Golf can still benefit from its return to the Olympics despite the number of high-profile withdrawals, according to one of the game's leading sponsors.
Japan's Hideki Matsuyama became the latest top male player to make himself unavailable for the Games in Rio due to the threat of the Zika virus on Sunday, joining the likes of Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Shane Lowry, Graeme McDowell, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen.
South Africa's Lee-Anne Pace is the only leading female player to pull out and Irish amateur Leona Maguire last week told RTÉ that the ‘5pc’ chance of contracting the Zika virus is "worth that risk" to represent your country at the Olympic Games.
Giles Morgan, HSBC's global head of sponsorship and events, believes the women's game is right to make the most of what the Olympics has to offer, but has lamented the withdrawal of some of the biggest names in golf in what will be an opportunity to broaden the sport’s appeal.
“While not surprised by some of the high-profile players not taking part, I feel they are missing out on an opportunity," Morgan added.
"This is a sport that needs to embrace the 21st century and look to modernise, broaden its appeal through different formats, speed of the game and television production to make it more exciting and also just to widen its appeal to more markets,” he said.
Golf will also be staged in Tokyo in 2020 but there are no guarantees beyond then that the sport, returning in Rio after an absence of 112 years, will be kept as part of the Olympic programme further down the line.
"No individual is bigger than the sport," Morgan added. "Golf will be played at the Olympics and I'm hoping in years to come this will be embraced.
"I think after this Games the authorities will want to encourage and put more pressure on the players to take part. All of the professional tours worked very hard to get golf into the Olympics and therefore it seems to me it's up to the players to support that investment and decision.
"They will probably want to have a look at the format (72-hole individual strokeplay) and the great thing about golf is there are a lot of different formats they can use. If by 2020 golf does not have support from the top players and getting the format right then they run the risk of not looking as appealing as they might.
"I think it just needs some fine tuning. I think Rio is sort of the test year and they will learn a lot from it, then they need to really examine how golf can remain in the Olympic family."
