Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson not fussed about 2020 Olympics
Koepka and Johnson are both planning their season around the majors, Ryder Cup and FedEx Cup...
Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson have both explained how competing in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo will unlikely be one of their goals this season.
Koepka and Johnson were speaking to the media ahead of this week's Saudi International on the European Tour, where Johnson is the defending champion.
With the strong likelihood both Koepka and Johnson will make the United States Olympic team, question marks remain as to whether either of them will elect to play given their position in the golfing schedule from July 30 to August 2 - just two weeks before the FedEx Cup Playoffs begin at The Northern Trust.
In the eyes of the big-hitting American duo, their season will revolve around giving themselves the best possible chances of winning each of golf's four majors - The Masters, US PGA, The Open, US Open - as well taking home the lucrative, season-long FedEx Cup and qualifying for the US Ryder Cup team at the end of September.
"Because it's so new, I don't, no," said four-time major winner Koepka, when asked by the press as to whether he sees an Olympic gold medal as more important than a major title.
"I think it's an incredible honour for most athletes that are running 100 metres, gymnastics, anything like that, they wait four years for that.
"But we have four majors a year. For track, you've got indoors and outdoor championships and different things like that, but the Olympics is their big event and it only comes around every four years.
"In golf, we've got four majors every year, and now we're going to add the Olympics and you've got The Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup, plus the FedExCup for us, and that's a lot of weeks travelling back and forth, a lot of time zones.
"To me, the four majors are definitely more important, and the FedExCup, too, is a goal of mine. We'll see where everything else falls."
Johnson, who had qualified for the 2016 Olympics refused to compete due to fears over the Zika Virus in Rio, was also in agreement with his good pal Koepka.
"Schedule is always a big part of your season. You sit down at the beginning of the year just to kind of see, what events fall where. But everybody is different on the amount of events they like to play in a row or how many weeks they want to have off, when they need time off.
"It's something you constantly battle every year, making a good schedule that fits you. Obviously Olympic year is more difficult just because of the way the schedule falls, and obviously it's an extra tournament that's in the season, so they moved some things around.
"Representing the United States in the Olympics is something that I definitely would be proud to do, but is it going to fit in the schedule properly? I'm not really sure about that.
"There are so many events that are right there and leading up to it. So, you know, I'm still working with my team to figure out what's the best thing for me to do."
Qualification will be based on world ranking as of 22 June 2020 (men) and 29 June 2020 (women), with a total of 60 players qualifying in each of the men's and women's events.
The top 15 players of each gender will qualify, with a limit of four golfers per country that can qualify this way. The remaining spots will go to the highest-ranked players from countries that do not already have two golfers qualified.
The IGF has guaranteed that at least one golfer from the host nation and each geographical region (Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania) will qualify.
