved, helped maybe by an opening 70 but, as he explained, everyone is allowed to change their mind.

“It is completely different to 2011, since when a couple of nice bunkers have been added, and it really does feel like it’s designed for this wind direction. It’s a beautiful piece of land here and has a really nice architectural mix of short  par-4s and tough 5s and it’s a helluva lot more narrow than I remember it,” he continued.

“People are going to say I’m full of s**t, having criticised it pretty heavily, and now I’m saying it’s good. But I’m allowed to change my mind and I like the golf course.”

4 What has happened to Jin Jeong?

In 2010 Jeong was the World No 1 amateur and won the Amateur Championship at Muirfield, the first Asian to do so. In 2013 he won on the European Tour in Perth to gain a two-year exemption, and has since disappeared off the face of the earth.

As slumps go this is fairly spectacular. Last season he didn’t make a single cut and had a stroke average of 81.64.

Last week in Scotland he shot rounds of 88-81 to finish last and he is now 189 over for 2016.