Olympics boosted by including golf, Tiger

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Tiger Woods is used to representing the U.S. in Cups, but he could get a chance to do so in the 2016 Olympic Games.

Picture Tiger Woods, a little gray around the temples, a slight limp in the gait from the knee repaired and well-used over the years, as he carries the American flag into a packed stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

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A pixie of a girl to Tiger's left looking adorable in the team cowboy hat smiles and waves to the crowd. She is part of the reigning gold-medal winning team in synchronized swimming. There is the hint of a tear held backed by that familiar smile as the greatest golfer who ever lived takes the ceremonial lap around the track.

Whatever image was evoked when the announcement came that the 2016 Olympic Games would include golf, it had to involve Tiger. And frankly at this point Tiger can't have any idea of his place in history seven years hence. By then he could have two dozen majors and two fistfuls of FedExCups. Olympic gold could be the final jewel in Tiger's crown -- which is certainly the hope of the International Olympic Committee and likely of the golfing world at large.

There is no question that golf belongs in the Olympics. The problem has been as much a matter of logistics as anything else. There was certainly a time when an argument could have been made against the game based on accessibility and global interest. But at the hands of men like Gary Player and Arnold Palmer, the game started to grow on the international stage a half century ago. Today the most recognizable athlete on the planet is a golfer with fans in corners of the globe where golf is more of an idea than a reality.

The announcement that the 2016 Games will feature golf means that one of the shining cities in South America likely will be getting a new course. There are currently no facilities in Rio that could hold a world-class golf event. That will probably mean one of the game's greats -- like Jack Nicklaus, Palmer or Greg Norman -- gets the call to design the first Olympic golf course since 1906.

When I embarked upon this mission of discussing golf in the Olympics it was my intention to pick a little fun. The fact that golf took so long to get back into an event that includes badminton as a sport seemed like too much fodder to be left alone. Where in the world is canoeing more popular than golf anyway? Can you name a member of the canoeing hall of fame?

I also wanted to delve into another question. In a world where I can get the local weather forecast for Timbuktu while downloading music from iTunes and chatting with a girl from high school that I haven't seen in 20 years, why does it take seven years to get golf and rugby into the Olympics? After all, in 2012 the Summer Olympics are in London with ample golf courses at the ready to host the event. I am pretty sure each country could find a group of toothless ogres to represent them in rugby between now and then.

Then I realized that this could be as important a date in the game of golf that I have seen in my lifetime. You can say what you want about the Olympics, the recent corruption, the economic toll the games take on a city and the Games' place in modern sports. All of your points are valid. But even a crusty old soul like me sees the romantic side of the games. Once every four years the games tug at the cynical knots that a life in sports have tied. The games are about a community of athletes separated by national boundaries and unified by a common goal. The games triumph where political leaders and religious idealists fail.

The Olympic creed reads, "The most important thing in the Olympic games is not winning but taking part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." And in 2016 a game will return to the Olympics that has been played for centuries but never been conquered.

At this point we can only imagine the face of the games in seven years. The window of opportunity to have Tiger as an Olympian will be closing by then. Although his presence is hardly essential for the game to be a success, it is a fitting tribute to his contribution to growing the sport that he usher them into the Olympic Games.

With Tiger in the Games, the profile of not only golf but also the Olympics itself is lifted. Perhaps we are asking a little too much of the No. 1 golfer in the world. Then again, think of the questions that we will be asking him between now and then.