GOING FOR GOLD: Will Tiger Be In The Olympics?

With the heart of the PGA TOUR season approaching rapidly, people could easily forget that some players will get the incredible opportunity to play in the Olympics this summer. One man who isn’t forgetting about the world competition is Tiger Woods.

It was only four years ago that the Olympics officially named golf an Olympic sport again and the only gold medalist of this millennium is currently Justin Rose. As of today, there are several players vying to follow in his footsteps, Tiger being one of them. Woods was still recovering from injuries and his personal issues back when in 2016 when Rose won but now he’s looking to get a crack at the 2020 games in Tokyo.

“I know some of my friends have made Olympic teams before and they said it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Woods said a few weeks ago. “I have never played for a gold medal before and certainly it would be an honor to do it, and especially at the age I’ll be, I’ll be 44 and I don’t know if I have many more chances after that.” 

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The Olympics allow for only 4 players to represent their respective nations. Those 4 players are decided based on the Official World Golf Rankings. To compete, you have to be within the top 15 in the OWGR, with the top 4 players getting the first opportunity to accept. Currently, Tiger sits in the fourth and final spot behind Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, and Xander Schauffle. Behind him, Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson are in hot pursuit.

Even if Woods can’t finish in the top 4, he’ll still have hope of being able to compete for gold this June. Several players including Koepka and DJ, have already come out to say that they wouldn’t commit to playing in Tokyo. The main reason for not participating would be because of the crazy schedule that PGA TOUR players would have to deal with. Within 6 weeks, Olympic participants would tee off at the U.S. Open, WGC-Memphis, Open Championship, and finally the Olympics. From there, they would only have two weeks to prepare for the FedEx Cup.

While it sounds like a huge commitment for some players, for Tiger, he’s won so much that I think he would have no problem taking the time to compete for gold, especially if it’s his only chance. It will be interesting to see how the rankings shake out in the next few months but I’d count on seeing Tiger in Tokyo in a few months.

Cover Image Via Twitter