Graham DeLaet will have an opportunity to represent Canada at the 2016 Olympics. Both David Hearn and Graham DeLaet are the top-ranked Canadian golfers, so were selected as Canadian representatives for male golf.
It will be a chance for DeLaet and Hearn to defend the gold medal that Canada won the last time golf was part of the Olympics, in 1904 when the gold medal was won by George S. Lyon.
The official standings, rosters and field for the golf competition at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro were released on Monday. While there have been several withdrawals from the Olympics with players citing everything from scheduling to the Zika virus, neither Hearn nor DeLaet have not waived their commitment to representing Canada at the 2016 Olympics.
“I’ve been excited about it since they announced it, and I think it’s going to be a tremendous competition,” said Hearn. “It’ll be something that people will be more excited about in the future.”
“I’m not getting any younger, and there are a lot of good players coming up,” said DeLaet. “I had to take the opportunity. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
DeLaet will not have his usual caddie Julien Trudeau on his bag that week. Instead, DeLaet will use his friend Ray Whitney, an NHL veteran who played on the Carolina Hurricanes’ 2006 Stanley Cup championship team.
DeLaet has had an up-and-down 2016 campaign in the PGA Tour. He had four top-15 finishes, and was in contention going into the final round at the Valspar Championship where he tied for fifth.
But after missing the cut at the AT&T Byron Nelson, DeLaet withdrew from the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide citing anxiety while chipping and pitching.
He was back on the PGA Tour for the Barracuda Tournament, and will be at the Barbasol Championship, which runs July 14 and 17. Then he will be in Ontario for the RBC Canadian Open, which runs July 21 to 24.
The Olympic Golf men’s tournament will begin on August 11, with the women’s competition starting on August 18.
