OS äger
Det är svårt att greppa vad golfs återkomst till de Olympiska spelen inneburit. Men några korta klipp som passerat mina ögon de senaste dagarna är:
- Ovan finns film från när Inbee Park kom hem med guldet till Korea och möttes av familj, fans och media.
- Shanshan Feng kom hem med en bronsmedalj till en flygplats fylld av media och fans.
- 400.000 googlade indiskan Adit Ashoks namn efter hennes 68 slag vid den andra ronden. Det i ett land med ca 75.000 golfare. 400.000 är mer än de som googlade "Rio Olympics".
- Henrik Stensons puttcoach bad Henrik att ta med medaljen till The Barclays för att han skulle få se silvermedaljen.
- Justin Rose pratade länge om OS vid hans presskonferens inför The Barclays. Bland annat sa han att OS hade den största TV-publiken för golf i UK någonsin. Nedan finns ett urdrag av transcripts från Justins presskonferens.
Q. In your opening statement, you mentioned that the Olympic medal, I think you used the word, has a different feel to it than some of your other wins and the reactions have been different. In what way, are they different?
JUSTIN ROSE: Well, I think the Olympic Gold Medal has reached a much wider audience. I feel the attention that it receives has been huge outside of the game of golf. I think that it sort of resonated with a lot more people. I believe that it was the biggest TV audience golf has ever had in the U.K. I know that the ratings were pretty good over here, as well.
I think that it's captured the imagination of people who don't play golf because it's an Olympic sport. I think I watch sports that I wouldn't ordinarily watch because they are Olympic sports, and so that's going to be the same for golf. People are going to watch golf that don't ordinarily watch golf because it's an Olympic sport, which can only be good for our game.
I think that was one of the reasons why we were all excited in the hopes that it could attract some growth and some more eyes on our sport, and I think that that's been the case; and I think the fact that it came down to an exciting show down with myself and Henrik, in a very relatable way, where it came down to a couple chips and putts on the last hole. No matter how much you know golf or don't know golf, you can kind of relate to that final hole sort of situation.
So from that point of view, I was very fortunate to be a part of it and it went in my favor. But I think it was a good first showcase for golf. Just the whole atmosphere around the golf in Rio was very positive. The crowd on the Sunday were amazing. People want to say, is it like a major championship or is it like a Ryder Cup.
You have to say it's somewhere in between the two, because it was very patriotic. You had Union Jack flags flying. You had a huge Swedish contingent out there cheering on their man. So from that point of view, yeah, it felt very different from a normal tournament. Pressure is always self-inflicted, and it meant a lot to me. And so therefore, I was kind of feeling it from that point of view, as much as you would certainly in a major.
It was just a unique tournament. That's why I can't compare it to anything else. For me it's right up there with anything I've achieved in the game of golf. But kind of it lives in a different world. If you want to kind of -- I kind of see it at the top. If this is the major, this is the Gold Medal but all of my golf achievements sit in this column, whereas this is something pretty unique and by itself.
