Pro Vision – July 2008

I don’t think it will receive much credit among followers of the game. Golf already consists of 4 majors, the Presidents Cup, the Ryder Cup, and 4 World Golf Championships. With our Official World Golf Ranking system, we already know whom the best golfers are, regardless of what country they are from. The Olympics would saturate the sports Major Tournaments. Golf will continue to thrive if we choose not to enter the Olympics.

I think golf could benefit from being an Olympic sport, as it would further help promote the game on the worldwide stage. But just like when the NBA players first started playing in the Olympics, it will be hot for a time, but then interest by touring golf professionals will wane. Asking Pro’s to play for free in another event to represent their Country may not be well received. All the good Players are already tired of playing in the Ryder and the President’s Cup! I do not think it will have an impact on the Major’s - winning one of those defines your career.

Well, there are four cities on the short list for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. I suspect that if Rio de Janeiro gets the bid, it won’t do anything for golf. But I could be wrong, look what the Olympics did for “Woman’s Softball”. Look how popular “Curling” has become because of the Olympics. I don’t think it will have any impact at all. I think we can see by the events of the past week, as Tiger goes, so goes golf. Assuming he’s not using a walker by 2016, I just can’t see Tiger getting that excited about the Olympics. But then again, maybe he’s never been to Brazil.

I don’t think it would hurt the Majors or the Ryder Cup at all. If it has an effect on anything it might be the World Cup but I believe that would be in a positive way and bring more interest into it.