The Zika virus is undoubtedly a concern that shouldn't be dismissed by any athlete who pauses at the thought of competing in the Olympic Games this summer in Rio de Janeiro.
For golfers, the heightened drug-testing protocols that begin on May 6 also could be a nuisance they would rather do without.
The mundane format -- 72 holes of stroke play, no team component -- might put some off.
But ultimately, it's the schedule that is causing the most angst as golf is getting closer to its Olympic return.
The mind-numbing schedule will see the top players in the world compete in four big tournaments -- including three major championships -- in a seven-week period, with that stretch followed two weeks later by the Olympic tournament in Brazil.
If you narrow it down to the five-week stretch that ends with the Olympic competition Aug. 11-14, it's a daunting run that includes three big tournaments: one in Scotland, another in New Jersey and the third in South America.
Even for golfers traveling the world in luxury, that's a bit much on top of a hectic major championship schedule that, frankly, means more to them at this point than an Olympic medal.
In the span of just over a week, three prominent golfers from various parts of the globe have sent along their regrets. First it was Fiji's Vijay Singh, then came Australia's Adam Scott and on Thursday South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen opted out.
All three were virtual locks to be part of the 60-man field, based on the Olympic qualifying criteria. Scott and Oosthuizen are ranked among the top 15 in the world.
Scott is the least surprising, having been on record for some time that he believes majors are the crowning achievement in the sport and the Olympics should be reserved for those whose sole goal is that kind of glory every four years.
He also made it known he wasn't keen on the schedule, that his focus was the majors and fitting in a trip to Rio so soon after -- and with a lot of big golf to follow -- was not ideal.
And that's where the scheduling mess is biting golf's various governing bodies, all of whom pushed for the game's inclusion in the Olympics for the first time since 1904.
They have had nearly seven years to figure this out, and, unfortunately, they failed miserably.
To be clear, their mission was never going to be easy, given the various obstacles to making it right. But again ... seven years!
In essence, the scheduling concessions made for the Olympics were minimal. The Open did not budge off its traditional date in mid-July; the PGA Tour helped make a mess of a situation by cramming the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational between the U.S. Open and The Open, which led to the European Tour not sanctioning the event; the PGA Championship moved two weeks earlier -- not to a more ideal spot perhaps in the fall, away from the clutter, but just two weeks after The Open.
And the PGA Tour couldn't even see fit to leave its schedule open opposite the Olympic tournament, as many figured would be the case when it was announced in 2009 that no major golf events would be staged during the Games. A lower-level PGA Tour player who competes in the Olympics would miss out on the John Deere Classic and have a long way to travel to get to the Wyndham Championship the following week. Those are the last two events in which a player can earn his way toward a PGA Tour card for the 2016-17 season.
The easy fix here would have been for the PGA of America to move the PGA Championship from its early August date to the fall -- although there is the issue of the Ryder Cup this year.
But the PGA of America had already committed to Baltusrol Country Club outside New York City before the Olympic announcement. This is the PGA's centennial, and the organization was determined to celebrate at a club near where the organization was founded in 1916.
And it didn't want to go later; it wanted to go earlier.
"We actually feel really good about it," PGA of America CEO Pete Bevacqua said when the date change was announced. "We think an end of July date in that part of the country and the major metropolitan area just outside of New York makes a lot of sense.
"Less people are on vacation, more people are in tow, and we think it will work out as a real benefit to the 2016 PGA Championship."
Just not much of a benefit to the players.
Again, to be fair, the PGA Championship is the only major that was inconvenienced by a move (it is the first time the tournament won't be played in August since 1971), and it had made plans for Baltusrol prior to the Olympic announcement.
But the game's leaders, specifically those at the PGA Tour, USGA, R&A, PGA of America and even Augusta National all lauded the benefits of golf in the Olympics.
And yet, none among them could really truly figure out the best way to make it easier on the players to participate -- despite having an abundance of time to make some tough decisions. Now three high-profile players have bowed out, and nobody would be surprised to see more follow.
Maybe it'll be a lesson for 2020 -- when the Olympics will be played in Tokyo.