When I close my eyes and think of the Olympics, I picture hurdles being skipped over, javelins being launched and streamlined swimmers chopping through clear blue water.
The last thing that comes to mind is golf. The sport was absent from the Olympic Games for 112 years, during which time countless athletes in other disciplines have become icons synonymous with this Summer festival.
As harsh as my mindset might appear, it doesn’t match the attitude shown by the Dutch Olympic Committee which has disallowed Joost Luiten, Darius van Driel and Dewi Weber from competing at Le Golf National in August.
Luiten posted on Instagram on Wednesday alleging that the Dutch Olympic Committee (NOC*NSF) doesn’t believe he can finish in the top eight places on the leaderboard and essentially can’t win a medal, which is why Anne van Dam will be the only competitor from the Netherlands heading to ‘Paris 2024’.
The Netherlands Golf Federation (NGF) presented “extensive arguments and data” in a meeting with the Dutch committee on June 14, and the NGF said in a statement that “it has not been demonstrated that there is a reasonable chance of a top-eight ranking during the Olympic Games.”
As radical as it may seem for a nation’s committee to withdraw athletes because they don’t think they have a chance, is this news not typical of the general apathy towards golf at the Summer Olympics?
Although Rory McIlroy had an accepting perspective on Olympic golf when losing in a playoff for a bronze medal three years ago in Japan, his views from five years before are hard to forget.
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“I don’t feel like I’ve let the game down at all,” he said at the 2016 Open when discussing his choice not to represent Ireland at the Rio games. “I didn’t get into golf to try to grow the game. I got into golf to try to win championships and major championships and all of a sudden, you get to this point, there’s a responsibility on you to grow the game.
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“I get that but at the same time, that’s not the reason I got into golf. I got into golf to win, I didn’t get into golf to get other people into the game. I’m very happy with the decision I have made and I’ll probably watch the Olympics, but I’m not sure golf will be one of the events I’ll watch.”
In 2021, Sergio Garcia ruled himself out of representing Spain at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Japan to focus on representing Europe in the Ryder Cup later that year. Lee Westwood did the same because his schedule was too busy and so did Dustin Johnson. Louis Oosthuizen, Matt Fitzpatrick and Tyrrell Hatton followed suit as well.
Johnson didn’t play in 2016 either due to concerns surrounding the Zika Virus in Brazil, one of a few names to withdraw from the tournament for this reason. Major champions Charl Schwartzel, Graeme McDowell and Jason Day followed him.
Luiten, van Driel and Weber didn’t choose to withdraw from this year’s Olympics. The decision was made for them, but the Dutch Olympic Committee’s behaviour carries on the precedent that golf at the Olympics is insignificant to some. They have voluntarily reduced their nation’s chances of winning a medal, which is what some of the game’s stars have continually done in the past.
Earlier this year, Adam Scott opted out of the Olympics for the third time in a row, having previously called the event an “exhibition.” Brooks Koepka asked the International Golf Federation in charge of arranging the Olympic golf tournaments to drop him from consideration, and recent LIV Golf winner and European Ryder Cup star Hatton again turned down the chance to represent GB&I.
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The lack of willingness by some players to compete at the Olympics is a bullet point on a long list of issues that are usually brought up every four years when Hazel Irvine and Michael Johnson grace our televisions. Why isn’t Olympic golf an amateur event, or a mixed event, or a foursomes event? Where is the ingenuity?
That is the trouble with 112 years in the doldrums. Even both golf tournaments that were meant to be held in Antwerp in 1920 were cancelled due to a lack of entries.
We can berate the actions of the Dutch Olympic Committee until we are orange in the face, but we must recognise that said actions are symptomatic of the complicated relationship golf has with the Olympic games.
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