Golf prepares final Olympic Games sales pitch

text size

COPENHAGEN (AP) -- After years of sales pitches, lobbying and persuasion efforts, golf and rugby are just days away from finding out whether they will once again be Olympic sports.

Both sports are expressing cautious optimism but taking nothing for granted as they prepare to make their case to the International Olympic Committee on Friday. The IOC executive board has recommended the sports' inclusion in the 2016 Olympics -- awarded last Friday to Rio de Janeiro -- but they still need majority approval in separate votes by the full IOC assembly of 106 members.

Each sport will make a 20-minute presentation before the vote. Golf is proposing a 72-hole stroke-play competition for men and women, with 60 players in each field.

"I think we're very hopeful about the outcome on Friday, but we're by no means complacent," said Peter Dawson, chief executive of the Royal & Ancient club at St. Andrews and one of the driving forces behind golf's Olympic bid.

Golf was played at the 1900 Paris Olympics and 1904 St. Louis Games, while rugby appeared in four Olympics between 1900 and 1924 in the full 15-a-side format. At stake for both sports is more than just gold medals.

Golf sees the Olympics as a way to spread the game to developing countries and increase its popularity on continents like South America and Africa . Both sports are bringing out some of their top stars for the final presentation. For golf, three-time major winner Padraig Harrington of Ireland and 19-year-old U.S. star Michelle Wie will arrive in Copenhagen on Wednesday, and Friday's presentation will also include a videotaped message from Tiger Woods and other top pros competing in this week's Presidents Cup. Woods has previously indicated he would play in 2016, and golf's star power is one of its main selling points.

"Golf is a big sport, with some very big-name players. The Olympics is without doubt the biggest stage in sport in the world, and I think the two marry well from that standpoint," Dawson said. "Equally, a big sport like golf should be there at the biggest sporting occasion the world has to offer."

Both camps are spending this week rehearsing their presentations and talking with as many IOC members as possible, trying to ease any possible concerns.

Some IOC members have been unhappy with the selection process for picking the new sports, with the executive board narrowing the list from seven to two at a meeting in Berlin in August. Softball and baseball -- which were dropped in 2005 from the London 2012 program -- squash, karate and roller sports all failed to make the final cut. There has been speculation that some members will vote against the proposals to show their disapproval.

"Some may well do, but I would guess the executive board will easily get the necessary majority," Swedish IOC member Arne Ljungqvist said. "We have, after all, elected our board to give us recommendations after some consideration. So I think it is an acceptable democratic procedure."

Guatemalan IOC member Willi Kaltschmitt is among those who would've liked baseball to be voted on by the entire committee.

"My feeling was that baseball had some problems, (but) that baseball should have stayed in the Olympics," Kaltschmitt said. "I would have loved to have more choice, yes, of course. In the end, it was the executive board that decided. It's done."