Fil-Aussie Jason Day to play for Australia in Paris Olympics
Jason Day AP PHOTO
BRISBANE, Australia — Eight years after turning down his first opportunity, a still-regretful Jason Day will finally make it to an Olympics as part of an Australian golf team that includes a brother-and-sister combination for the Paris Games.
Day was ranked No. 1 in 2016 when he decided not to play at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, saying he was concerned about going to Brazil while the mosquito-borne Zika virus spreading.
"The reason for my decision is my concerns about the possible transmission of the Zika virus and the potential risks that it might present to my wife's future pregnancies and to future members of our family," Day said at the time, while spurning a chance to compete in Rio.
He's sorry he made that choice.
"I think selfishly I made a decision on my schedule and how I was feeling at the time," Day said in a telephone conference Friday. "I was emotionally and physically burned out."
The Australian Olympic Committee said Min Woo Lee would join Day on the men's team and Minjee Lee and Hannah Green would make up the women's team.
The Lees are siblings and were both born in Perth, Western Australia. Minjee is 28 and Min Woo is 25. Their parents, Soonam and Clara Lee, migrated from South Korea to Australia in the early 1990s.
Minjee Lee will become the first Australian golfer to compete at three Olympics, Green returns for her second Games while Min Woo Lee will join Day in making his Olympic debut.
The four players all qualified by virtue of their International Golf Federation Olympic ranking at the end of a two-year ranking period. Green and Minjee Lee finished the period ranked seventh and 11th. Day and Min Woo are Australia's highest-ranked male golfers at 27th and 36th respectively.
Green matched Australia's best Olympic golf finish with a tie for fifth at Tokyo three years ago and has won two LPGA Tour events this year. Minjee Lee has 10 career LPGA wins.
Day has 13 career PGA Tour wins including a major — the 2015 PGA Championship. Min Woo Lee is the reigning Australian PGA champion and achieved a career-best world ranking of No. 31 in 2024. AP