Golf is not an Olympic sport

The move afoot to make golf part of the 2016 or 2020 Olympics is another of those ill-formed initiatives where you really have to question the motives of the people behind it. One also has to ask who benefits?

It would appear that those trying to make golf an Olympic sport are the heads of some very powerful golf associations and professional tours. While they cloak their efforts behind altruistic phrases such as “for the good of the game worldwide” and “helping to introduce golf to a wider audience”, the fact is that people such as Tim Finchem of the PGA Tour have a mandate to extend their brand as far and wide as possible. Golf in the Olympics would be good for them and their sponsors. It would be particularly good for the PGA Tour if Finchem were to be the wizard behind the curtain controlling venues, players, sponsors, broadcast rights and TV revenues.

At some point, if the Olympic initiatives get that far, will be a discussion of whether Olympic golf should feature pros or amateurs. Many will argue that the best golfers in the world are professional, therefore the Olympic Games need to showcase the best. Other fainter voices will lobby for a purer Olympic spirit utizing amateurs but as in tennis, basketball and hockey, those arguments will be overruled.

If golf is an Olympic sport will it suddenly take root all over the world? Will we see the equivalent of the Jamaican bobsled team competing in golf? More likely that the nephews of some emir or potentate who learned the game during their time at a US university will represent their country in golf – a further emblem of an elite sport that has no history or tradition in their own country – and isn’t likely to ever flourish.

Given that the Olympics are played in the summer, scheduling will become a logistical nightmare. Will the PGA Tour shut down for a couple of weeks to allow the best from each country to compete? Will the players want to travel across multiple time zones one more time in an already busy season? Can you ask the British Open or the PGA Championship to go on hold every four years while you re-jig the schedule? The answer to these questions and many like them should be a resounding no, yet the Commissioner and others keep pushing forward because they recognize the Olympics for what it has really become – a huge pot of gold.

For the players, will an Olympic gold medal be the highlight of a career? Would they trade it for a major championship? Canada’s George S. Lyon is the reigning Olympic golf champion and the only one to ever win a gold medal (1904). Golf was scheduled for the 1908 Olympics in London but never contested due to the British team boycotting the event after an argument with their Committee.

All in all, I think the Olympic Organizing Committee for the 1912 Games had it right when they decided golf wasn’t an Olympic Sport after all and discontinued it. Let’s keep it that way.