I must say I was very disappointed as a golfer to read that Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen will be missing the Rio Olympics.  It is the first Olympics, in a very long time, to include golf as a sport and really golf should not have been missing all these years.  

I appreciate that right now they probably think it is not much of an issue, but I do think when they get to the end of their careers they may well regret this.  The Olympics take place every four years, and while it is not as important as the majors, to a worldwide audience it certainly is, and these are two were our best chances at obtaining a medal.  Branden Grace is certainly a fine player at the moment, and will no doubt do well, but I would feel so much happier if one of the other two was at least joining him – Louis Oosthuizen is after all rated high up in the world ratings.  It gives a wonderful opportunity to someone like Jaco van Zyl to take part that I think it is a mistake to snub the Olympics, whatever the reasons are, and I am sad to see that.  There may be other reasons that we don’t know about, but the media certainly creates an impression that it is largely about money – you don’t win money when you take part in the Olympics, and you will have to cover your own expenses and caddies etc but you do get to represent your country and to promote the sport of golf.  Like Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Trevor Immelman they also reside, if not full-time, as the others do, on a part of the year basis in their Florida homes, so there would not have been much of a time zone change for them and they may not get the opportunity again in four years’ time, because they may not be the top ranked players in South Africa at that time.