Ty Votaw's Olympics blog: Golf's bid for 2016 Games

text size

Ty Votaw, the PGA TOUR's Executive Vice President of Communications and International Affairs, is leading the International Golf Federation's bid to make golf an Olympic sport at the 2016 Games. The final vote by the entire membership of the International Olympic Committee takes place on Friday, Oct. 9 in Copenhagen. During his visit to Copenhagen for the vote, Votaw will file reports to PGATOUR.COM.

RIO'S PASSIONATE BID; PUSH FOR GOLF'S INCLUSION CONTINUES
Saturday, Oct. 3 (8:30 a.m. ET)

The day started at 6 a.m. so that I could catch the 7 a.m. bus to the convention center. We were advised to take the earliest bus so as to avoid long lines of security that will be caused by having 4 heads of states from the four Candidate Cities' countries.

Ty Votaw

Speaking of security, we had to go through a security check as we left the hotel to get on the shuttle bus and then again at the convention center. Belt and suspenders, I suppose.

Once inside, I had to find my contact person within the IOC Sports Department who "sticks" me with several colored stickers which gets me into the General Session as an official delegate of a recognized International Federation. All in, it took an hour to get from the hotel to the main presentation room. The next 30 minutes involved the expected milling around and waiting for the presentations of the Candidate Cities.

As Mark Twain once said: Predictions are dangerous things ... especially predictions about the future. There have been no shortage of predictions in the past 24 hours with respect the outcome of Friday's vote. It will be interesting to see how the day plays itself out in relation to the predictions I have heard. The consensus seems to be that it is going to be between Chicago and Rio, with Tokyo and Madrid as the cities with the most potential to be eliminated after the first round. Everybody, however, has said it is going to be the closest vote in Olympic history.

Golf in the Olympics?

For complete coverage on golf's bid to become an Olympic sport, visit PGATOUR.COM's Olympics bid page. Click here

The Session started at 8:30 sharp, with Chicago starting sharply at 8:45. The First Lady and the President were the last two speakers for Chicago's presentation and were, not surprisingly, very impressive. The First Lady spoke passionately about her late father's passion of sport, his suffering of multiple sclerosis and how proud he would have been to live to see the Olympic and Paralympic Games come to Chicago. The President spoke of how Chicago will open its arms to the world, much like how Chicago opened its arms to him when he moved there.

Japan's presentation included newly-elected Prime Minister Hatoyama and several former Japanese Olympians and Paralympians. Impressively, each speaker in Japan's presentation spoke English which made a positive impression on the audience. Rio's presentation included Brazilian President Lula. Madrid's presentation included King Juan Carlos and former, current and future Olympians and Paralympions.

Of all the presentations, Rio's was the most passionate and it made mention on several occasions that South America has never hosted an Olympic Games, going so far as to noting that Europe has hosted 30 Games, North America 12 (with eight in the U.S.), Asia five, and Oceania two. The question "Why not Rio?" was asked several times.

After all the presentations, there was a report of the IOC Evaluation Committee and then the voting began. As Twain said, predictions are dangerous things, and the fact that Chicago was voted out of the first round with only 18 votes pretty much proves that saying. Seeing Rio's reaction when they got the news was something to behold. In the end, the IOC made history by selecting a South American city for the first time.

After the voting and the announcement, there was an IOC reception, where we had the opportunity to talk with about 30 more IOC members about golf and our bid. Long day, but an interesting one. It is now 10:15 p.m., and tomorrow is another day to make our case.

ARRIVING IN COPENHAGEN; RUNNING INTO MUTOMBO, PELÉ
Thursday, Oct. 1 (3:25 p.m. ET)

Arrived in Copenhagen as scheduled at 9:30 a.m., even though our flight left Atlanta an hour and 15 minutes late (how does that happen?).

While checking into the Marriott (the official IOC hotel for the week), I ran into IOC members from South Africa, Sweden and Australia even before I could walk 10 yards. All were cordial and were congratulatory on golf receiving the Executive Board recommendation. Some gave some quick advice on what we needed to do during the week, while others were encouraging about golf's prospects.

After a quick shower and change, it was back to the lobby, where I had a warm greeting with IOC members from China and Israel. A surreal moment came when basketball great Dikembe Mutombo walked up while I was speaking with a couple of people from Chicago's delegation and introduced himself to me. To say I felt short would not even begin to describe my sense of self at that moment.

Later in the day, I rode an elevator up with Pelé, which one doesn't do every day. All in, we touched base with around 15 IOC members, saying hello, seeking their advice and asking for their support.

Tomorrow is the Candidate City presentations and votes. Chicago is up first a 9 a.m. local time. The results should be announced sometime around 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

Note: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games.