Olympic Field And The Rolex Rankings

I suppose I was incorrect to suggest this would only shine a light on the Official World Golf Ranking. Looks like the women's Rolex Rankings will be scrutinized based on how it will add to the struggle to fill out the Olympic field.

This is from a reader who was curious about the Olympics and the proposed 60 player fields.

Using the current eligibility format as proposed by the IGF, you can go down the top 500 names on the women's Rolex Rankings (as of Aug. 13, the date of the IOC announcement) and not have enough players to get a 60-player field. You only get 58.

Of the top 100 players, only 26 get in.

Currently, only the top two from a country can get in. They'll probably need to take the top three eligible players to avoid digging into the AJGA Tour to round out the women's field.

Golf Likely Into 2016 Olympics Barring Any Scandal, Corruption Investigation Or Last Minute IOC Loopiness

Nice pun in the official release headline.

Golf Makes Cut as IOC Executive Board Recommends Two Sports for Inclusion in 2016 Olympic Games

IOC’s Final Vote on adding sports to take place this October in Copenhagen

Berlin, Germany (August 13, 2009) – Golf is one step closer to being reinstated as an Olympic sport following the International Olympic Committee Executive Board’s recommendation to add golf and rugby sevens to the 2016 Olympic Programme.

The IOC’s final vote on whether to add as many as two sports will take place on October 9 at the 121st IOC session in Copenhagen, Denmark. While the membership of the IOC is not obliged to follow the Executive Board’s recommendation, the Board’s decision is based on an extensive review process of seven candidate sports that has included formal presentations, the submission of a Detailed Questionnaire and responses to questions raised by both the IOC Programme Commission and the IOC Executive Board. The IOC Executive Board announced its decision today following a meeting in Berlin, Germany.

“We’re obviously thrilled that the IOC Executive Board has recommended that golf should be added to the 2016 Olympic Programme,” said Ty Votaw, Executive Director of the International Golf Federation Olympic Golf Committee, which has been coordinating the Olympic bid. “We believe we have presented a compelling case as to why golf should be added and we look forward to the IOC’s final vote in October.”

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

Throughout the process, the IGF has stressed the unprecedented unified support by international golf organisations – including a commitment by those that conduct major championships to adjust their summer schedules to ensure that their respective tournaments won’t conflict or compete with the Olympic golf competition – as well as the resounding support of golf’s top-ranked male and female players.

Player support has been highlighted in various ways, including short films that have been shown to the IOC Programme Commission and Executive Board, a customised brochure detailing the bid that includes player quotes, a letter campaign in which international players sent the brochure with a personalised letter to IOC members from their respective countries, the participation by Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam as Global Ambassadors on behalf of the IGF’s bid, and the appearance by Sorenstam and 2010 European Ryder Cup Captain Colin Montgomerie at the final presentation to the IOC Executive Board in June in Lausanne, Switzerland. “We made it clear from the outset of the bid process that we absolutely needed support from the world’s leading players to have the best chance of being selected for the 2016 Olympic Games, and we have demonstrated that support,” said Peter Dawson, chief executive of The R&A and joint secretary of the IGF. “We also stressed the united support from the leading golf organisations throughout the world, as well as the universal nature of golf, with 60 million people playing the sport in more than 120 countries.”

The IGF’s Olympic Golf Committee, which originally included The R&A; European Tour; USGA; PGA of America; PGA TOUR; LPGA and the Masters Tournament, has been expanded to 19 organisations. It now also includes The Asian Tour; Australian Ladies Professional Golf Tour; Canadian Professional Golf Tour; Japan Golf Tour Organisation; The Ladies Professional Golfers Association of Japan; Korea Ladies Professional Golf Association; Korean Professional Golf Association; Ladies European Tour; Ladies Asian Golf Tour Ltd; PGA Tour of Australasia; The Sunshine Tour and The Tour de las Americas.

The IGF has 121 member federations from 116 countries with the most recent additions of the Guam National Golf Federation and Cambodian Golf Federation.

In terms of Olympic competition, the IGF has proposed a format of 72-hole individual stroke play for both men and women, reflecting leading players’ opinion 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).

The IGF has recommended an Olympic field of 60 players for each of the men's and women's competition, utilizing the official world golf rankings as a method of determining eligibility. The top 15 world-ranked players would be eligible for the Olympics, regardless of the number of players from a given country. Beyond the top 15, players would be eligible based on world ranking, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top 15.

Under this proposal, and based on the current world rankings from both the men’s and women’s games, at least 30 countries would be represented in both the men’s and women’s competitions, from all continents.

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.