Today In Olympic Passes: Danny Lee Needs To Keep His Tour Card And He's Not Wrong

As Tokyo 2020/21 approaches I must say Danny Lee’s excuse for choosing to not represent New Zealand is perfectly rational: he needs to stick to PGA Tour golf if he’d like to keep his card.

I still expect the excuses to get more creative, but Lee let Golf New Zealand break the news. They probably went a tad far with the whole careful thought and much deliberation stuff, as quoted in this Reuters story:

Lee, who finished 27th at the 2016 Rio Olympics, is currently 192nd in the PGA Tour rankings and needs to finish within the top 125 by the end of August to retain his playing rights for next season.

The South Korean-born 30-year-old has missed eight cuts in 16 events and collected only two top 25 finishes this season. He finished 21st at the Valspar Championship in Florida on Sunday.

"After careful thought and much deliberation, New Zealand's Danny Lee has made the tough decision to make himself unavailable for selection for the Tokyo Olympic Games," a Golf New Zealand statement said.

Of course if the PGA Tour’s wraparound schedule didn’t have to end in late August, the Olympics might not be so inconveniently situated on player schedules.