Oh No...They're Taking Monty Along!

So they're trying to dispel the stereotype that golf is a rich, soft, doughy white man's sport and taking Monty along for the final IOC presentation? That's got Peter Dawson written all over it!

Golf Stars and Leaders Will Make Final Presentation to IOC Executive Board for Sport’s Inclusion in 2016 Olympic Games

IGF Olympic Golf Committee Expands by 12 to 19 Organisations

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, USA (June 10, 2009) – International Golf Federation Global Ambassador Annika Sorenstam and 2010 European Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie will join representatives of the International Golf Federation when golf’s final case for inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games will be made to the International Olympic Committee Executive Board on Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Sorenstam, who serves as a Global Ambassador in support of the IGF’s effort, and Montgomerie will join Tim Finchem, PGA TOUR Commissioner, LPGA of Japan President and World Golf Hall of Fame member Hisako “Chako” Higuchi, IGF Co-Secretary Peter Dawson and IGF Executive Director Ty Votaw for the presentation. Dawson and Votaw have been coordinating golf’s Olympic bid.

“We feel it is very important for the IOC Executive Board to be able to personally hear from two of the game’s most highly respected players in Annika and Colin,” Votaw said. “We will also be presenting a film featuring 16 of the game’s most prominent players including current World # 1 ranked Lorena Ochoa and Tiger Woods, as well as IGF Global Ambassador Jack Nicklaus describing the compelling reasons why golf should be reinstated as an Olympic sport after an absence of more than a century.“

Golf last was part of the Olympic Games in 1904, when the United States and Canada were the only competing nations.

Bookies Down On Olympic Golf; Must Be The Decision To Go With 72-Hole Stroke Play

Ashling O'Connor looks at the possible 2016 Olympic sport add-ons as suits convene on Lausanne for a June 15th presentation to the IOC.

Golf has pledged to field the world's best male and female players in 60-player strokeplay tournaments in each week of the Games, while using the Olympics to dispel its “country club image”. The stars and the sponsors that golf would bring to the Games will be hard to reject.

Yet it is by no means a done deal. Squash still presents a good case for inclusion as it tries to shake its yuppie image immortalised by Wall Street, Oliver Stone's 1987 film about corporate excess.

At the end of the piece, O'Connor lists what the bookies think of each sports chances.

I still say the 72-hole, World Ranking stuffed, prefab WGC-Olympics concept has the bookies down. If only they'd gone with a more athletic, daring and exciting format...ah forget it. At least golf still has the edge over poll pole dancing.

"That's right, No. 398 would get in the Olympics, but the last two Masters champions"

Gary Van Sickle looks at the glorified-WGC nature of the Olympic golf format and says it's not so glorious. Sorry, but this is what happens when you lean on top players and television executives for creative solutions.

ZZZZZZZ: Olympic Golf Would Use 72-Hole Stroke Play Format

76 pages of questions?

IGF Submits Detailed Questionnaire to International Olympic Committee, Constituting Golf’s Formal Olympic Bid

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, USA (February 17, 2009) - The International Golf Federation announced today that a 76-page detailed questionnaire was submitted on Sunday to the International Olympic Committee Programme Commission, constituting the formal and technical bid to include golf in the 2016 Olympic Games.

The questionnaire sought specific information on various topics relevant to golf's bid, including how golf would be presented if it were part of the Olympic Games and information on golf's worldwide appeal and governance structure. The submission of the questionnaire was the next step in the process set forth by the IOC Programme Commission and followed a presentation in November to the Commission in Lausanne, Switzerland by Peter Dawson, chief executive of The R&A and joint secretary of the IGF, and PGA TOUR executive Ty Votaw, Executive Director of the IGF Olympic Golf Committee.

"We are pleased with the formal bid document, and now look forward to working with the Programme Commission on the preparation of the final report to the IOC Executive Board in advance of our presentation to the Board in June," Votaw said. "We worked diligently to solicit input from the world's leading players and golf organizations to address and finalize a number of key issues contained in the document, including the recommended format for competition."

Recognized as the representative body for golf by the IOC, the IGF is proposing 72-hole individual stroke play for both men and women. Leading players expressed that this is the fairest and best way to identify a champion, mirroring the format used in golf's major championships. In case of a tie for either first, second or third place, a three-hole playoff is recommended to determine the medal winner(s).

There's your buried lede of the week or maybe month.

Golf needs another 72-hole stroke play event like it needs another financial firm sponsoring a tour event.

Oh but it's fair! And it's just like the majors.

Example 90,702 demonstrating golf's lack of imagination rearing its ugly head yet again.

"And whether it is stroke play or whether it is match play or some combination of both is what we are discussing with the top players."

During Thursday's teleconference to announce that Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam are supporting the Olympic golf push, someone asked about the format possibilites:

TY VOTAW: Jack and Annika, for your benefit and for the benefit of those on the line, we are in the process of talking to the top players in both the men's and women's game to get their feedback as to what format they feel would be the best test for an Olympic golf competition. That will actually be memorialized in the detailed questionnaire that we will be providing to the IOC by the end of March. We are in the process of getting that feedback.

Memorialized? Ty? I think someone's been taking too many meetings with a certain Commissioner?

The one thing that we have said in terms of some parameters that we presented in November, Peter and I, in our presentation to the Program Commission was: We do see this as an individual competition, not a team competition; country-by-country, but individual, and approximately 60 players for the men's and 60 players for the women. And whether it is stroke play or whether it is match play or some combination of both is what we are discussing with the top players.

Given the fact that the IOC has said that the top players have to support and want to play in the Olympics if golf were part of it, we think it's critical that we get that feedback from the top players so that we maximize the potential for that sport, and the format is certainly something that we are going to be going to the top players and talking about before we submit the bid.

I'm not sure if I think it's a good idea that they are talking to the players. Of course, since many of the folks involved are infatuated with 72-hole stroke play events, perhaps the players are the best hope the cause has of creating an innovative, must-see format.

"The penalty wasn’t something that was decided overnight. There was lots of feedback and lots of reasons."

You have to give Carolyn Bivens big points for sitting down with Beth Ann Baldry since it was Baldry who broke the LPGA's learn-corporatespeak-or-else provision. And credit Baldry for asking tough questions.

GW: Looking back on the way everything developed, is there anything you would do differently? Is there anything the LPGA has learned from this?

CB: We learn from everything.

GW: Would you care to expand on that?

CB: The only thing I would expand on there is that this was not an announcement and it was not a policy. Unfortunately that is the way that it was portrayed.

In her defense, the media did blow that. Check out this L.A. Times front page story.  But isn't this kind of overblown reporting typically a consequence when word gets out about a boneheaded, insensitive policy?

GW: But it was a rule. There was a very strict penalty.

CB: I said it wasn’t a policy. It was a small part of a program. There was feedback from lots of different groups, just as Rae Evans told you. . . . On Sunday I was in Albany, and we have 10 new members of the LPGA. Half of those are international players. The list for Qualifying School was released this morning; we have almost 70 international players. That provides both challenges and opportunities for us. . . . What we were doing is looking down the pipeline and saying this is the perfect time of year to be looking at what’s coming to the LPGA over the next couple years and make sure we’ve got the resources and support to be able to handle that.

GW: So it wasn’t so much the current players on tour as it was looking ahead.

CB: Correct.

Are we now putting lipstick on a pig? Wait, don't accuse me of calling the Commissioner a pig!

GW: Looking at it now, do you realize or recognize that the penalty portion was a mistake?

CB: The penalty wasn’t something that was decided overnight. There was lots of feedback and lots of reasons.

Would that last sentence be allowed on the LPGA's English exam?

GW: Looking back on it now, do you wish you have discussed the penalty portion with more sponsors or...

CB: Sponsors never want to be part of these decisions.

Huh, she told Tommy Hicks the same day that "we were addressing sponsors' needs and requirements."

GW: Whom will you consult now, going forward? Will you include more people on this?

CB: What do they say . . . a camel is a horse built by a committee?

Good animal metaphor, much better than lipstick on a pig. I have a lot to learn.

What we need to be able to do is include enough for a cross-cultural group and to be able to control and announce. And not have something play in primetime way before it was ready. It was never intended as an announcement.

Got that Beth Ann. It's all your fault!

Speaking of fault, Ron Sirak says that the LPGA's triple-bogey could impact the Olympic golf push.

Fathers are angrier than their daughters at a perceived cultural insult, and the jury is still out on the mood of Korean companies who pour millions into the LPGA and have great national pride. The issue also may impact next year's vote on whether to add golf to the 2016 Olympics. It's the kind of insult the IOC remembers, such as when the Atlanta games proposed Augusta National as the golf venue.

“If you’re doing P&L’s these guys have done spectacularly."

There's nothing golf related in Richard Sandomir's story on ESPN firing the first warning shot in bidding on the next two Olympics games, just some beautiful businesspeak that our friends and Ponte Vedra may want to note.

“Our DNA is different than theirs,” John Skipper, ESPN’s executive vice president for content said by telephone on Tuesday. “We serve sports fans. It’s hard in our culture to fathom tape-delaying in the same way they have. I’m not suggesting it wasn’t the smart thing for them to do, but it’s not our culture. We did Euro 2008 in the afternoon. We’ve done the World Cup in the middle of the morning. We have different audiences.”

I always love the talk of culture and ESPN. They two words really are synonymous.

Skipper, who returned earlier this week from Beijing after attending the Summer Games, said NBC’s enormous success over the first 11 nights of the Games “probably forces us to change some of our calculations.”

“If you’re doing P&L’s,” he went on, referring to profits and losses, “these guys have done spectacularly. If I was holding the rights to this, this is a great time to be selling them.”

Meanwhile, the thought of golf in the Olympics prompted this positive post by Iain Carter at the BBC, with one caveat: he wants to see a better format. Who doesn't?  Gary Van Sickle at golf.com was not so kind.

"There is a simple litmus test to determine whether a sport is of Olympic caliber: Does winning a gold medal trump anything else an athlete can do?"

I feel for Bob Harig tonight, because he's likely to be getting a phone call (go easy on him Ty!) for making the most persuasive case yet against golf in the Olympics...

There is a simple litmus test to determine whether a sport is of Olympic caliber: Does winning a gold medal trump anything else an athlete can do?

In golf, the answer is quite obviously no. You would be hard pressed to get a single player to say he would rather win at the Olympics than capture one of the four major championships. Let's face it; those four tournaments are golf's Olympics. They are for players from all around the world, with numerous countries represented. True, the players do not show up to represent their countries, but these tournaments are the most important events.

There are several logistical hurdles as well. How would you alter the current schedule? If golf were in the Beijing Olympics, would players be expected to head right from the PGA Championship to China? Would they be forced to skip important tournaments on the PGA Tour, including the FedEx Cup playoffs? Would the tour alter its schedule to accommodate?

In the name of growing the game, of course they would!

What about the format? Being discussed is 72 holes of stroke play. If golf is going to be included in the Olympics, at least make the format for the competition one that is not used every week, one that is more fun, perhaps one that is more team oriented. At least in that case, players would be competing for their teams instead of themselves.

Oh yeah, you're definitely getting a phone call. Even if he has to do it from Beijing and through a PGA Tour-logoed smog mask.

"So, now that the fertile fields of home have been scorched, we're headed abroad to see if we can fool 'em into making the same mistakes. Shame on us."

Steve Elling considers Tim Finchem's "grow the game" argument for making the push to get golf in the Olympics and writes:

Costs for players skied as daily fee courses commanded triple-digit payouts. Courses became too hard to play in under five hours. The cost of a new driver, needed to handle the 7,000-yard tracks being built, rose to $400. A legion of folks was priced out of the game because of time and money. For every new customer, another one quit.

The number of rounds played each year in the U.S. stagnated. Now, alarmingly, it has begun to drop in some parts of the country. Worse, more courses have closed over the past three years than have opened. People bought homes in golf communities in good faith, only to see the developer-owner of the courses bolt when the land was sold.

The economic model of the game in the States pulled a hammy chasing after money. Now that some cities are cracking down on water usage, which will affect course conditions and desirability, it's likely going to get even worse. Crude prices have driven up fertilizer costs markedly.

So, now that the fertile fields of home have been scorched, we're headed abroad to see if we can fool 'em into making the same mistakes. Shame on us. Granted, it's a slight leap of faith to hold the PGA of America or USGA responsible for the general direction of the game and current economic climate, but in golf, most of the parts are somehow linked.

And of course, regarding the format, which in a sport full of potentially emotion-rich team formats is 72-holes of individual stroke play...

Besides, is there really a great appetite for golf in the Games among the public, especially if it results in yet another four-day stroke-play event? I'm not feeling the love.

"We have been in constant touch with WADA since the beginning of our effort and WADA has been very supportive of the construct of our programme."

Still waiting on Peter Dawson's transcript to appear to determine what kind of softballs were lobbed by the wannabe and current R&A members in attendance,  but in the meantime we learned that Ty Votaw has the unenviable task of trying to package and sell the IOC on what golf does not need: another 72-hole stroke play event once every four years.

In the first wire story that went out on this with Olympics-related comments from Peter Dawson, I couldn't help but notice this little nugget:

Potential stumbling blocks include the need to move the date of the USPGA Championship to avoid a clash in dates, and the difference between golf's newly-introduced drug-testing programme and the requirements of the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

"The distinctions between our policies and full WADA compliance are not significant," added PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem.

"We have been in constant touch with WADA since the beginning of our effort and WADA has been very supportive of the construct of our programme.

"There will probably be some issues, but we don't see any major hurdles in terms of reaching an understanding about what changes need to be made to bring us into total compliance."

Now, as you may recall it was pointed out here that Dr. Gary Wadler of the WADA was quite blunt in a recent New York Daily News story by Andy Martino that analyzed deficiencies in the PGA Tour's testing program.

For example, the drug salbutamol, found in asthma inhalers, is anabolic and can build muscle. Salbutamol is banned in the Olympics, but allowed in golf. Also, though human growth hormone is prohibited, neither tour administers the blood tests that would possibly detect it. All 33 WADA labs worldwide test for HGH, although the efficacy of the tests are in question.

Wadler also takes issue with the language used to describe the testing process. The PGA Tour manual says: "Once notified, you should report to the designated testing area as soon as possible. The collector may allow you to delay reporting ... however, you may be monitored."

"What do you mean, 'should' and 'may?'" asks Wadler. "These things have to be required. What if the player goes to the bathroom after being told to report? That's no good."

And here's where one can see this getting ugly...

In terms of public disclosure, the policy states that "the PGA Tour will, at a minimum, publish the name of the player, the anti-doping rule violation, and the sanction imposed" - a statement that is contingent on Finchem having sanctioned a player in the first place. Clearly, if a star player were to test positive for steroids, that player "may" face a punishment and public embarrassment - or he may not. Wadler also points out that amphetamines, commonly used as performance enhancers, are classified under the tour's policy as drugs of abuse, meaning that players, if caught using these PEDs, could be quietly sent to rehab. All of these shortcomings, Wadler says, could be cleared up if both professional golf tours would cede control of their programs to WADA.

I wonder how many PGA Tour players will be willing to see the drug testing program turned over to the much tougher WADA so that three Americans can play 72 holes of stroke play every four years? I'm guessing not many.