aside from my personal dislike of professional sports being inserted into the Olympics – this goes completely against an international Olympic competition.

there aren’t nearly as many countries represented on the PGA Tour as there are countries who would want to have a player or two in an Olympic tournament. The Olympics are supposed to include qualified representatives from every civilized country in the world. If the PGA and LPGA Tours santion the tournament(s), where does that leave countries without tour members ?

travel – it’s already hard enough to get American PGA Tour players to go outside the North American continent except for the British Open. (it’s hard enough to get these guys to go to Canada !) The Olympics are in August – almost two months after the British, and obviously at the end of the regular season and the beginning of the Fed Ex Cup playoffs. (not to mention 2016 is a Ryder Cup year) As prestigious as an Olympic medal is, they aren’t going to hold the games in the US very often – and these guys aren’t going to travel.

Golf already has an international team event – in fact – it was played in China last December. Adding another one in the middle of the playoffs won’t go over well.

Michaux wanted to change the PGA to the international event every 4 years. Nothing was said about the LPGA and its players, but their schedule is a little more flexible, and the women already do more travelling than the men. Can’t see that happening. The PGA Championship is also one of the major fundraisers for the PGA every year.

Scheduling and American players already reluctant to pond hop just seem to make it unlikely. BUT – there are 8 years between now and then – by 2016, we might be beaming from place to place instead of flying. :-)

I still don’t like the idea of adding another professional event – that’s my biggest complaint to the idea. If you want to “grow the game”, as is the current favorite cliche, you don’t do it with professionals – you do it with the amateurs. Amateurs are the ones with the idea of national pride in them.

I wish I could take credit for it, but Chris Dimino of 790 the Zone in Atlanta was talking about Olympic events – actually – what should and shouldn’t be an Olympic event. (aside from the obvious “if it has a judge, it’s not a sport”, of course)

His idea is that if the Olympic Gold isn’t the highest award in the sport, it shouldn’t be an Olympic event.