World No. 2 Justin Thomas is “ecstatic” about the possibility of competing in this year’s delayed Tokyo Olympics, as he looks to keep the momentum rolling into this week’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
The 27-year-old, who secured a first Players Championship title earlier this month, arrives at Austin Country Club in prime position to secure his spot on the American team and follow in the footsteps of Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Reed and bronze medal winner Matt Kuchar who all represented the USA in Rio 2016.
“I’m ecstatic to have the opportunity to compete in the Olympics,” said Thomas.
“I hope they happen and I hope I qualify because I think that would be one of the coolest honours that I’ve ever had. It’s something you don’t obviously get to do too often and it’s probably one of the only tournaments that I would brag about playing in or qualifying for, the fact that I would be able to play for Team USA in the Olympics.
“So I would be honoured to, and I hope I get the opportunity.”
It’s a no from DJ
Thomas’ stance on representing his country in Tokyo is the opposite of World No.1 Dustin Johnson.
The 2020 Masters champion revealed last week he would not be making the trip to Japan in search of a gold medal due to his busy schedule.
“It’s right in the middle of a big stretch of golf for me, so that was the reason I was kind of waffling on it a little bit,” Johnson said. “It’s a lot of traveling at a time where it’s important for me to feel like I’m focused playing on the PGA Tour.
“I think if there was a little more time between tournaments, especially if you weren’t trying to fly right from Tokyo to Memphis and play a WGC, yeah, I obviously definitely would have thought about it a lot more.”
The Open Championship is set to be played from July 15-18 at Royal St. George’s in England, which is 11 days before the men’s competition in the Olympics.
Four days after the men’s competition ends in Japan, the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational begins in Memphis. Then the FedEx Cup Playoffs begin two weeks after Memphis.
Thomas faces off against fellow Kuchar, defending champion Kevin Kisner and South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen in the first round of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play on Wednesday.
