World No.1 Johnson to skip Olympics again

It’s not like he needs the money.

So why has World No.1 Dustin Johnson decided to turn his back on this year’s Tokyo Olympics?

Dustin Johnson (Credit: WGC)

“I really didn’t think much about it. I actually didn’t really ever decide whether I was going to play or not, I just didn’t sign up,” said Johnson at the Players Championship where he finished well down the leaderboard.

“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, and I think WGC is the week right after it. The British [Open] is a couple weeks before it.”

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

While there is plenty of depth in the US ranks, it will surely be disappointing for golf’s ruling bodies, who fought so hard for so long to have golf added back into the Olympic schedule.

Of course, Johnson also missed the 2016 Rio Olympics citing the Zika virus.

“As an athlete, I can think of no greater honour than representing the United States in the Olympic Games,” said Johnson at the time. “However, after much careful consideration and discussion with both my family and my team, I have made the decision to withdraw from the 2016 Olympic Games.”

Obviously on this occasion, Johnson can think of “no greater honour” than turning up to play at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis with its $10,500,000 purse rather than represent his country as World No.1.