This & That After Justin Rose's Gold Medal Win
/As the women prepare to take center stage, everyone at the Rio Olympic Golf Course is still buzzing about the men's competition.
If you're still interested in the men's side of things, here are just some of the stories that caught my eye in the aftermath of golf's return to the Games...
Golfweek.com with an excellent wrap up of the social media posts by players who teed up in Rio, starting with Justin Rose's Tweet. "Best week" would make for a relentless drinking game.
Rory texted Justin Rose a congratulations, Alistair Tait reports.
“I did get one from Rory. Absolutely. He said he was very, very proud, and said he was pulling for me. He said he could see how much it meant to me and congratulated me. He was very complimentary. Obviously, he watched.
“He made the point that he really wants golf to succeed as an Olympic sport. He has some opinions that are very personal to him, and that’s fine, but as a whole, he’s very, very much behind golf succeeding in the Olympics.”
Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune says Sunday's finish earned golf its place in the Games.
Doug Ferguson with notes, including how a two-man aggregate team competition would have ended, how Jason Day watched one hole of the Olympics and Rickie Fowler's quick departure to go accrue points in North Carolina.
Rose won the gold but dropped two spots in the FedEx Cup points standings because the PGA Tour couldn't take a week off. Shoulda played the Deere Sir Justin!
Mike Johnson with Rose's clubs that won the gold.
Jay Coffin with Rose's thoughts on how he will display the medal, possibly.
Matt Kuchar will have to pay taxes on his USOC bonus money, oh, and he fell asleep with the bronze around his neck. Alex Myers with the explanation.
Henrik Stenson could be understood for feeling less excited about silver than Kuchar is about his bronze. Sam Weinman explains at GolfDigest.com.
I really hate dwelling on the number of golf pros who lacked the vision or love of sport to make the journey here. But, we must give them their due!
Joe Posnanski lets the absentees know that they "blew it" when it came to sitting out the Olympics, an easy thing to do now. Nonetheless, some of the slaps are enjoyable.
Interesting his memo is directed at Jordan Spieth, with others CC'd:
You blew it in two ways. One of those ways has been discussed at length but it remains true – you blew it for golf. It seems that in the countless warnings and cautions and bad omens leading into these Rio Games, you forgot something basic: Just how BIG the Olympics really are. Leave it to USA Boxing coach Billy Walsh, in his glorious Irish brogue, to explain: “There were, what, 40 million people around the world watching Pacquiao-Mayweather?” he asked. “We have 3.5 BILLION people watching the Olympics. Forget everything else. This is the biggest (bleeping) show on earth.”
The biggest (bleeping) show on earth, guys, and you had a chance to be a part of it.
Strong reactions from Nick Faldo and Rich Lerner on Golf Channel's Live From.
Analyst Nick Faldo: “The gold medal is bigger than our game of golf. This was putting golf on the biggest stage in the world, the Olympic Games, where we are just part of it.”
Host Rich Lerner: “This was a fresh breeze that blew right through the sport, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. There were far too many grim press conferences with some young golfers the last couple of months and there was just an awful a lot of negativity. And I think this is about the happiest I’ve seen the sport in a long, long time.”
And I explain at GolfDigest.com what happened to Justin Rose's winning ball. You won't believe where it sat for 45 minutes, or where it's headed.
A volunteer assigned to golf finally heard from Rio2016 that she was needed. Unfortunately she was still home in Spain, having never gotten a reply.
