Tiger Woods expects to miss the 2016 Olympics

Tiger Woods, termed "delusional" two weeks ago by ESPN analyst Paul Azinger for not recognizing the state of his game, apparently has no illusions about whether he’ll make the 2016 U.S. Olympic team.

"For me, I don't have to worry about the Olympics right now. So, it's not really a concern of mine right now," Woods said after posting a 3-under 68 in Thursday’s first round of the Quicken Loans National. "Some of the top players, that is probably a schedule concern. As of right now that's not the case for me."

Woods, who has said in the past how important it was for him to win a medal in golf for the U.S., is currently ranked 266th and nowhere near the top 15 in the world who would be eligible to play in Rio in 2016. From those players, only four from each nation will earn the right to play for his country, so it’s pretty safe to say the former No. 1 will not be among them.

The host of this week’s tourney shared his new reality with reporters who sought his view of the newly released 2015-2016 PGA Tour schedule that is rather chaotic, thanks to golf’s return to the summer games next August. While the calendar remains mostly the same through the U.S. Open, the latter part of the season — which includes two majors practically back to back — will wreak havoc for many tour players.

The Open Championship is set for July 14-July 17 at Royal Troon, with the PGA Championship just two weeks later, from July 28-July 31.

Other changes include moving the Quicken Loans National to the week after the U.S. Open in late June, with the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational the following week. The Travelers Championship and John Deere Classic will move to the first two weeks of August, with the latter event taking place during the Olympics.

The primary change to the FedEx Cup playoffs is that the open date will move from after the Deutsche Bank Championship to after the BMW Championship. But then there’s the Ryder Cup as well, which will take place the week after the Tour Championship in late September.

Small wonder that Woods expected some tourneys to lack some of the bigger names in golf.

"It's going to be interesting to see what players do, how they're going to pace themselves through this," he said. "We still have Ryder Cup on the backside, so it's going to be a lot of big events all in a row with very little rest. It will be interesting to see how the guys pace themselves early in the year, what weeks they might take off, whether it's in the playoffs or somewhere else and try and rest up."

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