Ambivalence would be the word we'd use to describe how a lot of the top-ranked male golfers -- particularly the Americans -- feel about the upcoming Olympic golf tournament in August.
On Monday, Augusta National chairman Billy Payne gave extra juice to winning the Olympic golf tournament. Payne announced that the men's Olympic golf gold medal winner will be exempt into all four majors in 2017. The same will be true on the women's side, sans the Masters.
The cutoff for Olympic golf qualifying is the Open Championship at Royal Troon in July, with the PGA Championship coming early two weeks later. The field for both the men and women will be 60 players, based on the Official World Golf Ranking for the men and the Rolex Rankings for the women. The top 15 players in each ranking will be exempt, regardless of country, provided they are among the first four players from a country to qualify. After that, a country is allotted no more than two players.
The men will go first in Rio de Janeiro, playing their 72-hole stroke-play event, followed by the women playing in the same format on the Gil Hanse-designed Olympic course.
