By Shane Ryan
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Even before the Olympic golf tournament started, Justin Thomas called it “the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” and it’s clear that he enjoyed every part of the experience, from the course to the Olympic Village. It’s no surprise, then, that when one of his countrymen, Xander Schauffele, came away with the gold medal, Thomas felt a little bit of good-natured envy.

“I’m in a house with Xander,” Thomas said on Tuesday afternoon in Memphis, ahead of the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, “and I checked the medal out. As soon as I saw him, I wanted to see it … it’s really cool. Obviously, I’m very jealous of anybody who’s won any other major or tournaments that I haven’t, but that might have been the most jealous of someone I’ve been. That gold medal is so sick; it’s so cool; it’s so unique.”

This is not the first time Thomas has seen a gold medal handed out for golf. That first view came in 2016, when Justin Rose took top honours in the Rio Games.

“I saw it with Rosie however many years ago,” Thomas said. “We’re both represented by Mark Steinberg, so we had a big thing one night during a major and Rosie brought the medal over, so I saw it then. But being a little closer with Xander and obviously in a house with him this week, I felt a little more comfortable taking it from him and being like, hey, let me see that thing.”

In fact, those are the only two of golf’s gold medals in the world. When the sport was first contested in 1900, medals weren’t handed out to the winners, and if you’ve read the bizarre story of George Lyon, the 1904 champion, you know that his gold medal has been lost to history. Which means that Thomas is one of the few people on earth who is in close proximity (and likely touched) the only golf golds that exist in the world.

Thomas flew into Memphis with several other players on Monday and was noticeably tired in his press conference Tuesday. He made an effort to wake up early in order to reset his body clock as fast as possible, and now he’ll set his sights on this week’s WGC, the FedEx Cup race and the Ryder Cup in September. The finale of the season will be meaningful for Thomas, who, aside from his Players Championship win, hasn’t been overly pleased with 2021. He has five top-10s in 19 starts and is No. 8 in the FedEx Cup race. Thomas’ best finish in a major this season was a T-19 in the U.S. Open.

“Other than one week, really one weekend, I’ve had a very poor year in my mind,” he said. “The results haven’t been there and it’s been the hardest I’ve had to work and the most I’ve struggled, but I’m just working to try to get out of that and I feel like I’ve been a lot closer this last month or so to playing some really, really good golf.”

Still, he admits that no matter how the year ends up, there will be a taste of disappointment that he’ll want to erase in 2022.

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By Brian Wacker
Webb Simpson has won a U.S. Open and a Players Championship. It sounds like he doesn’t have much interest in trying to add an Olympic medal this summer, though.

“I think it would be an honour to represent the country,” Simpson said on Tuesday from TPC Sawgrass. “Nothing against the Olympics, but I’m personally more interested in trying to win majors, the Players Championship, the FedEx Cup than be a medalist in the Olympics.”

Of course, to be able to win a medal, he’d need to qualify to play in the belated Summer Games in Tokyo, scheduled for late July. Simpson, currently 10th in the Official World Golf Ranking, is the eighth-ranked American. Only the top four, at a maximum, can qualify.

Dustin Johnson, the current World No. 1, said last year that he would not play in the Olympics. Later, he said he would consider participating should the PGA Tour’s schedule be accommodating for flying to the Tokyo amid a busy summer schedule of big tournaments.

The men’s Olympic golf tournament is slated at Kasumigaseki Country Club, about 35 miles northwest of downtown Tokyo, from July 29-Aug. 1. That’s less than two weeks after the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s in the south of England concludes and a few days before the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, which Johnson won in 2018 before it became a WGC

Simpson, too, doesn’t seem keen on travelling halfway around the world.

“Part of it is exciting for me, but the thought of going halfway around the world for that time frame in that part of our season is really tough for me to swallow,” the 35-year-old seven-time tour winner said. “I haven’t made any kind of mental decisions yet, but it would be a hard one for me to go to, knowing what’s at stake here on the PGA Tour.

“I think the travel is what’s getting me, because we build our season around three championships for the FedEx Cup, and that part of the season is already hard for me because we have WGC Memphis, I played Wyndham, and so it would be hard for me to put that much effort into going to Japan. I feel like it would really shoot me in the foot for the playoffs, and right now in my career, the playoffs are more important to me than the Olympics.”

That is assuming the Games move forward as scheduled. Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the Games. So far, the International Olympic Committee is preparing to move forward with the Games this summer.

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By Joel Beall
If qualifying for the 2020 Olympics ended today, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson would be part of the four-man contingent representing the United States. Judging by the comments of the American stars on Tuesday, neither sounds thrilled at the prospect.

Speaking at the European Tour’s Saudi International, both Koepka and Johnson downplayed the importance of the golf competition in the Summer Games, which returned after a 112-year absence in 2016.

For Koepka, the weight of the majors far outweighs the enticement of a golf medal.

“Because it’s so new, I don’t, no,” Koepka said. “I think it’s an incredible honour for most athletes that are running 100 meters, gymnastics, anything like that, they wait four years for that. But we have four majors a year. For track, you’ve got indoors and outdoor championships and different things like that, but the Olympics is their big event and it only comes around every four years.”

The world No. 1 even suggested—due to his sport’s hectic summer schedule—he wasn’t sure he would play in the games, held in Tokyo.

“In golf, we’ve got four majors every year, and now we’re going to add the Olympics and you’ve got the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup, plus the FedExCup for us, and that’s a lot of weeks travelling back and forth, a lot of time zones,” Koepka said. “To me, the four majors are definitely more important, and the FedExCup, too, is a goal of mine. We’ll see where everything else falls.”

Johnson was more direct about his noncommittal.

“Schedule is always a big part of your season. You sit down at the beginning of the year just to kind of see, what events fall where,” Johnson said. “Representing the United States in the Olympics is something that I definitely would be proud to do, but is it going to fit in the schedule properly? I’m not really sure about that.

“There are so many events that are right there and leading up to it. So, you know, I’m still working with my team to figure out what’s the best thing for me to do.”

Many of the game’s stars skipped the 2016 games in Rio, citing safety and health concerns, but Johnson and Koepka are the first big names to publicly state a lack of enthusiasm for 2020. For their parts, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have voiced ambitions for the Tokyo Games.

Along with Koepka and Johnson, the U.S. team would be rounded out by Woods and Justin Thomas. The International Golf Federation will utilize the Official World Golf Rankings to create the Olympic Golf Rankings as a method of determining eligibility. The top-15 players will be eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country. Beyond the top 15, players will be eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top 15. The qualification period to earn points runs from July 1, 2018, to June 22, 2020 (the U.S. Open).

Golf remains a trial sport in the Summer Games, with a guaranteed spot in 2020 and a likely appearance in 2024, but the International Olympic Committee has not committed further. The men’s competition begins on July 30 at Japan’s Kasumigaseki Country Club. Justin Rose is the defending gold medalist.

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But a visit to the $19m facility last week left the critically-acclaimed U.S. designer hopeful the links-style layout may yet be saved.

A payment dispute between the Brazilian Golf Confederation and the course’s contracted maintenance company, Progolf, has seen the layout left to nature for nearly a fortnight. That has accelerated fears it may be closed or at least become a scruffy white elephant given the limited green fee uptake from locals in the aftermath of the XXXI Olympiad.

“Currently, the situation as to the management and the operation of the golf course, I’m assured we are going to hear some good news in the next week to two weeks,” said Hanse during a site visit to Trump International Golf Club Dubai earlier this week, a project that is the complete antithesis of the Rio course.

“I hope it is true but I feel it is very much like what we went through in the construction. You know, this sort of brinksmanship seems to be part of that golf course. You almost have to hit the low before we can rebound and come back up.”

Hanse’s muted enthusiasm is understandable with the Olympic course, built on what had been a nature reserve next to the beach in western Rio, mired in controversy from the outset.

Now, in addition to the Brazilian Golf Confederation-Progolf standoff, a state court has frozen the assets of Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes following a request by public prosecutors probing whether he improperly waived an environmental fee for a company that built the golf course.

“That project has had more ups and downs than anything I’ve been involved with,” Hanse said.

“Through the construction, there were certainly lots of ebbs and flows to that, and then the two weeks of [the Olympics]…I almost, I can’t believe how well it went.

“It was just in perfect condition, the superintendent did a super job presenting it , the weather cooperated, the players cooperated, put on great shows. I think our thought process of having some closing holes where things could happen proved to add to the competition.

“Obviously it was a great two weeks for us but I think it was better two weeks for golf and I think we needed that. There were a lot of negatives in the build-up to the Olympics, for it to finish in the way it did and for it to go out on that high note, I think that was great for everybody involved.”

Hanse walked the course during his visit last week and said the deterioration due to the lack of maintenance could quickly be reversed.

“They had stopped mowing the golf course but they were still irrigating it. While I was there, they came out and mowed the greens and my understanding was the maintenance crew were back on as of [December 14]. So it was basically a 10-day window where the course was not taken care of to the standard you’d like to see it,” he said.

“But while we were there walking around taking a look, there was really no damage done to it over that 10-day period of time.”

Still, it must have been hard to see a creation you’ve poured so much effort into looking so unloved?

“You know, I’m so fortunate being able to work in this field, to do something you love and then when you see something like that happen, especially after how exciting, how the world just seemed to enjoy watching those guys and girls play on that golf course, to see all of the sudden the news come out, it’s so disheartening.

“Its probably the most disappointed I’ve ever been.”

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At 46th on the money list heading into the week, Haddioui tees it up in her fifth Omega Dubai Ladies Masters today comfortable in the knowledge her Ladies European Tour (LET) status is safe for next season.

With the pay cheque pressure off thanks to her career best LET season, the 28-year-old Casablanca-based professional can now dream of capping 2016 with a top-10 finish at Emirates Golf Club.

Haddioui’s T14 finish at the inaugural Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open in Abu Dhabi last month hints at game good enough to achieve that, especially now she realises on course angst and good scoring are mutually exclusive.

“I used to be quite demanding on myself but that’s not the case any more. I have learned to accept things as they come,” Haddioui said.

That has included accepting her Olympic bow didn’t quite go to plan, her dream selection for Rio soured when she finished 59th and last following rounds of 82-76-80-77.

“It was absolutely amazing to represent Morocco and being part of the African contingent at the Olympic Games. But it was really tough for me as I didn’t play good golf,” said the US-educated pro who is supported by Trophée Hassan II Association.

“I think I set up an objective that was too high and I kind of just stuck to it the whole time, but I learned so much from it.

“It’s hard enough to play golf when you are trying to make a living and trying to keep your tour card. And then playing to represent your country, having like not only golfers in Morocco watch you, but every Moroccan watch you, it something bigger. The whole experience is going to help me.”

The nine-under-par performance at the Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open at Saadiyat Beach showcased the Arab No.1’s new inner calmness, something she intends repeating around the Majlis this week regardless of what happens.

“I have my objective in the back of my head. I just need to play golf and try and make good shots. If it works out, great. If it doesn’t, I have tried by my best, given every shot 100 per cent.”

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The 40-year-old Swede sat down after hosting a golf day for watch sponsor Audemars Piguet at The Els Club, Dubai, little more than 24 hours after clinching his second European Tour Player-of-the-Year title courtesy of a T9 finish at the DP World Tour Championship at nearby Jumeirah Golf Estates.

Stenson touched on subjects as diverse as his love for Game of Thrones and football matches with his children, and reveals Englishman Justin Rose as his best buddy on tour “despite him beating me at the Olympics”.

The Rio Games silver medallist goes on to share fitness and course management tips with outgoing editor Robbie Greenfield and discusses his burgeoning course design business during the in-depth interview.

Discussion inevitably turned to the 145^th Open Championship and the world No.4’s “extraordinary” Sunday afternoon duel with Phil Mickelson at Royal Troon. Stenson describes it as a “boyhood dream come true” and credits Lefty for spurring him on to his historic 10-birdie final round 63.

“Pretty much you have to be two to Tango, right, so without Phil to push me to the edge I don’t think I would have played as well as I did… so he certainly has his part in it,” Stenson said of Mickelson’s brilliant closing 65 and their battle which Jack Nicklaus and eventual winner Tom Watson have since conceded out shone their epic Duel in the Sun at Turnberry in 1977.

SEE ALSO:
Stenson a showman to the end

“It’s a very humbling experience to be mentioned in reference with the Duel in the Sun from the 70s and to be receiving messages from those players that they thought it was an even better match this time around.

“I’ve seen the full coverage from that Sunday and it’s pretty pleasing I have to say. It was an extraordinary day. Managed to break some records that have been there for a while. You never know, they might be washed away next year but they might stand for the next 30 years as well so there was certainly some added bonus to not just winning The Open, which was great in itself, but to set those records…”

Stenson again paid tribute to his great, late mate Mike Gerbich, the Emirates Golf Club stalwart who sadly passed away the week of The Open after losing his battle with cancer.

“Someone put a message up ‘Go win The Open for Mike’ and I was like, yeah, I’m going to try my hardest,” Stenson recalls.

“You know, it might have been the one thing that made a little bit of difference there. When you play for someone else you play with a purpose and I’m sure that helped me. If there is divine intervention that was certainly one of those cases.” – Stenson on his late mate Mike Gerbich

“We always kept in contact and he was always very encouraging and he was always there whether you were shooting 75s and missing cuts, or shooting 65s and winning tournaments. He was always there with a text or a message, just a great supporter and a great friend. He is missed but at the same time you want to remember him for all the great things he did and for such a great person he was. He’s still there with us in spirit.”

In his final question, Stenson was asked to finish the sentence: “Henrik Stenson in 2017 will…”

The reply was as you’d expect. But Stenson admitted his hopes of adding a second major championship to his glittering CV is now much easier said than done given the way his life became even crazier after his record-shattering triumph at Royal Troon.

“Yeah, it’s a bit more busy, a [few] more things to do but at the same time I think I’ve been progressing over the years in managing my time, and managing my calendar and becoming better at saying no,” he said.

“[There’s] only so much time in a day and it’s easy to be going away from what’s your core business and that’s still practicing and competing and playing good golf. “

Stenson admitted on Sunday that he never imagined topping his “Double-double” in 2013 when he become the first player to win the FedEx Cup and Race to Dubai as well as both season ending Tour Championships. But the past year has proven there’s every chance of more magic to come from the Iceman, as tough as it will be for the Swede to topple a brilliant 2016.

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