Thursday 7 April 2016 12:58, UK
The winners of the Olympic golf tournament in Rio will be granted an exemption into all of the major championships in 2017, it has been announced.
All four major tournament chiefs gathered at Augusta National to confirm the added incentive to compete in Brazil this summer, demonstrating their "total and unanimous support for Olympic golf".
While the men's champion in Rio will be exempt for all four of the following year's majors, the women's exemption will start at the 2016 Evian Championship shortly after the Olympics and continue through to the Women's British Open in 2017.
Augusta National chairman Billy Payne, who headed the organising committee at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, said: "We thought it would be important and timely to come together in a total and unanimous support for Olympic golf.
"We believe our game's visibility will be dramatically elevated by the global platform that only the Olympics offer. New audiences from all over the world, some for the very first time ever, will be exposed to our great sport and come to know and appreciate the amazing athletes and heroes in golf."
R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers added: "All of us at the R&A are looking forward to seeing our great players join the finest athletes in the world, and it undoubtedly provides an unparalleled opportunity to grow golf globally."
The likes of Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Jason Day are already exempt from the 2017 majors, but PGA of America chief executive Pete Bevacqua believes it is a huge opportunity for the lower-ranked players in the 60-strong field at the Olympics.
"From our perspective, whether it's someone that is in the top rankings of the world or someone who is that Cinderella story, in both ways it's a positive. It's a positive for golf, it's a great story for golf and it's certainly a positive for the PGA Championship, regardless of who comes out of that field."
USGA chief executive Mike Davis added: "I think it's exciting that all the nine majors have come together to support the Olympics. I think we all realise what Olympics can do in growing the game worldwide, and for that, I think this was exciting news."
Davis also announced that the Olympic silver and bronze medalists would qualify for the first of two qualifying stages for the 2017 US Opens.
He said: "I think that the way I would probably put it, if you're runner-up this week in the Masters, you're runner-up in The Open Championship, you're runner-up in the PGA Championship, that does not get you into the US Open championship. I think that a win is a win and that's how we do it."
