Comments on: Does golf really deserve a place in the Olympics?

By: Alfredo

Alfredo — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:58:21 +0000

To Simon :
I was a volunteer at the Kaohsiung World Games. And I saw top athletes that would be happy to have 10 dollar extra to something recreational. Karate and Ju Jit Su are cheaper contact sports. The problem is that they are not money making sports so that is why it is more difficult for them to get included in the Olympics.

By: betty

betty — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:37:08 +0000

Dear Miles,
just loved your blog sweetie and couldn’t agree more about that horrid sport golf. I’ve always thought it was a dreadful way to ruin a nice walk on one’s estate. But cherub, please, please, please don’t give those riff-raff any more credit than they deserve. I almost spilt my Manhattan cocktail on my steak tartare when you said they were the “ultimate…exclusive club.” Oh darling, you know as well as I do that the equestrian club would never allow a Tiger to join and the last thing you want in the yacht club is a Great White Shark. And I cannot imagine what the fencing club would say if Fuzzy turned up and don’t even get me started darling on what the shooting club would do to that Wild Thing. So sweetie, please don’t lower yourself to their standards. Anyway, toodle-doo and I’ll see you at the fox hunt on Sunday darling.

By: Noah

Noah — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:31:00 +0000

NO!!!!!

By: Jayk

Jayk — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:55:20 +0000

tennis, football and now golf. what place do they have in the olympics? why not american football? or chess?

By: des

des — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 18:26:35 +0000

NO NO A THOUSAND TIMES NO. Not because it’s expensive – have you tried buying a racing yacht or carbon track bike lately – but because golf doesnt need the Olympics.
It has four majors and a Ryder Cup, a flourishing amateur game and millions of pounds sloshing around. Get it out, along with tennis and soccer.

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:56:12 +0000

My bag of used clubs cost me $50 and I play on a nice municipal course in Florida for $10 a round. So it is possible to play golf on the cheap.

But…I think you are right on the Olympics and one could even go further and ask the question whether golf is actually a sport in the first place?

After all, everyone loved the Tom Watson story at the British Open this year but surely the fact that a man who turns 60 next month had a chance to win one of the game’s premier events tells you something.There aren’t too many Tom Watson’s in traditional Olympic sports.

Golf is a wonderful game, a great passtime and a nice way for people to keep themselves in some sort of shape by walking around for a few hours.

But Citius, Altius, Fortius?