Karrie Webb, after carrying the torch ahead of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, harbored a deep desire to play for Team Australia if golf ever made it back into the Summer Games.
Olympic wannabe Karrie Webb zings PGA Tour golfers over Zika virus in Florida
Karrie Webb dearly hoped to lead Team Australia in RIo but the 7-time major winner didn’t qualify. It must have really irked her that eligible male golfers turned down the chance to play, because the even-tempered Aussie let them have it on Twitter.
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One can only imagine how profoundly disappointing it was for the seven-time major champion, who went all out in 2016 to make the team, to come up short of achieving her goal.
“The Olympics is pretty much why I’m still playing full time, so I guess that’s a pretty big driving factor for me to be working as hard as I am,” Webb, whose T46 finish was well shy of the top-10 result she needed at last month’s U.S. Women’s Open to earn her way on to the squad, said earlier this year.
What must rankle Webb the most is the number of male golfers who opted out of Rio for a variety of reasons. The most prevalent reason cited by many of the top players was fear of contracting and transmitting the Zika virus, though many believe the illness offered a convenient excuse for some guys who did not want to squeeze the games into their already hectic schedule.
So when local mosquitoes began infecting people in Florida — the address for many American and transplanted international tour players — Webb could not resist the temptation to needle them about the irony of their decisions to eschew Brazil while they’re susceptible to the malady on their home courses.
Lotsa zika cases in Sth FL! What r the PGA guys living here going 2 do!? Should consider moving 2 colder climate ie Alaska or N Ireland?
— Karrie Webb (@Karrie_Webb) August 3, 2016
Too bad Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth or Dustin Johnson — just three of the more than 20 male golfers (and just one woman player) opting out of the games — could not have given up his spot to Webb, who will have to be content with watching her proteges (Minjee Lee and Su Oh) go for the gold for the Aussies.
Webb mentored both golfers who, in 2013, won the Karrie Webb Scholarship that the winner of 41 LPGA events established to attract young women and cultivate their interest in golf Down Under. In case anyone was wondering, that’s how you grow the game.
With Olympic eligibility based on world rankings, Webb was 59th after the Women’s Open, while Lee was 14th and Oh was 41st.
