“I didn’t feel comfortable with 40 players to come play in the Olympics and find that they’re falling behind on the schedule,” Whan said Tuesday at the Olympic Golf Course. “Other sports take a break and say this is what we’re looking at. I didn’t want to compete with the Olympics, I wanted to put the light on the Olympics.”
And besides, Whan says, sponsors didn’t want to put their name on an event that wouldn’t be the biggest even in golf that week. That was a big concern.
But really, the biggest goes back to Whan’s original premise. He didn’t want a player – regardless of where she may fall in status – to lose ground because she played in the Olympics.
“I have a difficult time looking at somebody who is 25th on the money list and say ‘great job at the Olympics but now you’re 29th on the money list,’” Whan said. “That didn’t seem like it was going to play for us.”