I tried to warn you. Rory McIlroy's exit from Olympic competition later this summer was just a harbinger for what's about to come. The undercurrent of influence McIlroy wields might be discounted by some but it cannot be understated.
On Thursday, fellow Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell removed his name from consideration for the 2016 Olympics in Rio as well. Both men followed in the footsteps of Adam Scott, Marc Leishman, Louis Oosthuizen and others.
"I woke yesterday morning to the news that Rory McIlroy had withdrawn from the Irish Olympic Golf team, putting me next in line for an automatic spot on the team," said McDowell in a statement. "As many within golf will know, my wife Kristin is pregnant and is due to have our second child just a couple of weeks after the Olympic Golf competition concludes. I made the decision many months ago, before I was on the team, that I would not play or travel outside the U.S. where my family and I live, in the weeks running up to the birth."
So McDowell's reasoning is different, but the end result is the same. He won't make it to Rio. And he doesn't have to use the Zika virus as a (very legitimate) excuse.
"I don't want to be away from my family at that stage of the year," McDowell told Golf Channel. "I'm going to spend the entire month of July away from them, and I want to be here. I want to be here in Florida a couple weeks before my baby boy gets born, and unfortunately the Olympics is just not something that can happen for me."
It won't stop here either. Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler hedged pretty hard last week at the U.S. Open.
"I'm pretty confident with what we've heard from not only the PGA Tour but our personal outreach, and I think being an Olympian is just an absolute tremendous honor," said Spieth. "Do I think being an Olympian outweighs any significant health threat? No. If I thought that the threat was significant, I certainly would not go. But based on what's come to my knowledge at this point, it seems like it's going to be an extremely memorable experience and look forward to trying to win a gold for the United States."
Noted Fowler: "I'm definitely excited about the opportunity, but I think we want to make sure that we do our homework and make sure that we feel safe about going down there both on the security reason and the health reasons. Make sure that everything's taken care of. That's our main focus right now. I mean, yeah, I'd love to have the opportunity to go down there, but we don't know for sure yet."
Jason Day joined the chorus on Wednesday at PGA Championship media day.
"Family, for me, is priority number one," said Day. "I've got to make sure they're happy, then probably I'll make the decision."
We are on the verge of a full-fledged nightmare for golf's return to the Olympics.
