Expectations high for Canadians
Good friends Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes have been living their childhood dreams on the PGA Tour for years. Now as members of Team Canada, they are chasing an Olympic dream that didn't even exist for most of their lives.
Conners and Hughes will make up Canada's men's golf team at Kasumigaseki Country Club, about a 45 km drive north-west from Tokyo. This is just the second Olympic golf tournament after the sport took a 112-year break from the world's biggest sports event.
With the Olympic tournament taking place just two weeks after the Open Championship in England, and just ahead of a World Golf Championship event, as well as August's PGA Tour playoffs, several high-profile players chose to skip the event, including American star Dustin Johnson and Australian Adam Scott.
That thought never crossed the mind of either Conners or Hughes.
“Ever since golf was re-introduced into the Olympics it's been a big goal and something I've tried to work towards,” Conners, 29, said. “I've always been 100 per cent in. To call yourself an Olympian is a pretty special honour and I'm really proud to represent team Canada. It was never really a question of whether I would go, I was just trying to earn my spot on the team.”
It was the same story for Hughes, 30, who is excited to play under the Maple Leaf flag.
“I thought of it as a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Hughes said. “I'd like to think in four years I'll have a chance again, but you never know, and I want to be a part of it. ... As a kid I remember watching the Olympics all the time and it was such a cool thing to watch Canadian athletes trying to win a gold medal and I remember being proud and patriotic, whenever they won a medal it felt like we did.”
The Olympics will be new to Conners and Hughes but the tournament itself certainly won't be. There is no team aspect to the golf event, it is the same as players see weekto-week on the PGA Tour: Four rounds of individual stroke-play to determine medal winners. One difference is that there is no 36-hole cut and the field consists of just 60 players, less than half the number at most tour events.
Countries are allowed to send a maximum of two players, unless the golfers are in the top-15
in the world in which case four players are eligible. The only country able to take advantage of that is the powerhouse American team which consists of Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Reed. Reed was a late add for the Americans after Bryson Dechambeau tested positive for COVID-19 and couldn't make the trip. That still leaves no room for stars including Brooks Koepka and Patrick Cantlay.
World No. 1 Jon Rahm will also be missing from Team Spain after somehow testing positive again just seven weeks after testing positive at Memorial with a six-stroke lead.
Many eyes will be on South Korean PGA Tour stars Sungjae Im, 23, and Si-woo Kim, 26. No player in the field will be under as much pressure as Im and Kim because a medal at the Olympics will exempt them from two-years of mandatory military service. Both golfers skipped the Open Championship to prepare for Tokyo.
As a limited-field event missing some of the game's most prominent champions, a great opportunity exists for Conners and Hughes to bring home a medal.
“Leave it all out on the golf course in Tokyo, I'm excited,” Hughes said of his chances. “Just thinking about myself, I do think I have a strong chance, and I'll go over there believing that I have a chance to win.”
Both Canadian men head to Tokyo with their games in fine form. Hughes finished tied for sixth at the season's final major at Royal St George's and Conners finished tied for 15th. The quick turnaround and the distance between the events won't be easy, but travelling the world to play is nothing new to either player.
“I'll go home this week and be a full-time dad for a few days, and then I'll get a few days of prep in before I head to Tokyo,” Hughes said before he left England. “Try and get as much sleep as I can the next two or three days and try and catch up. ... Start thinking about Tokyo soon, get myself ready for that, and in the right frame of mind to go win a medal.”
For the Ontario-born pair who first met as pre-teens at Conner's home club in Listowel, the Olympics is another step in a very unlikely journey.
“Playing with my good friend Mac, who has had a nice week as well,” Conners said after his final round at the Open. “I think we're both going to be pretty excited, and it will be fun in Tokyo.”
The men's golf tournament runs Thursday to Sunday.