Golf can be made an Olympic sport by 2016

Major golf governing bodies have launched an organized effort to make golf an Olympic sport by 2016. Golf used to be an Olympic sport 104 years ago, but for some reason was ditched from the Olympics and never managed to find its way back into the Olympic family. With 28 sports already on the Summer Olympics roster, it is a monumental task to convince the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to consider adding yet another sport to their list.  Golf also has to contend with baseball, karate, rugby, softball, roller sports and squash for the coveted ‘Olympic sport’ status when the IOC will vote to add two more sports to the Summer Olympics in October of 2009.

In order to be added to the Summer Olympics, a sport must be practiced by men in at least 75 countries on four continents and by women in at least 40 countries on three continents. But is the current cadre of golfers that huge and than international? Golf digest reports that there are 32,000 golf courses in the world, half of them in the United States. Nothing surprising there. Also hardly surprising is the fact that in nine of the top ten golf-playing countries English is the majority language. This certainly does not score well on the ‘international popularity’ scale. Moreover, golf is also one of the most expensive sports, so I am not sure how much representation it would get from all the developing countries out there.

But why is getting that ‘Olympic sport’ status so sought after?

Seriously though, I think karate and roller sports are in far greater need of publicity than golf, which is regularly broadcast by major sport TV stations and enjoys a great deal of coverage in the news, at least in North America.

So, who knows? Perhaps, Tiger Woods, who will be 41-years-old by 2016, will get a chance to finish off his career in seeing the American flag rise while holding onto a medal on the Olympic pedestal.