Golf in the Olympics

By Steve Gordon

I have to tell you up front that I have never been a fan of professional athletes competing in the Olympic Games...in any sport. Also, what I used to find intriguing and a draw in the Olympics is being able to watch sports you don't normally see on a regular basis. Then you just take your national pride and pull for your countries competitors.

I have to say as well that it gets in my craw when you hear something like, "... representing _________ (pick a country not the USA) out of the University of ____________ (pick a college that is in the USA) is ____________ (name not important). But that's not at issue here.

What is at issue here is golf in the Olympics. I absolutely do not agree that this should be an Olympic sport, and that there will be profession players in it makes it more unappealing. I know I am in the minority on this but that has never stopped me from expression my feelings of opinions.

I am an Olympic junkie so in a few months when it all comes together I likely will be watching the golf and I will be able to see players from other countries that I have no idea who they are. That part will be fun.

Here is how they will select who plays:

"The IOC has restricted the IGF to an Olympic field of 60 players for each of the men’s and women's competition. The IGF will utilize the official world rankings to create the Olympic golf rankings as a method of determining eligibility. The top-15 world-ranked players will be eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country. Beyond the top-15, players will be eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top-15."

So if you have more of the best players in the world, you get to have more players in the field while the lesser countries, the ones we want to open up and expose to golf, get fewer competitors? How is this a level playing field for the countries? Aside from that, I wonder about their competitive ability or skill level of players who are low on the world rankings to compete on a level playing field?

It brings back visions of the "professional" Russian hockey teams vs amateurs, 1980 notwithstanding, dominating the competition.

Golf is on TV just about all year. There is kind of an off season the end of the calendar year (when football season is in full swing) and thankfully the "silly season" has dwindled. My point is that we can watch golf and professional golfers anytime. I say this because people promoting this who got golf into the Olympics say it will promote the game world wide. Exactly how is that when as stated golf is on TV a lot.

There is no doubt golf is in a cycle where participation has declined but I think this is a lot like the economy and it swings up and down regularly. Maybe not as much as the economy, but you get what I am saying.

Therefore I have to ask what the draw is for Olympic golf? Recently there have been promos on golf telecasts where professional golfers talk of how they admired athletes getting metals and that it would be an honor to represent their country to stand on the platform and win a medal. That's great, but I guess the purist in me still sees the Olympics as an amateur competition.

The format is 72 hole individual stroke play with the field limited to 60 players for both the women and men. BORING. This is my point where we see this week in and week out on TV. There are international team golf events every year and the best players represent their countries in these and they are very exciting and special. Individual stroke play - really?

How about this? Why can't the Olympics be some kind of a team format? Perhaps the field could be expanded as necessary, or not, and bracket the countries and play 18 hole round robin or elimination matches. For instance let Australia, Japan, etc. put up a team of their own instead of playing on a World Team vs the USA. And why can't it be down with two or four player teams where multiple matches played the same day.

This opens up a can or worms but how about two men and two women on the teams? No men's or women's separate medals. Just throwing out ideas here, don't shoot me.

OK, I've said my peace. However you feel about the issue, I hope you watch and enjoy the competition.