Dick Pound, a veteran member of the International Olympic Committee, told USA TODAY Sports on Monday that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are going to be postponed, probably until 2021, because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Golf was played in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro for the first time since the 2004 Games in St. Louis and is scheduled to be played again in the Tokyo Games.
“On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” Pound, who is from Canada, said in a phone interview. “The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.
“It will come in stages. We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”
On Sunday, IOC President Thomas Bach said he was going to take four weeks to decide the fate of the Tokyo Olympics, which are scheduled to begin July 24. Bach said the Games will not be cancelled, but there have been calls to postpone the Games until 2021.
Canada and Australia have said they will not send any athletes to the Olympics if they are contested this year, and several other countries also have threatened to stay home.
Pound said the details of the postponement will be worked out in the next four weeks.
The men’s Olympic golf tournament was slated for July 30-Aug. 2 at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe City, about an hour from Tokyo, while the women were scheduled for Aug. 5-8 on the same course.
Whenever the Olympics are played, each field will include 60 golfers. The top 15 players in the Olympic Golf Rankings (basically the Official World Golf Ranking) would be eligible, with a maximum of four players per country.
There is a maximum of two players for each country that does not have two or more players ranked in the top 15. Japan, as the host country, is guaranteed two players in the field.
As of the current rankings, Team USA would be the only nation with four players based on the rankings. Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed would be eligible, but Johnson has said he wouldn’t play, so Patrick Cantlay would replace him.
Behind them in the top 15 of the rankings are Webb Simpson, Tiger Woods, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau.
Top-ranked Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, the defending British Open champion, would represent Ireland.
Nelly Korda, Danielle Kang and Lexi Thompson would be the women playing for Team USA, while Jessica Korda and Lizette Salas are just outside the top 15.
In Rio, Justin Rose of England captured the Gold Medal, Henrik Stenson of Sweden claimed the Silver and Matt Kuchar of the United States took home the Bronze.
On the women’s side, Inbee Park of South Korea won the Gold, Lydia Ko of New Zealand took the Silver and Shanshan Feng of China claimed the Bronze.
Stacy Lewis led Team USA in fourth, one stroke behind Feng.
