Top-order Dustin Johnson said on Saturday that travel issues around golf tour events have prompted him to stay out of consideration for the US team to compete in the Tokyo Olympics. “This is a time when it’s important for me to focus on the PGA Tour,” Johnson said Saturday after the third round of the US PGA Tour’s Players Championship. The reigning Masters champion said he did not play at the Tokyo Games last year, as he was planned for in 2020 as he was making the US PGA playoffs a priority and those events began two weeks after the Olympics.
The Olympics were postponed this July and Johnson won last year’s FedEx Cup Playoff crown to achieve that career goal.
But this time, Johnson does not like the July 29-August 1 Olympic tournament that is so close to the British Open, set July 15-18 at England’s Royal St. George and WGC St. Jude Invitational Memphis 5-. …
“I didn’t really think much about it,” Johnson said. “I never really decided whether I was going to play or not. I just haven’t signed up.
“But it is right in the middle of a big stretch of golf for me, so that was why I waited a little bit on it.
“It’s a long way to travel.”
Johnson qualified for the 2016 US Olympics but was eliminated in Brazil just weeks before the start due to concerns over the zika virus.
Johnson said he would have believed that there was more time between the $ 10.5 million WGC event and the Tokyo Olympics.
Four top-ranked American players will qualify for the Olympics after the US Open in June, provided all are in the top 15. This week, 11 players are among the top 15 in the world rankings.
With Johnson out, the four Americans currently qualifying are third-placed Justin Thomas, fourth-placed 2020 PGA Championship winner Coleen Morikawa, fifth-placed Gender Scaffell, and sixth-ranked Bryson DeChambu, Is the US Open champion.
Leading eighth-ranked Masters winner and 2016 US Olympian Patrick Reid, world number nine Patrick Canley, 10th-ranked Webb Simpson and four leading the chase to overtake them over the next three months to play in Tokyo. The major winner of the bar, Brooke Koipka, finished 12th. .
‘Shoot me in the foot’
Simpson said that he was unlikely to play in Tokyo on Tuesday if he would have gone ahead and qualified.
Simpson said, “There is nothing against the Olympics, but I am personally trying for a bigger win.”
“Part of it is exciting for me, but the idea of going halfway around the world for that timeframe in that part of our season is really hard for me.”
Promoted
“It is going to be hard for me to know what is here in the PGA Tour.
“I think it will really shoot me in the leg for the playoffs and the playoff is more important to me in my career than the Olympics right now.”
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