An abundance of opportunities is never a bad thing, but at some point, it all gets to be too much. Two South Korean golfers have signaled that they are placing the Tokyo Olympics ahead of the British Open by withdrawing from the final major of the year to focus on the Games.
Neither Si Woo Kim nor Sungjae Im will tee it up at Royal St. George’s this month for the 149th British Open, with their stated reason for withdrawal being time to focus on preparing for the Olympics.
They will be replaced in the field by by Emiliano Grillo and Keegan Bradley, who are next on the reserve list. Grillo will also head to Tokyo for the Olympics to represent Argentina.
Grillo also competed in the 2016 Olympics and finished T8. Neither Kim nor Im appeared in those games in Rio de Janiero, and both missed the cut at the 2019 British Open.
On the other side of the coin, major champions Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Louis Oosthuizen and Dustin Johnson have already declined playing spots the Olympics.
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