Months in the making, the umbrella organization composed of the major governing bodies and entities in golf on Tuesday forwarded its official proposal to the International Olympic Committee, the next step in landing a spot as a medal sport in the 2016 Games.
Buried in the proposal are the niggling, nagging details that are sure to cause some head-scratching among fans. Although, not among the players, evidently.
After considering a variety of formats and eligibilty criteria, the International Golf Federation has pitched a plan that would make the Olympic golf reminiscent of a World Golf Championship tournament. That is, a limited-field, 72-hole stroke-play event that relies largely on the world golf ranking to determine the medal hopefuls.
Uh, don't we have three WGS events already?
The initial feedback from global golf bloggers and aficionados has been quick. The IGF was chided for a lack of originality, among other perceived shortcomings. The format proposal covers tournaments for both men and women.
The details: "The IGF is recommending a field of 60 players for both competitions, utilizing the world rankings as a primary method of determining eligibility. The top 15 players would be eligible for the Olympics, regardless of the number of players from a given country. Beyond the top 15, players would gain eligibility based on their world ranking, with a maximum of two available players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top 15.
"Leading players expressed that this is the fairest and best way to identify a champion, mirroring the format used in golf's major championships. In case of a tie for either first, second or third place, a three-hole playoff is recommended to determine the medal winner(s)."
Ty Votaw, a PGA Tour executive who is leading the IGF brigade, was in China on Tuesday, but reacted quickly to the early sniping that the Olympic proposal's stroke-play format smacks of week-in, week-out stuff we see all season long already. Players seemed fine with using a known quantity as far as formats, he said.
"You say 72-hole stroke play sounds ordinary," Votaw replied Tuesday afternoon. "The feedback we received from several players was that any other format seemed contrived."
The IGF will next pitch the proposal to the IOC in June. Golf is battling six other sports for a spot in the 2016 medal lineup: baseball, karate, roller sports, rugby sevens, softball and squash. The IOC will announce the new medal additions in October. Baseball and softball are former medal sports that were ousted.
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