Olympics boon for golfers

The return of golf to the Olympics, I'm sure, would have pleased a lot of Bahrain's players and they must be fancying their chances of getting onto the world's biggest stage at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016, especially after the completion of the kingdom's championship golf course designed by none other than Colin Montgomerie.

Bahrain's stars are one of the best in the Arab world and they would be rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of rubbing their shoulders with world famous sportsmen and women of a variety of sport.

The sport returns to the Olympics for the first time since 1904, giving Tiger Woods the chance to do something even the great Jack Nicklaus never did - win Olympic gold.

Olympic officials had no sooner voted golf in - along with rugby sevens - than Woods and his fellow players cheered their chance to finally compete on sport's biggest stage. They will compete for Olympic medals, but the greater promise is that the game catches on in countries where golfers are few and golf courses are even fewer.

The same cannot be said about rugby sevens where Bahrain has not been up to the mark with the sport being played by expats on the island with the involvement of a very few Bahrainis.

The proposed format for golf is to have men's and women's 72-hole strokeplay competitions with 60 players in each field. The best 15 players in the world would qualify automatically for each draw, while existing tour schedules would be altered to avoid any clash with the Olympics.

The inclusion of golf and rugby sevens will raise the number of sports at the Games from 26 to 28. Seven sports had been considered for inclusion by the IOC, with squash, karate, softball, baseball and roller sports all rejected.

Both golf and rugby had to make some concessions to win their respective vote. Golf promised the IOC it would not stage any other major championships during the Olympics, while the Rugby Sevens World Cup will be cancelled.

The vote was a reversal of the IOC's decision four years ago to reject golf and rugby for the 2012 Olympics. There have been two openings on the programme since baseball and softball were dropped in 2005 for the 2012 London Games.

The two sports made their debuts at the second modern games in Paris in 1900. Golf was played again only in 1904, while 15-a-side rugby was in three more games, the last one in the 1924 Paris Olympics.

"Time will show your decision (on the sports) was very wise," IOC president Jacques Rogge told delegates. Rogge won a vote of his own when he was elected unopposed to a final four-year term.

Delegates were more wary about golf than they were about rugby, largely because of golf's reputation as a sport played by rich people at private country clubs. Some IOC members questioned how it could be successful in most countries because of the high cost of playing it, while others pointed out that some top clubs do not allow women as members.

In the end, though, the promise that adding golf to the Games would make it more available to the masses won the day. Left unsaid was that marketing the sport to countries where it is not widely played could lead to even bigger TV contracts for tournaments, higher purses for players and more golf course developments.