Loose Impediments

Golf in Rio?

What does today's announcement of the 2016 Summer Olympics being awarded to Rio de Janeiro mean for golf's chances of inclusion in those Games? Perhaps nothing, but I have a feeling it certainly can't help.

The other three finalists, Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo, all have numerous golf courses, not to mention a long golf history and an understanding of the game among its citizens. Any sort of golf tournament in those cities was bound to produce a well-attended (by both players and fans) event at a worthy course. 

There are no such assurances in Rio. In our 20-year history, we have written about golf in Brazil exactly once, which I suspect is more than any other U.S. golf publication. I know nothing about golf in Brazil, but a little search has turned up two decent sites in Rio: Gavea Golf and Country Club and Itanhanga Golf Club. The photos seem OK, but the layouts don't compare courses like Cog Hill or Kawana, which would have been great Olympic courses. 

I'm not sure how it works, but Brazil's lack of a golf culture certainly has to play a part in the decision of whether golf will be included in 2016. We'll know in a week, when the IOC announces which two sports will be included from among seven candidates: golf, baseball, karate, roller sports, rugby, softball and squash.

Of course, golf is just a tiny reason for choosing an Olympics host, but you have to believe that for those with a stake in golf's inclusion in the games, Rio was last on their ballots. 

Golf and the Olympics

In one way, golf and the Olympic Games—the ancient version anyway—have a quality in common. Our invocation of the golf gods mirrors the belief the Greeks placed in the deities who lived atop Mount Olympus.

Alas, there is scant intersection between the modern Olympic movement and golf, which was last an Olympic sport during the 1904 Games in St. Louis.

Then there is the fascinating tale of a trophy currently on display at the British Golf Museum in St. Andrews: the Golf Prize of the Nations, which was given to the winner of post-1936 Olympics golf tournament hosted by Adolf Hitler. In his latest column, George Peper recounts the event held at the resort town of Baden-Baden.

After the morning of the second day Germany was still ahead, now by three strokes over England.

At that point, high-ranking diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop, who had been watching the action, contacted his boss and said there would be a German victory. Elated, Hitler summoned his chauffeur and set out for Baden-Baden to present the trophy himself.

But the English pair—Tommy Thirsk and Arnold Bentley—had other ideas. Thirsk, a tenacious Yorkshireman, had posted a course-record 65 in the morning and he matched it in the afternoon, vaulting his team to a four-stroke victory over France, as the Germans slumped to third place, 12 strokes behind.

Sensing the grim inevitability of the result, a red-faced von Ribbentrop raced off by car and intercepted the Hitlermobile. When he heard the news, the Führer was furious—he made an about face and headed back to Berlin.

In the spirit of those forerunners, there is a movement to add golf to the Olympics in 2016, and a delegation led by the PGA Tour's Ty Votaw and the R&A's Peter Dawson made what appears to be a convincing presentation at IOC headquarters in Switzerland.