Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson is more excited about the chance to be an Olympian than he is about the opportunity to win a gold medal at the Rio Olympics.
The 37-year-old American will be part of golf’s return to the Olympic lineup after a 112-year absence and he wants a chance to boost the sport’s global appeal.
“A gold medal is not really what I’m looking at, just being on the team and being part of this,” Watson said. “The reason we brought golf to the Olympics was to try to get the world involved and grow the game.
“The gold medal, or any medal, is a bonus.”
Watson, who captured green jackets in 2012 and 2014 at Augusta National, said he is going to a different Olympic sport every night as a spectator.
“I’m going to be a fan of the Olympics and I can’t wait,” Watson said.
“I’ve already bought my tickets from Monday to Saturday. I’m going to a different event every single night, and then golf gets in the way.
“Watching and meeting other athletes, that’s going to be the growing part for who I am as a
person.”
Watson will be needed to help restore some of the lustre lost from the men’s tournament when the world’s four top-ranked players withdrew.
He was the highest-ranked golfer when the 60-man Rio field was named, but Swede Henrik Stenson won the British Open to leap past him into fifth, Watson falling to sixth.
World number one Jason Day of Australia, America’s second-ranked Dustin Johnson and number three Jordan Spieth and four-time major winner Rory McIlroy all cited the Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects.
 
‘I’ve seen the worst’
Watson, who had not dreamed of the Olympics until golf was in the lineup, had no Zika fears, having adopted children Dakota and Caleb because wife Angie is unable to have children. He said security in Rio was never a worry.
“I’ve had to adopt my two kids. We can’t have kids. So that aspect is completely wiped away,” Watson said. “When it comes to security, I mean, I’ve seen the worst. I grew up in what some people wouldn’t say was a country club lifestyle, so I’m not worried about that.
“No matter what I finish, I don’t care if I finish dead last. At the end of my career I get to say I played in the Olympics.”
Watson joked he was fine as long as his business manager was with him.
“I’m not worried about the security part. I’ve got my manager that’s going to be right by my side, so as long as I can outrun him, we’re good.”
Watson will miss the opening ceremonies so he can defend his title at the PGA Travelers Championship from August 4-7 in Connecticut. He flies to Rio on the following Monday and practices on the new Olympic course for two days before the tournament begins.
“It was a no-brainer. It was never coming off the schedule no matter what happened,” Watson said. “From the golf side of it, preparation for the Olympics, I don’t know what the preparation is going to be down there because it’s a new venue that just was built, so for practice and to knock rust off or whatever it is, I want to try and defend my title and then fly to the Olympics.
Watson has played for US teams at three Ryder Cups and two Presidents Cups but he sees this is a deeper way to represented his homeland.
“It’s my one chance to be a part of the United States and have the flag around me and have me be somewhat associated with the United States flag. So it’s my one chance to show support.”

FIVE FACTS ABOUT RIO OLYMPIC GOLF
1. Zika virus fears decimated the men’s field as more than 20 golfers who could have come to Rio withdrew, including world number one Jason Day of Australia, second-ranked US Open champion Dustin Johnson, third-ranked Jordan Spieth and number four Rory McIlroy.
Sweden’s fifth-ranked Henrik Stenson, the British Open winner, is the highest-rated player in the 60-man Rio lineup with number six Bubba Watson, seventh-ranked fellow American Rickie Fowler, England’s ninth-ranked Danny Willett and 11th-ranked Justin Rose and Spain’s number 10 Sergio Garcia set to play in Brazil.
On the women’s side, most top players are in the field as New Zealand’s top-ranked Lydia Ko, second-ranked Canadian teen Brooke Henderson and American Lexi Thompson leading the way. South Korea boasts six players in the top 12 and four of them give their nation the largest women’s contingent in the Games.
 
2. Canada’s George Lyon, born in 1858, won the 1904 St. Louis Olympic men’s golf tournament even though he did not start playing the game until he was 38. He defeated Chandler Egan 3 and 2 in the final after being the only non-US golfer to qualify for the 32-player match play championship event. In his youth, Lyon played cricket for Canada before becoming an eight-time Canadian amateur golf champion. He was the 1906 US Amateur runner-up. Lyon went to London in 1908 to defend Olympic gold but English and Scottish representatives could not agree upon a format and the event was cancelled. Lyon died in 1938 at age 79. Now, 112 years after Lyon won gold, golf returns to the Olympic lineup at Rio.

3. The Rio Olympics golf will be a 72-hole stroke-play format for men and women staged at a new venue built within the Marapendi Natural Reserve in Rio’s Barra da Tijuca area. The Gil Hanse-designed course is a par-71 layout that plays 7,128 yards for men and 6,245 yards for women. After the Olympics it will become a public course.

4. Americans have won 10 of 13 Olympic golf medals. In 1900 at Paris, American Charles Sands fired an 82 and an 85 on the same day for a 167 to edge Britain’s Walter Rutherford by a stroke for the first men’s Olympic gold. David Robertson, like Rutherford a Scotsman, was third in a field of 12 on 175. Sands also tasted Olympic defeat in France, losing in the first round of tennis men’s singles and doubles and mixed doubles. Americans swept the 1904 St. Louis men’s team medals because only three US teams took part and took silver and two bronzes in individual competition.
 
5. Margaret Abbott, the first US woman to win any Olympic event, captured the only women’s golf title so far with a 47 over nine holes to lead a US podium sweep at the 1900 Olympics in Paris. She received a porcelain bowl for the victory. Her mother, Mary Abbott, shared seventh, making it the only time in Olympic history a mother and daughter competed at the same time. Margaret went to France with her mother to study music and art and took lessons from artist Edgar Degas and sculptor Auguste Rodin.