Golf was among seven sports making their case for inclusion in to the Olympics, competing for two spots on the program for the 2016 Summer Games.
Baseball, golf, karate, rugby, softball, roller sports and squash made hour-long, closed-door presentations to the International Olympic Committee’s program commission.
The sports for London 2012 have already been decided and these seven have to wait until next October to find out if they have a place in the 2016 Games.
It’s been a century since golf was an official sport in the Olympics, with George Lyon of Canada claiming the last gold medal in 1904.
While it would be interesting to see golf included as an official sport, I also have my reservations. For me, the Olympics should be the pinnacle of each particular sport, and I’m not convinced that a gold medal would top the ‘must have’ list of the Pro’s.
It seems that Tiger also shares my view…
“It would be great to have an Olympic gold medal, but if you asked any player, ‘Would you rather have an Olympic gold medal or green jacket or Claret Jug (given to British Open champion)?’ more players would say the majors.”
A possible solution could be to ban the pro’s and in true Olympic spirit, limit the competition to just the game’s top amateurs.
However, while there are those against golf at the Olympics, there are of course plenty backing the possible inclusion.
Anthony Kim, for one, says it would be an honor to play for a medal while Annika Sorenstam from Sweden, Phil Mickelson from the United States, Suzanne Petterson from Norway and Vijay Singh from Fiji are also known supporters.
The proposed format for the Games is 72 holes of stroke play, with a limit of three spots for each country, determined by world rankings or wild-cards.
So will it be included? I guess we’ll just have to wait until next October to find out!
