Lee Westwood has withdrawn his name from consideration for this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Westwood joins world No. 1 Dustin Johnson and Adam Scott of Australia in publicly electing against participating in the upcoming Olympic Games. The 48-year-old Englishman cited his busy schedule and a bevy of high-profile tournaments for his reasoning on Tuesday.
“I have a few family commitments, and I already proved a few weeks ago that playing seven in eight weeks is not good for me,” Westwood said. “There’s already a lot of tournaments crammed in around there, Scottish Open, Open Championship. I need a couple of weeks off between there and the (WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational).
“Then there’s only another week off and I could be playing three FedExCup events, a week off, then the Ryder Cup. I want to be in good shape for all of those. I think going to Japan the week before Memphis, just with all that going on, is a bad idea, especially when I can’t say whether I’m in it at the moment anyway.”
Westwood is currently ranked 21st in the Official World Golf Rankings. He trails countrymen Tyrrell Hatton (No. 9), Matthew Fitzpatrick (No. 17) and Paul Casey (No. 20) before the qualification period for men’s golf ends on June 21.
The top 15 players in the Olympic Golf Rankings are eligible to compete in the Games, with a maximum of four golfers per country. After the top 15, the field will grow to 60 golfers with the top two ranked players qualifying from any country that does not have two or more players from the top 15.
The Olympics golf tournament is scheduled for July 29-Aug. 1 at Kasumigaseki Country Club outside Tokyo, two weeks after The Open in England and a week before the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis.
–Field Level Media