No T
hanks to its inclusion in the 2016 Olympics, I
can’t wait for golf to earn its rightful place as a big-time international sport, getting television time right along with synchronized swim- ming, badminton and rhyth- mic gymnasts twirling a rib- bon affixed to a stick. Golf ’s leadership must be salivating at the prospect of Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler commanding attention like those bikinied beach volley- ball players. At the Games of Rio de Janeiro, we will finally get to see an international field of the world’s top play- ers—goin’ for that gold—in what’s certain to be pucker- inducing competition. Oh wait, we see an inter-
national field of the world’s top golfers playing for serious jack pretty much every week. In fact, golf already
has a series of multina- tional spectacles, includ- ing the Ryder, President’s and Solheim Cups—team events characterized by intense nationalism. At the games, a limited number of individuals will compete for themselves as much as for a limited number of native countries, in which golf is likely already popular. And given the 72-hole stroke-play format proposed by the In- ternational Golf Federation, the Olympics will essentially be just another stop on the PGA Tour. In truth, the Olympics
need golf more than golf needs the Olympics, which in its summer and winter iterations are shedding an ever-dimmer ray of light on what are increasingly obscure
Will golf’s inclusion with the likes of table tennis trivialize the sport?
forms of sport. It wasn’t always so. The games used to mean something when there were fewer events on which to focus, and true stars emerged. Seared into Olympic
legend are the images of John Carlos, Tommie Smith and Bob Beamon, lighting up Mexico City’s track and field stadium both athletically and politically. And who among us elders doesn’t remember the slashing, edge-of-disaster downhill ski runs by Jean-Claude Killy and Franz Klammer? Today you have legions
of tricksters on skis and snowboards doing aerial stunts off ramps and flips and spins out of half-pipes, just like the kids down at the local skateboard park. The summer games are not much better, featuring team handball, fencing and ping pong. The latter is officially called table tennis, but by any name it’s still Olympic ping pong, folks. The trivialization of the games also makes it harder to remember the athletes. I’d wager 20 bucks that 19 out of 20 Americans couldn’t name the last three decathlon champs, the wearers of the
the “world’s greatest ath- lete crown.” Right, without Google few of us would have a clue. It was a different story during the Cold War, when Bill Toomey and Bruce Jen- ner kicked Communist butt, but East Germany and the Soviet Union are gone, and so is the thrill of Olympic fever. So just why do the Grand
Poobahs of golf think the Olympics will popularize the sport? Proponents point to basketball’s Dream Team at the 1992 games in Barcelona and its role in a global boom in hoops. However, basket- ball was already global then, and getting more so thanks to television, Nike marketing and the cross-boarder move- ments of international play- ers. Given the economics of courses and equipment, golf is unlikely to grow where it’s not already established, and also because no individual in the Olympic field will spark an interest.
The IGF has recom- mended a pair of tourna- ments with 60 men and 60 women, based on the official world golf rankings. The top 15 players would be eligible no matter what country they represent, so the U.S., for example, might send five or
six Olympians. After that, a maximum of only two players from other countries can play. About 30 countries will be represented, and these nations already have golf courses and are relatively established in the game. The greatest Olympic
mythology comes from unexpected contenders, like the British ski jumper Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards, or the ultra-cool Jamaican bobsled team. We’re probably not getting any leaderboard surprises with golfers from Uzbekistan, Burundi or Bhutan, nor are these nations likely to get inspired to build new courses. It’s true that golf was in the 1900 and 1904 Olym- pics, the Pleistocene Age when only true “amateurs” could compete. It was then dropped along with croquet, Basque pelota, tug-of-war and something called roque. Unlike those sports, golf has done just fine without the Olympics, a trivializing distraction that golf simply does not need.
Jay Stuller is an author, journalist, corporate speechwriter and frequent contributor to this magazine.
SUMMER 2012 /
NCGA.ORG / 23
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