Can delayed Olympics bring Tiger back into Tokyo frame?

By Rahul Banerji

The postponed Olympic Games, caused by the still-spreading Corona-virus pandemic, has given 15-time major winner Tiger Woods an unexpected window of opportunity to seek qualification for Tokyo.

Currently ranked 11^th in the world and seventh in the list of Americans behind Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Patrick Cantalay and Webb Simpson, there will be fingers crossed around the world hoping Tiger makes it into the top four.

With the Official World Golf Rankings frozen due to the worldwide cancellations of events, Tokyo Games organisers too will be hoping Woods comes back from his current layoff in shape to close the gap on those ahead.

It was only two days ago that Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, approached the International Olympic Committee seeking to put the Games off till sometime early next year.

Tough call

It would not have been an easy decision considering the investments made both by the host country, sponsors, event managers and media organisations.

Japan will therefore be hoping for maximum returns when the Games are finally held, possibly in late spring.

But everything remains up in the air at the moment with the Covic-19 threat showing no signs of receding.

At 44, Tiger knows this is his last chance to become an Olympian, something he has set his heart on. He has not had a good season so far with just three starts this, two of them in 2020 and would have lost further ground considering his problems.

Great opportunity

The break therefore, gives him space to recover and go into whatever playing time is available before the new cut-off date is decided on for the Olympic Games cut.

Tiger is losing no points, and consequently, no ground on those ahead of him, He can only hope to benefit when the season resumes.

The PGA Tour has called off nine events so far thanks to the Corona-virus pandemic and two majors have also been postponed, the Masters and the PGA Championship.

These will become opportunities for Tiger once pay resumes, provided he ovefcomes whatever has been holding him back since  winning the ZoZo Championship in Japan late last year,

All four Majors are thus available, plus a raft of other high point scoring tournaments including the Fed-Ex series. There is also the Ryder Cup later this year that was scheduled after the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Hard on his heels, though, fellow-Americans Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau may well have something to say about that as well.

Also read: Golf bodies come together for some Corona-virus do’s and don’ts