The Sandspur

Issue date: 2/12/10 Section: Sports

Media Credit: MCT Campus QUESTIONS ABOUT QUALIFYING: Rules would leave 2009 British Open winner Stewart Cink off the US team if it were chosen today.

For the first time in 108 years, golf will be an Olympic event, as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved the sport for competition in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The competition will pit 60 men in 72-hole individual stroke-play. As devised by the International Golf Federation's Olympic Golf Committee, the top 15-ranked players in the world will qualify automatically, with the following spots going to 45 players ranked 16 and below, but with a twist: each nation can only have two representatives, aside from those guaranteed entry due to rank.

The good news is that golf boasts an international cast of great players, with the top 100-ranked players in the world coming from 22 different nations. Not only are they good, but they have been growing: of the 12 Major Championships played in the past four years, internationally-born players have won seven. Comparatively, only eight winners of the 21 prior majors were born outside of the U.S.

But if the Olympic team were chosen today, a staggering 60 of the top 100 players would be automatically ineligible, including last year's winners of the U.S. Open and British Open, 22nd-ranked Lucas Glover and 21st-ranked Stewart Cink. This could make for a particularly sparse field, which could challenge golf's Olympic success right out of the gate.

But it is important to consider that a lack of star-power ruined baseball's recurrence as an Olympic sport, as the Major League Baseball season is in full swing during the Olympics. Hockey faces the same problem during the winter games and the NHL has experimented with halting its season to allow its players to represent their countries, but Commissioner Gary Bettman has voiced that the league will rethink future plans to suspend play. Golf may find itself in a similar situation.

As the Olympics often encompass the entire month of August, the IOC is taking care to avoid stepping on the toes of the PGA Championship, one of golf's four annual major championships. The mid-August PGA tournament may take precedence over Olympic competition in the minds of golfers, with the availability of larger winnings at stake. But while golf's best players often opt out of tournaments that surround Major tournaments, the Olympics may carry enough weight to gravitate golfers towards playing.

Tiger Woods has pledged to play in the event, claiming he will if he has not retired from golf and successfully qualifies for the team. At 40 years of age, his entrance could make him the most internationally known athlete in the entire Olympics, and possibly the most successful professional athlete to ever compete.

His participation could also mask the problems of the qualifying selection for the time being by guarantee viewers. But once he eventually retires from the game, the event could still suffer from such a wonky system. Despite its potential troubles, the inclusion of golf in the 2016 Olympics could be the perfect opportunity for Tiger to pass the torch to the world, fanning golf's flames to new corners of the globe.

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