KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Lee Westwood has withdrawn his name from consideration for this year’s Olympic Games.
Like world No. 1 Dustin Johnson and Adam Scott, who also withdrew from this year’s Summer Games in Tokyo, Westwood confirmed his decision Tuesday at the PGA Championship while citing a hectic schedule and the crush of high-profile events around the Olympics in August.
“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.”
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Westwood is currently 21st in the world rankings, which would put him just shy of qualifying for Great Britain’s team. Currently Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick are qualified with Paul Casey (20th in the world ranking) as the first alternate.
“I think going to Japan the week before [St. Jude Invitational], 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,” he said.