IGF Finalizes Olympic Fields, Touts Younger "Gender-Neutral Audience"

Fields have been confirmed for Olympic Games golf competitions and you can see them here. On the men’s side, just 28 of the 60 players are inside the Official World Golf Ranking top 100.

The women’s field of 60 features 36 players inside the Rolex Ranking top 100.

In making the announcement, International Golf Federation president Annika Sorenstam was able to pry away from her busy American Century Championship preparations and social media whitewashing to issue a very organic quote.

“We are extremely pleased with the strength and diversity of both the men’s and women’s fields, which reflect the continued growth and popularity of golf,” said Annika Sorenstam, President of the International Golf Federation, which oversees the Olympic golf competition. “We have such wonderful storylines to share, be it Jon Rahm and Nelly Korda both winning major championships in the final week of qualifying to become the No. 1 players in the world, or the variety of lesser known but equally inspiring stories of Olympic athletes representing their respective countries.”

Sorenstam is scheduled to play the U.S. Senior Women’s Open the same week as the Olympic Men’s competition. Maybe she’ll track the storylines from the course.

If there was any doubt that Olympics is all about the money, look no further than the release touting numbers only advertisers care about.

Golf is looking to build upon the success of its return as an Olympic sport at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games after an absence of more than 100 years, when it achieved significant numbers internationally and was watched by a younger, more gender-neutral audience than that generally achieved for professional golf events. In fact, golf finished as the seventh most popular sport in Rio in terms of fan engagements around the world.

I presume gender neutral was meant to be a way of saying more women watched than normal. Maybe the IGF could just say that?