THE International Olympic Committee’s 106-member assembly will meet in Denmark this month to rubber-stamp golf’s inclusion in the program for the 2016 Olympic Games.
Golf and rugby sevens were recommended additions to the Games program by the IOC Executive Board back in August and it is expected golf will again become part of
the Olympic movement for the first time since 1908 when the assembly casts its vote
in Copenhagen.
Seven sports – baseball, golf, karate, roller sports, rugby, softball and squash – were seeking to enter the Olympic program. The secret ballot vote by the executive board followed an extensive evaluation by the Olympic Program Commission of the potential added value each of the seven sports would bring to the Games.
“Golf and rugby will be a great addition to the Olympic Games,” IOC President Jacques Rogge said.
The key factors in determining a sport’s suitability for the Olympic program include youth appeal, universality, popularity, good governance, respect for athletes and respect for the Olympic values.
“Golf and rugby scored high on all the criteria,” Rogge said. “They have global appeal, a geographically diverse line-up of top iconic athletes and an ethic that stresses fair play.”
Golf also has Tiger Woods … arguably the most recognisable sportsman in the world. No matter where the 2016 Games are held – Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid are the front-runners – Woods will become one of the corporate sideshows of the event.
By that time the World No.1 will be 40 and will undoubtedly have surpassed Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major titles. He has already said he will play in the Games “if I’m not retired by then”.
Golf’s push for inclusion in the Games was seriously helped by the pledge of its top players to compete. Whether or not Woods and Lorena Ochoa are the game’s best in seven years’ time remains to be seen.
But for the meantime, golf, and Woods, has the Olympic blazer-wearers salivating at the prospect of the game’s return.
The question now is how will the rest of the game’s elite players place the Olympics in their list of career goals? The format will be just like any other Tour event: 72 holes of stroke play over four days for a field of 60, with the world’s top-15 ranked players exempt into the field.
If the dates clash with their preparation for a major championship, will they turn up? It wouldn’t be the first time if they didn’t.
The precedent for this was set back when golf was last included in the Olympic program in 1908. Before you ring in to say I am wrong and that golf was last played in the Olympics in 1904, you are indeed correct.
Golf was last contested at the 1904 Olympics in St Louis. George Lyon, a 46-year-old Canadian, had only been playing the game for about eight years when he joined the 72-strong field for the match play competition.
Against all odds, Lyon, who was a handy cricketer and held the Canadian record for the pole vault, made it through to the final against the more fancied Chandler Egan, the 23-year-old US amateur champion. Lyon sang and cracked jokes between shots in the final and outplayed Egan to claim the gold medal, which he collected walking into the presentation on his hands.
Lyon made the trip to London for the 1908 London Games, only to find himself as the sole entrant. By scheduling the Olympic tournament into the first week in June, the British Olympic Association stirred up opposition from the Royal & Ancient Golf Club for clashing with established domestic events. All of the British golfers withdrew from the competition and no Americans were prepared to make the trip (sound familiar?). Lyon was offered the gold medal by default but he declined to accept it out of respect for the game.
I’m not suggesting the game’s best players, en masse, will shun the Games in 2016 and beyond. But you can be sure of one thing. If the Olympics clashes with their schedule for those events that really matter, the majors, they will not go.
This is why golf should not be in the Olympics. For mine, it doesn’t quite fit and nor does tennis. I’m not discounting them because they are big-money professional sports, either. After all, Usain Bolt doesn’t run for love over money.
But I believe an Olympic gold medal represents the pinnacle achievement in a sport. Whereas in golf, the trophies of the four major championships are, and always will be, the Holy Grail.
Perhaps, in time, an Olympic gold medal for golf will hold some historical cred but I am sure most of us will have long fallen off the perch before that happens.
Interestingly, the IOC was impressed by the support coming from players for inclusion into the Olympics, which was one reason why golf’s bid to be played at the 1996 Games in Atlanta failed. Several current and former players –including Annika Sorenstam in Sweden, Ernie Els in South Africa, Fiji’s Vijay Singh and Jack Nicklaus – stood before the executive board to pledge golf’s case.
But one senses, at least from the Australians, the players are more keen on the social aspects of being in the Games village than they are about winning golfing gold.
“You could disregard the golf tournament as far as I’m concerned. I just want to be at the Olympics,” Geoff Ogilvy said. “Two weeks with the camaraderie and mayhem in the village, that would be the best part of it.
“In athletics, the Olympics is the pinnacle of their sport. The pinnacle for us would be hanging out with the 2016 equivalent of Michael Phelps, Ian Thorpe and Usain Bolt.
“Those guys aren’t going to be there, but their equivalents will.
“I want to spend two weeks in the Olympic village and walk into the Olympic stadium for the opening ceremony.”
Mathew Goggin agreed: “I don’t think it should be in there, but bloody oath I’d go and play. It would be unbelievable for two weeks in the village, that whole experience.”
If only there was this sort of boundless enthusiasm for experience when it comes to represent Australia every year at the World Cup!
Then, of course, there is the argument from golf’s officialdom that being part of the Olympics will help spread the game at the grass roots level. That theory has worked wonders in this country for sports like tennis, baseball, synchronised swimming and, even, athletics, don’t you think?
