Phil Promotes Olympic Golf

Golf at the Olympics is an enticing proposition, one that heated up again - at least a little - when Phil Mickelson chimed in from Shanghai.

Lefty is playing at the HSBC Champions Trophy tournament, the kick-off event of the 2008 European Tour. By the way, Phil held the lead after two rounds.

He said golf will likely become an Olympic sport and it should be a wonderful opportunity for amateurs to compete for their countries. Golf actually was an Olympic sport - in 1900 and 1904.

It's interesting, as Geoff Shackelford notes, that Mickelson is suggesting an Olympic golf tournament should be contested by amateurs. Of course, that's the purpose of Olympic Games, isn't it? Amateur sporting competitions. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink.

Well, fine, so Olympic golf is comprised of amateurs with games good enough to compete at an Olympic level, according to Phil's dream.

Is that likely (we'll get to the question about WHEN and IF golf becomes Olympic in a moment)?

Given that Olympic hockey dealt with that issue many years ago, I wouldn't hold my breath that Phil's vision comes true. Once upon a time, Olympic hockey was amateur to the end, largely because of the insistence of Bunny Ahearne, the English head of the International Ice Hockey Federation back in the 1960s.

Ahearne clashed time and again with Canadian ice hockey officials who wanted to see their professionals be able to play in the Olympics against the Soviet players who were, for all intents and purposes, professionals since they did nothing but play for the Red Army team and were paid, albeit as soldiers. Ahearne would have none of it, though, blocking Canadian efforts at every move.

It wasn't until Ahearne stepped down that the Canadians finally got their wish.

In 1984, at the Summer Games in Los Angeles, professional soccer players were allowed to compete for the first time.

So the precedent for allowing professionals to compete in certain Olympic sports is well established. And roundly embraced.

And how "amateur" is a world record holding 100 meter sprinter when endorsement contracts run into the millions of dollars? Hell, the steroid deals alone are worth a bundle. Oh, sorry, shouldn't have brought that up...

If golf becomes an Olympic sport, can we really expect to see amateurs teeing it up? In the 21st century? Come on.

Notice I said "if" golf enters the Olympics. Well, it didn't garner enough votes to make it to 2012 in London. Golf was up against karate, rugby, "roller sports" and squash, all striving to win one of two slots left open with the demise of baseball and softball as Olympic sports.

Karate and squash made it to the finals but didn't get the two-thirds majority needed. Golf never made it that far.

To be sure, golf is a "recognized Olympic sport" by the IOC. But so are tug-of-war, sumo wrestling and bridge to name just a few oddities on the list.

Even Mickelson himself admits the earliest date for golf in the Olympics would be 2016.

Trying to determine how the IOC selects individual sports for inclusion is much like trying to guess next week's lottery numbers. Suffice it to say, there is a lot of backroom wheeling and dealing. How else could karate get to the final voting stage while golf, played in more than 100 countries, didn't get out of the preliminary rounds?

One reason critics offer - which I find ridiculous - is the cost to a host nation of building an 18-hole course. What, building a 20 million dollar stadium for the opening ceremonies is cheaper than an 18 hole course?

With thinking like that, I believe you can forget about golf becoming an Olympic sport anytime before the second decade of this century. If then.