The Olympics Could Use a Mulligan on Golf – Wall Street Journal

On a Friday in October 2009, a delegation of golf executives and players arrived at the Copenhagen Marriott hotel to make one last pitch to members of the International Olympic Committee.

Already, golf luminaries from Tiger Woods to Jack Nicklaus had sent video testimonials expressing their support for the sport’s return to the Summer Games. Now, on the day the IOC would vote on golf’s fate, two prominent professionals—Padraig Harrington of Ireland and American Michelle Wie—flew in to make personal appeals.

“We felt good at the time that we had the support of the top players,” said Ty Votaw, vice president of the International Golf Federation.

The result was to be a boon for golf’s image around the world, a validation of its athleticism and recognition of its global reach. But with less than a month to go, golf’s return to the Summer Games for the first time since 1904 has devolved into something that was unfathomable in 2009.

It has become an embarrassment, both for the governing bodies that lobbied for it and the Brazilian officials who bulldozed a nature reserve to build a course for it.

As if it weren’t enough that he and the other top-four ranked men’s golfers are skipping the Games, Rory McIlroy said Tuesday that he might not even watch Olympic golf on television. When asked which Olympic sports he might prefer to watch instead, McIlroy mentioned track and field, swimming and diving. “The stuff that matters,” he said.

It was the most stinging dismissal of Olympic golf yet, in part because of whom it came from. With Tiger Woods out indefinitely, McIlroy is golf’s most recognizable active player. He would have been among the marquee Olympic athletes competing in Rio de Janeiro next month, had he not withdrawn due to concerns over the Zika virus.

Olympic golf organizers have long touted the event’s potential to help grow the game worldwide. But what became clear Tuesday is that the top men’s players do not feel obliged to lead that effort.

Speaking at Royal Troon Golf Club ahead of this week’s British Open, world No. 3 Jordan Spieth expressed dramatically higher regard for Olympic golf than McIlroy did. He called his decision to withdraw for unspecified health concerns one of the hardest of his life, and one he may later regret. Nonetheless, he said, “I don’t feel like I have to carry the torch…for the sport or anyone else.” Likewise, McIlroy said, “I didn’t get into golf to try and grow the game.”

Spieth said he hopes to play in four or five Olympics by the time his career is done, but the effect of all the withdrawals has put golf’s Olympic future in jeopardy. The support of top players was a significant part of golf’s pitch to the IOC. While golf is set to be included in the 2020 Games in Tokyo, its future beyond that will be subject to an IOC vote in 2017.

Richard Peterkin, an IOC member from St. Lucia, wrote on Twitter on Monday: “Well I guess golf is not really that interested in remaining on the Sports Program. Lots of other interested sports.”

Nineteen eligible men’s golfers have withdrawn from the Olympics, a lack of participation that is unparalleled in other sports and even in women’s golf, which will see all of its top players in Rio.

IGF president Peter Dawson said Monday that players were overreacting to the Zika threat. While that point is debatable, the disappointment of people involved with Olympic golf is not.

Gil Hanse, the architect who designed the Olympic golf course, said he spoke recently with course superintendent Neil Cleverly about the disappointment shared not only by them but also the local grounds crew.

“His staff isn’t that conversant in golf, but when they hear all the news, they think, ‘Wow, we’ve worked so hard to get this golf course in great shape and all we’re hearing about is why people aren’t coming,’” Hanse said. “The morale of the crew has taken a big hit.”

The decision to include golf in the Olympics was controversial from the start, and presented a slew of problems for Rio. Not long after the city won the bid for the Games in 2009, local prosecutors and environmentalists raised questions about the course, which was built over a nature reserve and surrounded by luxury high-rises. Even senior local officials have questioned golf’s place in Rio, calling it a rich man’s game that few Brazilians play or watch.

Hanse, who spent 380 days living in Rio while overseeing the course construction between 2013 and early 2015, said the developer that owned the site was slow to bring in the necessary equipment and staffing. That delayed construction by eight to nine months, which in turn delayed the Olympic test event until March. Only a handful of local golfers attended.

“We were just sitting there waiting to build but weren’t given the resources to do it,” Hanse said.

Local organizers say the decision by top male golfers to pull out of the Games has nothing to do with the Zika virus or the controversy surrounding the course.

“[The golfers] have decided not to come for personal reasons, it has nothing to do with Zika or Rio,” Rio Olympics organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada said. “Everybody knows that Rio isn’t the reason anymore. Everyone knows the course looks perfect.”

Like golf in the Olympics, the future of the course is uncertain. It is due to remain public for 20 years after the Games, while being privately run, but the contract for the maintenance of the course has not been finalized, according to Andrada. One of the luxury condo developments surrounding the course, Riserva Golf, offers units for up to 12 million reais ($3.6 million).

A promotional website for Riserva Golf reads: “The noblest sport in the world is about to gain a new headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, and best of all, it will be in the backyard of your new apartment.”