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Point Counterpoint


worldwide popularity? Yes M


ajor championship golf has been played


on Earth since 1860. To put that in perspective, that’s so long ago that if a golfer from Alabama entered the British Open the next year, he’d technically have to list his country as “Confederate States of America.” So, golf has been around


for a while. Consider it an interna-


tional sporting crime, then, that in 150-plus years of ma- jor championship golf, from Prestwick to Pebble Beach, from Ayrshire to Augusta, only 14 different nations (counting the United King- dom as one) have produced players who won a major. In case you didn’t know—and I didn’t, until I looked it up— there are 193 members of the United Nations. In other words, golf ’s


grandest stage has been graced by only 7.2 percent of the globe’s nations. Over 90 percent of the


world’s nations have yet to produce a player to taste golf glory? I ain’t no business executive, but that’s what I’d call a marketing opportunity.


Brian Murphy hosts the KNBR morning show “Murph and Mack” and was the San Francisco Chronicle’s golf writer from 2001 to 2004.


22 / NCGA.ORG / SUMMER 2012 While golf is definitely


played in the world’s two most populous nations— there are decorated pro players from China and India—the point is, none of them has broken through to first-name global status, like “Tiger,” “Jack” or “Bubba.” (Sure, Bubba Watson has only won one major com- pared to the aggregate 32 of the other guys, but I just think the name “Bubba” makes people around the world chuckle.) Golf in the Olympics


arrives in 2016, and the planet will, for all intents and purposes, see the royal and ancient game on a global stage for the very first time. Let’s be honest: The world doesn’t watch golf. Not many TV sets in Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most popu- lous nation, are tuned in to the St. Jude Classic from Memphis every June. But the Olympics are


a different deal. You throw those five rings on a sport, and it is immediately legiti- mized. For example, how else does a guy nicknamed “the Flying Tomato” (snowboard- er Shaun White) achieve tremendous wealth, fame and his choice of supermodels? Answer: Olympic Games street cred. Golf ’s popularity will


Will golf ’s addition to the Olympics help its


drift in the Olympic wake. Young kids who worship Olympic athletes on TV will watch, wide-eyed, as Olympic golfers hole wedges for eagles, bomb 350-yard drives and sink 35-foot curl- ers for birdie. Just as surely, young


kids who worship Olympic


Janet Evans, Carl Lewis and Mary Lou Retton. Once golf makes its place on the Olympic stage, kids will hear it and think: “Which way is the wind blowing, caddie?” or “Hand me my driver; I want to let the big dog eat!” or “You’re still away, sucker!” Yes, “Bugler’s Dream” will now inspire thoughts of golf. With so many countries


yet to be touched by the greatness of the game—only one Asian (South Korea’s Y.E. Yang) and one South American (Argentina’s Angel Cabrera) have won a ma- jor—there is a massive void to be filled. Outside of South Africa and Zimbabwe’s Nick Price, the entire continent of Africa has yet to see one of its own achieve golf glory. You know what the game


athletes will also see the golf gods toy with Olympic golfers the way kids with a magnifying glass toy with ants on hot pavement. Surely, this will intrigue hundreds of millions of youngsters, too. They’ll think: I’ll tame that dastardly game. Bring it on, golf gods! Plus, hundreds of millions


of young athletes will now associate the game of golf with the all-time great in- spirational song, the Olym- pic theme called “Bugler’s Dream.” You know the song. It’s the classic Olympics mu- sic, with the timpani drum and the soaring horns. You hear it, and have a Pavlovian response to turn on ABC and look for Jim McKay’s soothing presence. Those of us on the older


side hear “Bugler’s Dream” and think of Bruce Jenner,


does to you, and how it makes you feel. The Olym- pics will bring that beauty to an entirely new audience, and entirely new continents. Players will now be an- nounced as “gold medal win- ners” on tee boxes, and we have the tantalizing potential of Tiger Woods carrying the American flag at the Open- ing Ceremonies (if Nike is allowed to put a swoosh on Old Glory), or Phil Mickel- son carrying the American flag at the Opening Cer- emonies (if they let him wear a visor), or Bubba Watson carrying the American flag at the Opening Ceremonies (if they let him drive the “Gen- eral Lee” while doing so). Besides, if golf in the


Olympics is a hit as I antici- pate, we’ll all have hundreds of millions of new golf pals around the globe to commis- erate with.


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