TROON, Scotland – Golf in the Olympics will be no bigger than a middle-of-the-road PGA Tour or European Tour event as the field was set Monday by the International Golf Federation.
The lack of strength became official when Peter Dawson, the IGF’s president, announced that American Jordan Spieth would skip the Rio Olympics along with France’s Victor Dubuisson and South Korea’s K.T. Kim.
The latest defections bring the total number of male no-shows to 17 as golf returns to the Olympics after a 112-year absence. The top four players in the Official World Golf Ranking – Australia’s Jason Day, Americans Dustin Johnson and Spieth and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, respectively – won’t play.