Dustin Johnson (USA) tees off the 10th tee during Saturday’s rain delayed Round 2 of the 2017 Genesis Open held at The Riviera Country Club, Los Angeles, California, USA. 18th February 2017. Picture: Eoin Clarke | Golffile All photos usage must carry mandatory copyright credit (© Golffile | Eoin Clarke)
V Krishnaswamy
Different times, different decisions. Dustin Johnson, who was emphatic about not making the trip to Tokyo for the Olympics in 2020, might do just that, if he makes the team in 2021 since the Games have been pushed back by a year.
Back in March, just before Covid-19 changed our lives and decisions, Johnson was sure that he was not going to Tokyo and would instead focus on the FedExCup play-offs.
Now that the Games have been put off for a year, he is having a re-think. At Hilton Head, where he is playing this week at the RBC Heritage, Johnson, when asked if he was going to reconsider since the schedules would be different, confirmed he was indeed thinking differently.
“Yeah, absolutely. Obviously, I’ve always been a fan of the Olympics. Never really thought golf would be in it. Obviously, it’s been in it now — this will be the second time in a long time. So it’s something that, yeah, I’ll definitely have to consider.”
Earlier in 2020, he ruled out Tokyo because of the FedEx Cup Playoffs that would have started two weeks after the Olympic tournament in August.
As things stand, US can send four golfers, as long as they are in Top-15 of the OWGR on the cut-off date. While the world’s top two spots are occupied by Europeans, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm, the next four are Americans, with Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed in that order.
Tiger Woods at World No. 13 is only the ninth best as American occupy nine of the Top-15 places in world rankings.
Johnson, who won the 2016 U.S. Open winner and was world No. 1 in 2017 and 2018, would have also made the Rio Olympics but withdrew a month before the Games, citing Zika virus concerns as did many other golfers.
