Golfers will go for gold in 2016
Sport finally regains Olympic status
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/10/2009 (6144 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
SAN FRANCISCO — Golfers from nine countries are staying together this week in a hotel that could pass for an Olympic village. They are playing for the flag, not cash, with a gold prize going to the winning team.
In some respects, the Presidents Cup is like an Olympic event.
On their way to Harding Park on Friday morning, Tiger Woods, Ryo Ishikawa, Camilo Villegas and other players learned they might have a chance to play for a gold medal.
“It’s a perfect fit for the Olympics, and I think we are all looking forward to golf getting into the Olympics,” Woods said.
It was reinstated, along with rugby sevens, for the 2016 and 2020 games following a vote in Copenhagen by the International Olympic Committee.
“Awesome news,” Canadian Mike Weir said. “It means a world-class athlete like Ryo Ishikawa… can have the opportunity to win an Olympic medal for his country, something none of us in golf would have thought possible when we were growing up in the sport.”
The last time golf was part of the Olympics was in 1904, when George Lyon of Canada won the gold medal and the United States won the team title. That makes the Americans the defending champions in Rio de Janeiro, never mind the 112-year gap.
Woods, the world’s No. 1 player whose Olympic support was seen as vital in golf’s bid, will be 40 when Rio rolls around; he’s already said he would compete, hopeful of adding a gold medal to his collection of green jackets and claret jugs.
British Open champion Stewart Cink isn’t sure he’ll get that chance.
“It’s great for golf,” Cink said. “I don’t know if it’s great for me or not because I’ll be 43 and I might be over the hill by then. But it’s exciting. I think that when a sport gains Olympic status, it gets a lot more attention, and national sports institutes tend to pay a lot more attention. So it will only do good for the game of golf.”
Golf had support from every tour around the world, men’s and women’s, along the a variety of its biggest stars — from Woods and Jack Nicklaus and Padraig Harrington, to Annika Sorenstam, Lorena Ochoa and Michelle Wie.
— The Associated Press
