Australian Adam Scott, the seventh-ranked golfer in the world, will not play at the first Olympic golf tournament in 112 years in Rio.
“My decision has been taken as a result of an extremely busy playing schedule around the time of the Olympics and other commitments, both personal and professional,” Scott said in a statement.
Scott has criticized Olympic golf in recent years, after it was re-added to the Olympic program in 2009 to launch in 2016.
The 2013 Masters champion said in May that golf “doesn’t need to be in the Olympics,” calling it “an exhibition.”
“People watch us [as pros] play 45 weeks a year,” Scott reportedly said in 2014. “If you really wanted to grow the game you’d have the Olympics for amateurs.”
Scott is the second Masters champion to announce he will skip the Rio Olympics, following Fiji’s Vijay Singh last week.
With Scott out, the Australian men’s team in Rio could include world No. 1 Jason Day and No. 34 Marc Leishman.
The full Olympic golf fields will be determined by the world rankings on July 11, with no more than two players per gender per country if either player is ranked outside the top 15.
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