The American national and the 2nd ranked golfer in the world, Dustin Johnson is the latest player from golf to give the Rio Olympics a miss owing to concerns about the Zika virus in the Brazilian city.
The 32-year old made the announcement on Friday and joined a host of other golfers such asAworld number one Jason Day, fourth-ranked Rory McIlroy and world number eight Adam Scott in withdrawing from the Games.
“This was not an easy decision for me, but my concerns about the Zika Virus cannot be ignored,” Johnson said in a statement.
“(Fiancee) Paulina and I plan to have more children in the near future, and I feel it would be irresponsible to put myself, her or our family at risk.”
Golf returns to Olymic Games almost after a century since 1904, and it is a debacle for the sport which has seen the most amount of withdrawals.
Other golfers who have refused to participate in the Games include South Africa’sABranden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen and JapaneseAHideki Matsuyama.
Johnson was on a roll this summer having already won theAU.S. Open and WGC-Bridgestone Invitational being in sweet form this season.
Amongst four Americans including him and the likes of Jordan Speith, Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler; Johnson has become the first to withdraw while the others still remain on the fence about their decision third-ranked Jordan has said he is “uncertain” about going.
Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that the World Health Organization says is spreading rapidly in the Americas.
Qualifying for the 60-man field ends on July 11.
