IOC member warns golf

An International Olympic Committee (IOC) member has said that golf should not have a place in the Olympic Games if it is unable to bring its top players.

Speaking to New Zealand based radio station Newstalk ZB, IOC member Barry Maister said what is happening in golf is "appalling." Maister, 68, won a gold medal for New Zealand in field hockey in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.

It certainly has not been a great week for golf on the Olympic front, with Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, and Brandon Grace all withdrawing.

"I don't like it, and I don't think the sport should be allowed to continue in the Games under that scenario," Maister said. "Once they've got in, they have got to deliver. Just getting in with your name, and then putting up some second- or third-rate players is so far from the Olympic ideal or the expectation of the Olympic Movement. The Olympics is about the best, and they pledged the best.

"Quite frankly, any sport that cannot deliver its best athletes, in my view, should not be there."

I think that is a bit rich though. Talking about the being far from the Olympic ideals is really pushing it, as I had always thought that the Olympics were about the celebration and promotion of amateur sport. Well that certainly used to be the case.

This debate will rumble on and on, but I’m just sad that golf hasn’t taken the opportunity offered to it on plate to reach a new and global audience.

Related:

Click here or on the link below to read about Gary Player’s latest Olympic intervention