The Olympic Games in Tokyo have been rescheduled for 2021.
The International Olympic Committee, which postponed the Summer Games last week, announced overnight the contests in Japan will be held from July 23 to August 8 next year. This marks the first time an Olympics has been postponed; the games were suspended three times due to World War I and World War II.
“With this announcement, I am confident that, working together with the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Japanese Government and all our stakeholders, we can master this unprecedented challenge,” IOC president Thomas Bach said. “Humankind currently finds itself in a dark tunnel. These Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 can be a light at the end of this tunnel.”
For the golf world, that means another tight summer schedule. The Open Championship will be celebrating its 150th anniversary at St Andrews beginning on July 15-18, and the PGA Tour is expected to finish its FedEx Cup Playoffs at East Lake on August 29.
The International Golf Federation will utilise the Official World Golf Rankings to create the Olympic Golf Rankings as a method of determining eligibility. The top-15 players will be eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country. Beyond the top 15, players will be eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top 15.
Golf remains a trial sport in the Summer Games with a likely appearance in 2024, but the IOC has not committed further. The men’s competition will be played at Japan’s Kasumigaseki Country Club. Justin Rose and Inbee Park are the defending gold medallists.
