Jason Day and Adam Scott could have the US Masters green jacket by the time they play at Rio Olympics

IAN Baker-Finch likes Australia’s Olympic uniform but he’d love to see his men’s golfers packing blazers in a different shade of green when they arrive in Rio.

IAN Baker-Finch quite likes Australia’s mint-striped Olympic uniform but he’d love to see both of his men’s golfers packing blazers in a different shade of green when they arrive in Rio in August.

They fit one per year at the US Masters and Baker-Finch — the Australian Olympic golf captain — likes the chances of world No.1 Jason Day to slip into his first green jacket next week in Augusta. Or perhaps it will be Scott winning a second.

“It would be awesome wouldn’t it? Both the guys are playing so well, and both are top three chances, I believe,” Baker-Finch said.

Jason Day after his PGA win last year.

“If Adam could win another, or Jason could match him and get a Green Jacket, how good would that be? How would that be if we went into Rio with a couple of Masters champions?”

The world’s eyes will turn to ... next week when the top golfers compete for the game’s most prestigious prize, but Baker-Finch will be one of a handful also looking at the Masters through an Olympic lens.

Golf makes a return to the Olympic Games for the first time in 1904, and Baker-Finch has been charged with leading Australia’s team.

The world’s top 15 ranked men and women players will automatically qualify (with a maximum of four per country), otherwise each country will get their top two players qualified in 60-person fields.

Australia have Day and Scott (world No.6) high in the rankings, and what’s more, in red hot form. Between them they’ve won four of the last six USPGA tournaments, and Day has won six of his last 13 starts: including back-to-back victories at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the World Golf Championships Match Play.

Scott, the 2013 Masters champion, had consecutive wins in Palm Beach County and the WGC event in Doral a month ago.

“It’s really exciting having Jason and Adam having the start of a lifetime, both of them, this season,” Baker-Finch said.

“Jason is back to No.1 in the world and I think he will be there for quite a while, the way he is playing. And of course Adam back up the rankings in the top six too. They would go in among the Olympic favourites I think, if that was the men’s team picked come July.”

Adam Scott in the green jacket after winning the US Masters in 2013.

Day is keen as mustard to play in the Olympics but Scott “has not said definitively, ‘yes I am playing’, at this stage”, said Baker-Finch.

“But he has definitively said he will play his arse off and bleed green and gold if he is there.

“He said to me, ‘mate, I play for Australia every week.’ That’s not the issue.”

The Olympic tournament — sadly a 72-hole singles event and not a teams format — is held after the PGA Championship in August, when many players take their annual break.

There is hope among Australian golfing officials that Scott’s 2016 season so far, and the very real potential for another major win, could give the Aussie champ enough freedom to prioritise Rio in his schedule.

“With this start to the year, I am pretty sure that’s what he wanted, so he would be able to say ‘I am able to do it’,” Baker-Finch said.

“So far, so good. I have my fingers crossed. But at the same time, you can’t count out Marc Leishman (31), Matt Jones (64), a couple of other guys who have played well this year. If they play well in the next few Majors, they might be there.”

Australia’s female representatives appear to be more straightforward, with 19-year-old star Minjee Lee and 41-year-old legend Karrie Webb the probable starters.

“I have been in touch this week and both of them are excited,” Baker-Finch said.

“I am so happy for both of them. Minjee because it is the start of many probably, she is such a star. And Karrie to have a chance, having had such a great, Hall of Fame career, to maybe win a gold medal and cap it all off. It would be so deserved.”

Originally published as Jason Day and Adam Scott could have the US Masters green jacket by the time they play at Rio Olympics