The headline from Golf Digest reads: Olympic golf debate intensifies.
Although this seems like something that would have filled the pages just ten years ago, this one was published in the January 1993 issue.
“Golf has entered the murky waters of Olympic politics,” Peter McCleery’s article reads. “How golf will emerge from the fray is the number one talking point for the game’s insiders heading into 1993.”
However, negotiations broke down later in the month. It is interesting to see how the talks got to this point.
The 1996 Summer Games were held in Atlanta. Billy Payne, long before he was president of Augusta National and even before he was a member of the club, was the head of the Atlanta organizing committee. He wanted to bring golf back to the Olympics. So he worked with Augusta National president Jack Stephens, and the two men agreed that Augusta National would be the ideal place to host the event.
The idea, which seemed obvious, was met with skepticism.
This excerpt is taken directly from the January 1993 article: Aside from the infighting and horse-trading that is inevitable in such a process, the most unpleasant element of Olympic golf for many is the participation of professionals in the games. In the name of recruiting the best athletes, the Olympics have long since abandoned the amateur ideal—and if there were any doubts, they need only look to the NBA’s “Dream Team” from the 1992 Olympics. Olympic golf, if it comes to that, will clearly involve professionals playing for God, country and the gold medal. Among the most vocal critics of this movement is Don Ohlmeyer, the independent television producer who has worked on five Olympics for ABC. “I love the Olympics, but I’m not a fan of what the IOC is doing,” he says. “What I see is destroying the character of the Olympics. I’d rather see Tiger Woods in the Olympics than a professional golfer.” I think the IOC is making a huge mistake by putting people in the Olympics who don’t care about the Olympics that much.” Because what they’ve done is taken away this mystique that people do something because they love it, and it’s the greatest moment of their life.
Remember, this was January 1993, just months before a 17-year-old Woods won his third straight U.S. junior title.
“Golf is already a major international sport, seen every week on television by millions and millions of people,” PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman said in 1993. “There is no need to promote professional golf internationally. I have believed for years and have always maintained that amateur participation in the Olympics would be a great thing for golf. It would be a great thing for amateur golfers around the world to aspire to the Olympics. But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen (an Atlanta Olympics with pros).”
LPGA Commissioner Charlie Mechem was more optimistic about the concept, saying he thought the opportunity to showcase his athletes competing on the same stage as the men in front of a global audience of up to four billion viewers was something worth pursuing.
Davis Love III and Fred Couples, two of the best American players of the time, though friends, were on different sides of the issue. Love pointed out that golf already offered the Ryder Cup, Walker Cup and World Cup as opportunities for a golfer to represent his country and thought the idea of having professional basketball players compete was a bad idea.
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Couples, indicating they would love to participate, bluntly said, “Some men won’t want to change their schedules, but when the time comes, they will.”
The format was already planned for 72 holes of stroke play, as it is now. And Stephens said he was confident that Augusta National, which is closed in the summer and open in the winter, would be in good shape for a two-week period in July and August 1996.
But it all came to nothing. Payne announced in late January 1993 that his office was withdrawing the proposal to bring golf back three years later.
It was only in 2009 that golf was allowed to return to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, after a 112-year hiatus. This year, the men’s competition will be held from August 1-4, and the women’s from August 7-10 at Le Golf National, near Paris.
