OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL WINNERS TO RECEIVE MAJOR EXEMPTIONS

The winners of the gold medals on offer to male and female golfers at this summer’s Olympics are to receive exemptions into next season’s majors for their respective professional tours.

Augusta National chairman Billy Payne said the men’s gold medal winner in Rio de Janeiro, where golf will make its return to the Olympics for the first time in more than a century, would get an invitation to the 2017 Masters, while the Royal and Ancient announced it would offer similar one-year exemptions to both the men’s and women’s Open Championships. The PGA of America and United States Golf Association followed suit, with each of their two flagship events, the US PGA Championship and the US Open, respectively.

With the LPGA Tour giving the women’s gold medal winner in Rio an automatic exemption into the 2016 Evian Championship and the 2017 ANA Inspiration, all nine majors – four for men and five for women – will be supporting the initiative.

Keith Pelley, chief executive of the European Tour, said: “We are fully supportive of the return of golf to the Olympics, and it was a momentous decision for our sport and, therefore, to mark it in this fashion is entirely appropriate. We congratulate the Major championship bodies in both the men’s and women’s games on creating such an eligibility category, a move which will add further glory for those players lucky enough to win gold in Rio de Janeiro in August.”

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