Olympic golf is going to take some getting used to

When are they playing?

The men Aug. 11-14; the women Aug. 18-21.

Where are the playing?

The new Olympic course, handed over to organizers last November amid protests from environmentalists and government watchdogs, is the product of U.S. designer Gil Hanse. It is a 7,350-yard, par 71 course, built between a polluted lagoon and luxury high rise apartments in western Rio de Janeiro. Privately financed, it is a treeless, linksy-looking course that features two artificial lakes.

What are the qualifying standards?

Sixty players will qualify for both the men and women. World rankings — as of July 11 — will be used to determine the competitors. The top 15-ranked players will be eligible, with a maximum of four from any country. Beyond the top 15, those with the highest world ranking from each country that does not already have two or more among the top 15 will be eligible. A maximum of two players per country from this pool.

Who’s going to play for the U.S.A.?

Currently, the U.S. has five men players ranked in the top 15 in the world. The first four who would qualify if the Olympics were tomorrow are Jordan Spieth (1), Bubba Watson (4), Rickie Fowler (5) and Dustin Johnson (9). Just on the outside looking in would be the 10-ranked Patrick Reed.

But the rankings are reconfigured weekly.

In all, half of the world’s top 20 consists of American players. The others are Zach Johnson (15), Jim Furyk (16), Brandt Snedeker (17), Phil Mickelson (19, and Brooks Koepka (20).

On the women’s side, the U.S. has three players in the top 15 — Lexi Thompson (3), Stacey Lewis (4) and Cristie Kerr (14). Brittany Lincicome (18) is the only other American in the top 20.

When Adam Scott thinks Olympians, he, like many of his countrymen, thinks Australian crawl. His Olympians wore Speedos, not a look that anyone would favor around the Augusta National champions’ locker room.

And it’s not just swimming that Scott references. It’s distance swimming, the 1,500-meter variety that is the aquatic version of watching bread rise. Nevertheless, Scott was a big Kieren Perkins man (medalist in 1992, ’96 and 2000), he said, as well as a fan of his successor, Grant Hackett.

“I never dreamed of being an Olympic athlete because at about 12, I wanted to be a golfer and that was never in the Olympics,” said Scott, who went on to become one of the best golfers in the world.

That perception is changing in 2016, when 60 men and 60 women professionals samba down to Brazil for the first Olympic golf competition since Canadian George Lyon won gold in St. Louis in 1904.

Upon being called to the podium 112 years ago, the spry 46-year-old Lyon walked part of the way there on his hands. Who says golfers aren’t athletes?

Highly doubtful that there’ll be any similar display by whoever emerges golden from the 72-hole stroke play competition this summer. Some, like Scott, aren’t exactly doing hand-stands now, either, over the prospect of squeezing in another big event following the four majors and preceding the PGA Tour FedEx Cup playoffs. Top Americans and Europeans also have the high-stress Ryder Cup at the end of September.

It’s open to speculation just how much more seriously the modern player — whose dreams all have been nurtured by the majors and any number of PGA Tour stops — might take Olympic golf.

For Scott, currently the sixth-ranked player in the world and qualified to compete for Australia, the Olympics are no big deal at all. And he’s not afraid to say so.

“I haven’t put it as a very high priority event for me,” he said at last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. “It’s just another event. And my focus has always been to try to win major championships and other events.”

Others, like the top-ranked Jordan Spieth, have done the polite thing and shown much enthusiasm for the Games, promising to regard it as a fifth major.

On the women’s side, the Olympic exposure is seen as a way to add to its fan base, the constant quest.

In an interview with the Golf Channel, LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan said he originally doubted the Olympic impact for an individualistic sport like his, which already draws players from around the world.

“What I realized almost immediately as I started traveling the world,” he said, “is how many countries invest in sports that put their country on a podium.

“I look at this and say there’s an opportunity for more people to watch women’s golf than we’ll ever get week in and week out. It’s an opportunity to engage fans and say don’t leave us now (as other Olympic sports that seem to vanish as soon as the flame is extinguished).”

Billy Payne tried to get golf back onto the Atlanta program in 1996, to be played at Augusta National, but the politics of the club’s exclusionary past got in the way. It took another 20 years to ease through the thickets of IOC bureaucracy before Brazil was charged with building a new golf course along with all the other traditional venues.

Questions about the format — stroke play over match play, no team component — and the qualifications — which will omit many of the world’s best players — have tagged along for every step of the process.

Other more metaphysical concerns continue to weigh on Olympic golf. For nearly all the other athletes at the Games, they have one shot at their greatest glory every four years. Everything they do is pointed toward that single moment.

But with the Masters, the year’s first golf major, just a little more than a week away, players scarcely can be expected to be gearing up for August in Rio.

Charl Schwartzel, the 2011 Masters champion, was unequivocal in his ranking of relative importance (Schwartzel currently is just outside qualifying for South Africa, but that could change this summer).

“I don’t think the Olympics is anywhere on my radar,” he said. “I don’t see it as a very important tournament. I’ve always seen the Olympics as Usain Bolt running the 100 meters or the guys who swim.

“I’ve never really seen golf (as a part of it). I’m not knocking it. It would be amazing to have an Olympic gold medal, but I’d much rather win another Masters.”

There’s the difficult proposition that has been put to many players since the announcement of golf’s return to the Olympics. It’s inclusion seems something worth celebrating, but how important is it, really? Given the choice, would they rather win a medal or a major?

“That (question) might be like juggling chainsaws,” Sweeden’s Henrik Stenson said with a smile. “I didn’t really have those kind of ambitions when I was growing up to be an Olympian. All of a sudden that kind of kicked into gear in the last couple of years. I think that would be a nice one.”

No question about winning silver or bronze, though. “We get a nice check for second or third, but at least at the Games you get something more sustainable from finishing on the podium,” Stenson said.

Spieth and two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson have both taken the diplomatic approach, equating an Olympic gold with a major championship.

And, as Watson has pointed out, unlike the Masters green jacket, which is returned to Augusta National after a year, an Olympic medal would be his to hold forever.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy has taken the more traditional approach. Speaking in advance of an event in the United Arab Emirates, McIlroy said, “I think a major championship is the pinnacle of our sport. I think I’ll be remembered for my major championships.

“I never dreamed of competing in the Olympics or winning an Olympic medal. So in my mind, a major will always be more important.”

Golfers as Olympians remains an unfocused image, apparently both to players and viewers. Spieth, who was measured for his official U.S. Olympic wear earlier this month in Miami, suggested it may be decades before we really appreciate where the quadrennial fits in the bigger golfing picture. In the meantime, there is an event in Augusta drawing near that never seems to require validation.