Golf as an Olympic sport

[shanker]

To me a sport should only be an Olympic event if the Gold Meda will be the pinnacle of your career.

Agreed.

 

[Sam]

PS have you ever tried archery or show jumping - I have and its as easy as following a small white ball around a field.

Skill is ONLY ONE element in my view. There more important one is that supreme physical fitness should be required in order to succeed. Delete Archery and no chance for Golf

 

[USER1999]

Synchronised swimming, synchronised diving, music interpretation in floor routines, archery, and yachting, could all be dispensed with. yachting might be difficult, but it is not sport.

Gym medals could be decided in one go, as in you do your 4 disciplines, and the best individuals get the medals, your 4 scores combined decide the combined, and the 4 scores of the best team get the team. At the moment they get 3 goes to do the same routine in different events. Daft, get on with it.

Why no side stroke in swimming. A useful stroke needed for life saving. Butterfly. Hmmm. If I fall in a river, I am not going to swim to save my life doing butterfly. Crawl is fastest, breast stroke will save energy and get me there eventually, back stroke is harder to justify, but no one would do butterfly.

Put the tug of war back in too. Fun to watch, and a bit different to the norm.

 

[toyboy54]

Madandra who do reckon for the sports person of the year and the team.....remember this is ryder cup and olympics(and of course Rangers going from the final to the footnotes)I'm going to go HOY (and maybe the cycling team?)

 

[madandra]

I think 'His Royal HOYness' will win Sportspersonality of the year and the cycling team to win the team event.

 

[toyboy54]

Agreed.They must be a shoo-in!ut they have all been great great,such togetherness!

 

[Marko77]

There can be arguments for getting rid of almost any sport outside track and field from the olympics.

Golf should have its place amongst the 'festival of sport'. I'm sure they could come up with a competition format that would get people hooked. Think how many people get interested in sports they would otherwise give no thought to. Golf could attract new younger players through this exposure which many clubs are desperate for at the moment.

"if" Professionals were to be the ones taking part then it could replace the WGC World Cup. At least that way it would rotate the venue where as I believe it is currently committed to China for the next however many years...

I still think it should be the leading amateurs from each nation and would at least like to see it tried in the Olympics - The London Club in 2012 would be as likely an experiment as any to have.

 

[GB72]

I think that the IOC have said that they would not be interested in any sport being part of the Olympics if it was not going to attract the best in the world. As such, they would not be interested in an amateur event and basically would only consider if Tiger Woods etc gave assurances that they would compete.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I like the idea of both a team and individual event. I'd suggest having a matchplay for individuals (one golfer per nation) and then maybe a 36 hole stroke team event to give to top 8 and then having a matchplay event to decide the medals. Alternatively I'd go with the world cup format as it is now.

Loads of venues close to London capable of staging it (Wentworth, Oxfordshire, London Club)

 

[viscount17]

Homer, how are you going to do that! I think there are 168 nations represented in the Olympics. Even if around a quarter of them don't have the golfers there are going to be 32 + 8 + 2 + 1 4-ball matches just to decide the matchplay, don't know how you decide bronze unless there are six of them.
Add on 64 strokeplay matches (teams of 2 played as 4-balls?)and another 7 matchplay - no chance.

If, and it's a big if, it ever happened you would have to have a pre-Olympic competition to reduce the numbers.

 

[madandra]

I agree with the principle that the Olympic Gold medal should be the pinnacle of the athletes carrer. This is not the case in Football, Basketball, Tennis and Golf. I think these sports are cheapening the Olympics by being there as they are there for the event rather than the glory of winning.

Andy Murray could learn 5hit loads from Chris Hoy and the girl Aldington on what dedication REALLY is.

 

[Imurg]

Can anyone explain the difference between the World Championships (any sport) and the Olympics?????????

Seems to me the same people rock up for each one........

 

[TitleistMan]

But then again every other sport is played in the Olympics, why should it be any different for Golf?

I mean, i was telling my friend the other day that i wouldn't be surprised if the good old Egg and Spoon race was introduced into the Olympics next time round.

TBH it can't do anything but populairze the sport even more then it's at already and competition brings about excellence.

BTW - This is my first post, so hi everyone, glad to be here!

 

[madandra]

Titleistman, would winning an Olympic gold medal be as good if not better as winning The open or another major???

Name me another sport in the Olympics (track and field, and swimming or anything else) that is superceded by another competition.

 

[viscount17]

why not the egg & spoon race, and other domestic science events, pancake race etc, or the truly rural ones exemplified by wellie tossing.

they make as much sense as formation drowning

 

[Marko77]

Andy, I see your point BUT how do we know the Olympics really supercedes their World Championships e.g. Rowing.

That may just be the impression that is perceived because their World Championships gets nothing like the exposure that is given during the olympics?

Do you or I watch rowing at any other time/competiton? I suspect not?