Dustin Johnson: World No.1 says no to Olympics

Dustin Johnson has officially withdrawn himself from consideration for this year’s COVID-delayed Olympic Games.

The world No.1 and reigning Masters champion has decided to pass on the chance of adding a gold medal to his resumé in Tokyo this summer, revealing that it doesn’t fit in his schedule.

“I really didn’t think much about it,” said Johnson. “I actually didn’t really ever decide whether I was going to play or not, I just didn’t sign up. But it’s right in the middle of a big stretch of golf for me, so that was the reason I was kind of waffling on it a little bit. It’s a long way to travel.”

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The Olympic men’s golf competition is scheduled to take place at Kasumigaseki CC from July 29 to August 1, sandwiched between the Open Championship at Royal St George’s and WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational at TPC Southwind in Memphis. The lucrative, end-of-season FedEx Cup Playoffs follow soon thereafter.

“It’s a lot of traveling at a time where it’s important for me to feel like I’m focused playing on the PGA Tour,” added Johnson.

“I think if there was a little more time, especially if you weren’t trying to fly right from Tokyo to Memphis to play WGC, yeah, I obviously definitely would have thought about it a lot more.”

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Golf returned to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 after an absence of more than a century.

Team GB’s Justin Rose won the men’s gold medal, with Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar taking home silver and bronze respectively.