Golf as an Olympic sport? Daly abroad

This past week the International Golf Federation made a formal proposal to the International Olympic Committee to reinstitute golf into the Olympic Games in 2016. Why?

Correct me if I’m wrong. We already have the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup. Throw in the annual World Cup and I think we have our bases covered. According to the IGF the game is played in approximately 120 countries. The game is expanded to the limit. Grow the game? I don’t foresee anyone in Rwanda dreaming of Olympic gold via the golf route. I do, however, see that same person in Rwanda dreaming of solid gold via the golf route.

Golf is now truly a global game, but is it an Olympic event? Think of it. How many Olympic events are called “games?” I play golf...okay not well, but do I consider myself to be participating in an athletic endeavor? Are you kidding? It’s purely recreational and that’s where it belongs. Golf is a recreational activity and not to be placed in the same category as a decathlon. Alright, I’ll give you synchronized swimming. By the same token, if you screw up there, you could drown. That isn’t going to happen in golf...Woody Austin aside.

It’s not like golf hasn’t been part of the Olympics before. In 1904 there were 77 competitors and only 73 of them were Americans. The rest were Canadians. One of them, George Lyon took the gold medal and earned a spot in the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

Let’s face it; the Olympic golf is played every week. The best players from every country square off on professional tours around the world. Golf as an Olympic event would just be another tournament. The last thing we need is just another tournament.

*****

Next week in Hong Kong, John Daly is making his season debut on the European Tour. As a former British Open champion he’s an automatic member. Seeing as how he’s pretty much worn out his welcome over here, Europe may be a viable option.

For the most part, it’s pretty difficult to get kicked out of Hooters and even more so when they’re supposed to be your sponsor. Yet, JD did just that and got locked up for the night. To date Hooters hasn’t ended his contract, but you can imagine they’d like him to go away. What better place to go than Europe?

Daly has proved that he can’t compete in the U.S. As big a draw as he still is on the PGA Tour, he’s proving to be more and more of a liability.

Maybe and it is a big maybe, he’ll find his game over there. However, that’s going to take a lot of hard work and dedication. Unfortunately, those are two things he’s seemed to have avoided over the last five years. It might do the big guy well to stencil two words on his golf bag and to look at them often. Those words are LAST CHANCE, because that’s what it is. I have a terrible feeling that the next words we read about Daly are going to deal with a tragedy.

Bartender, on that happy note please pour me a tall, cold glass of Diet Coke. That’s the other fluid JD is addicted to.

See you on the first tee,

Jack

The value if The President's Cup

If you’ve ever wondered just how important assistant captains are in international matches, or how high the esteem is that the players on the PGA Tour hold for the Presidents Cup, Fred Couples has given you the answer to both questions.

All you ever have to know is that he named Michael Jordan as one of his assistant captains in next year’s President Cup joining Jay Haas. Michael Jordan? What happened? Was Brett Favre booked for that weekend? Did Manny Ramirez throw you over?

This is just the type of leadership that the US team doesn’t need and it’s the type of buzz that the Presidents Cup (better known as Ryder Cup Lite in this corner) certainly doesn’t need. The tremendous show that was the 2008 Ryder Cup did little to enhance interest in the second rate competition. Let’s face it, it’s tough enough to get the players to show up at the Ryder Cup and then to ask them to come back a year later for an event with less history and tradition is courting disaster.

Okay, there was a Presidents Cup in 2007. Who won? Where was it played? What do you remember most about the 2007 Presidents Cup?

The US won because they always win the Presidents Cup because any foreign devil that is eligible for the Ryder Cup can’t play in the Presidents Cup. That leaves a hand full of Aussies, a South African or two and maybe a Central or South American or three. Be sure to invite Mike Weir or Steve Ames from north of the border and round it off with the best Japan has to offer and you have a Presidents Cup team.

The 2007 Presidents Cup was played at the Royal Montreal Golf Club in Canada. As for what was the most memorable moment, there were only two to pick from. There was Woody Austin falling into the water while trying to hit a shot and there was Mike Weir pleasing the home crowd by beating Tiger Woods in a singles match. Trust me on this. Weir doesn’t beat Woods in a Ryder Cup match and no one would have even chuckled at Austin if he fell overboard at Valhalla last month.

The Presidents Cup is what it is, a nice little exhibition. Until it stands the test of time it will be little more than a way for the PGA Tour to throw a bone to their non-European members and make even more money for their coffers. Having said that, why do they have to stunt the growth by making a retired superstar who totes a single-digit handicap feel like one of the boys?

****

From the file of improbable stats come these beauties. This past season Tiger Woods won $5,775,000 in just six events. During his entire career, Jack Nicklaus won a TOTAL of $5,734,031. What does Anthony Kim, Brandt Jobe and Paul Goydos have in common. They all have won more money in their careers than Nicklaus. Finally, what do Tom Pernice, Jr., Kirk Triplett and Billy Andrade have in common? They’ve all won more than twice the money the Golden Bear won.