IOC Expresses Concern Over 2020 Olympic Golf Venue

The Guardian's Justin McCurry reports that while the IOC has "reportedly expressed concern" and has contacted the International Golf Federation over Kasumigaseki's male-only and no-Sunday play membership policy.

The club's GM told McCurry that they are prepared to review their policies if asked by the IOC. However, a non-profit launched last year to "modernize" the game in Japan is calling for the event to move.

The Japan Golf Council, a non-profit organisation launched last year with the aim of modernising the game, is lobbying to have the tournament moved from Kasumigaseki to Wakasu Golf Links, a public course near Tokyo Bay. Wakasu was initially proposed as the 2020 golf venue, but was replaced by Kasumigaseki in early 2013, several months before Tokyo was chosen to host the Games.

The council’s vice chair, Yutaka Morohoshi, said staging the golf competition at Kasumigaseki made no sense given its distance from Tokyo, and the availability of an alternative course that could be used by members of the public after the Olympics had ended.

“The Olympics is all about legacy, but we won’t have that if the golf tournament is played at a private club,” Morohoshi told the Guardian. “The ban on women at Kasumigaseki is certainly a problem. It runs contrary to what the IOC stands for in spirit.”

Established in 1990, Wakasu was designed by Ayako Okamoto and is 6881 yards with a tiny 20-stall, 200-yard deep driving range. Judging by the aerial, it's a fantastic location severely landlocked and design deficient to handle the competition.

Here We Go Again: Tokyo Governor Calls On 2020 Olympic Golf Venue To Admit Women

Amlan Chakraborty of Reuters says Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike has asked Kasumigaseki Country Club to admit women as full members.

"I feel very uncomfortable about women not being able to become a regular member in this era," Koike told reporters on Friday.

And for good measure, the club that will host the 2020 Olympic golf, bars women on Sundays. Unreal.

You really have to wonder how this slipped through the Tokyo 2020 vetting process for the course.

Rory: "I hate that term 'growing the game'...golf was here long before we were, and it's going to be here long after we're gone."

Part 1 of Rory McIlroy's open and engaging chat with the Independent On Sunday's Paul Kimmage is worth a read, and while his comments about the Olympics got most of the attention, the grow-the-game views and his comments on Tiger stood out.

On the Olympics, he explains himself well and, in hindsight, probably would not have had to wheel out Zika if he'd just said what he tells Kimmage. Then again, his grow the game remarks might have gotten him a lecture from Mssrs Dawson and Finchem.

RM: Well, I'd had nothing but questions about the Olympics - 'the Olympics, the Olympics, the Olympics' - and it was just one question too far. I'd said what I needed to say. I'd got myself out of it, and it comes up again. And I could feel it. I could just feel myself go 'Poom!' and I thought: 'I'm going to let them have it.'

PK: (Laughs)

RM: Okay, I went a bit far. But I hate that term 'growing the game'. Do you ever hear that in other sports? In tennis? Football? 'Let's grow the game'. I mean, golf was here long before we were, and it's going to be here long after we're gone. So I don't get that, but I probably went a bit overboard.

PK: They were goading you.

RM: Yeah, but maybe I shouldn't have reacted in the way that I did. But Olympic golf to me doesn't mean that much - it really doesn't. I don't get excited about it. And people can disagree, and have a different opinion, and that's totally fine. Each to their own.

PK: There was a lot of blow-back for you afterwards. When you were asked about it after the opening round you said: "I've spent seven years trying to please everyone and I figured out that I really can't do that, so I may as well be true to myself."

RM: Yeah, I mean when it was announced (that golf was to be an Olympic sport) in 2009 or whatever, all of a sudden it put me in a position where I had to question who I am. Who am I? Where am I from? Where do my loyalties lie? Who am I going to play for? Who do I not want to piss off the most? I started to resent it. And I do. I resent the Olympic Games because of the position it put me in - that's my feeling towards it - and whether that's right or wrong, it's how I feel.

Ok, so we won't pencil you in for Tokyo 2020.

As for the tired "grow the game" phrase, it's wonderful to see a player single it out.

May I propose "sustain the game," which would allow McIlroy and others not look hypocritical when working to inspire kids to take up the game, something he clearly enjoys. Because we know the "grow" is merely a product of fear that the numbers have, gasp, flatlined.

On Tiger:

RM: I’m drawn to him, yeah. He’s an intriguing character because you could spend two hours in his company and see four different sides to him. When he’s comfortable and he trusts you — and his trust (sensitivity) is way (higher) than mine — he’s great. He’s thoughtful. He’s smart. He reads. He can’t sleep so that’s all he does — he reads stuff and educates himself on everything. But he struggles to sleep, which I think is an effect of overtraining, so I tell him to calm down sometimes. He’d be texting me at four o’clock in the morning: ‘Up lifting. What are you doing?’

PK: Really?

RM: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's never dull!

Rio Golf, Brinkmanship And The Future

To kick off Morning Drive's Design Week, we had to discuss the sad news out of Rio that not a thing has changed with the ownership, operational obstacles and overall state of affairs.

And I spoke with Gil Hanse to get the architect's side of things. Having seen just about everything imaginable there, he offered that he was bitterly disappointed but also said this for our Monday Golf World.

“We witnessed this type of brinksmanship during the construction of the course, and we are hopeful that this is another example of having to hit a low point before things get better.”

A friend emailed to say he debated the Rio golf course situation and came down on the side of letting it fail, with a quick return to the capybaras and many birds that have taken up residence. Given the poverty issues in Rio, the corruption of its government and the well-documented troubles of the past, I get that point of view.

In fact, I'd support walking away if the golf course and Brazillian Golf Federation had given things a shot and things just didn't pan out. But since we learned the course does not have signage, a website or any sign that an attempt is being made less than four months since golf made a magnificent return to the Olympic Games, it just doesn't feel right for the course to not have been given a chance to excite young players, test burgeoning ones or take the money of folks who want to test a brilliant design amidst a thriving natural environment.

Finchem Hints At World Cup Format As Possible Olympic Sport

If you've been busy with the holidays and unable to watch the ISPS Handa World Cup from Kingston Heath, you've missed out on some glorious golf architecture and pretty good golf. The stakes figure to get a lot more intersting Friday when the players go back to foursomes play. The event wraps up Saturday night at 5pm on Golf Channel as four-ball play decides the title.

Since the Zurich Classic received a very warm reception for its move to a two-man team format, the momentum seems to be headed toward team play in the Olympic Games.

Adam Pengilly of The Age reports on the first hopeful sign of progress, from that progressive Commissioner his ownself, Tim Finchem.

"The feedback is very positive [on team-based formats]," the PGA Tour's Commissioner said. "We're looking at the formats for 2020 and we like individual competition, but we'd also like to mix in a different competition or two and we're looking at different possibilities.

"We might end up saying, 'we'll keep it the way it is', we might recommend a couple of changes on certain days where we do a different type of competition. And it also affects scheduling so we're looking how that all works."

So we know individual competition is staying because this game of individualists is addicted to 72-holes of stroke play. (Even though until the last days, golf came off as a painful slog in the context of the higher, faster, stronger Games).

But we know two-person team match play would be superb. Two days, at least, are needed for that.

So if you factor in individual stroke play, we're up to at least six competition days. With the PGA Tour showing no interest in ceasing play for two weeks every four years, the pressure to keep things as tight as possible could actually be used to Olympic golf's advantage.

Because right now, by adding team competition of some kind, we're looking at 12 days of competition between men and women. That may be too much for officials, fans and volunteers.

There is a final key caveat as explained to me by IGF officials who will create and present any changes: the IOC does not want to see two medal competitions in one.

Translation: a team medal cannot be awarded from the stroke play competition.

So here is my final offer:

72-holes of stroke play from a field of 60. Three medals will be awarded just like we saw in 2016. If you want to shorten the competition days to ten overall between men and women, make the first day a 36-hole first and second round. (Rio could not handle that due to shorter winter days, whereas Tokyo, Paris and Los Angeles will all have plenty of daylight.)

From that competition, the low eight two-person teams (based on country with pairings pre-determined by world rankings), advance to a two-day match play event. They are broken up into Pools A and B based on seedings from the stroke play competition. (Countries that only send one player or an odd number of three will not be included, sorry.)

Day one of the two-person team match play is a 27-hole day, with three 9-hole foursomes matches played by each team within their pool. With nine-holes and foursomes, you may be looking at some very quick matches, addressing the speed issue that plagues the game.

The two top teams advance from those pools to an 18-hole gold medal match, with the runners-up playing an an 18-hole bronze medal match. How ties in the pools are decided, I'm not sure. But sudden death playoffs would be fun.

So to recap: five or six days of competition, with stroke play while team foursomes match play introduces a shorter, faster, high-pressure format. Both nine-hole rounds and alternate shot are put on an international stage for the world to see golf is not the slog it can sometimes be.

What do you think?

Riviera Becomes LA 2024's Olympic Golf Course

While it's a world class course unfortunately owned by not-very-world class people, Riviera gives the LA2024 bid committee a famous layout in the effort to bring the Olympics to southern California.

David Wharton reports for the LA Times.

Unfortunately, this means there will be no effort to resuscitate Griffith Park, the original bid committee plan. Given that the LA City courses are in such a terrible place--five of them have shuttered pro shops because no one wants to deal with the City of LA--the Olympics provided hope that 2024 might leave public golf here in a better place.

But the LA 2024 bid is emphasizing already-built facilities over legacy projects and Riviera fits that bill, even if it'll be surrounded by $20 million homes and down to a tiny membership with entry fees already approaching $300,000 (that's including required "donations" to the club's effort to fund the 2017 U.S. Amateur to procure better waiting list positioning).

None of this will fit the "grow the game" message we heard this year and which validated Rio's effort to build a public course.

es, it was a headache and tough, but wasn't it worth it to show the world that great golf can be played on a course anyone can play?  That won't be the case in 2020 or 2024, assuming LA gets the Games.

"Rio deserved a more balanced, less hysterical prologue, just as it deserves a more balanced, less triumphal epilogue."

Two respected journalists and Olympic Games veterans tied up the loose ends of Rio and suggest that the pre-Olympics coverage was badly overblown given Rio's winter time weather (and therefore, no mosquitos).

Alan Abrahamson was the longtime Olympics beat reporter for the LA Times and now has his own site, 3 Wire Sports, devoted to Olympics coverage.

He writes:

The developed world’s assessment and pre-Games judgment of developing Brazil smacked, in many instances, of smug privilege if not the very worst strands of colonialism and imperialism. Why expect Rio to be London or Vancouver?

Social media amplified the predictions of catastrophe. A threat on Reddit was dedicated to the “Apocalympics.”

Consider the Zika thing — which, among other consequences, purportedly led to the withdrawal of many top male golfers from golf’s debut at the Olympics.

The World Health Organization said last Thursday that no one appears to have caught Zika at the Games. That means, according to WHO, “spectators, athletes or anyone associated with the Olympics.”

To be even more direct — not one worker at the Rio golf grounds.

Yet the world’s top guy pros wouldn’t or couldn’t go?

Turns out, you had a better chance of dying from running into a swarm of angry capybaras who had just tasted the press room coffee.

(The on-course lack of a Zika issue was pointed out here first (June 29, 2016) that no members of the crew had been infected, yet, the world's top golfers who stayed away didn't get a link sent their way.)

Christopher Clarey of the New York Times, who has covered the Olympics since 1992, admits to falling for the pre-Games coverage and laments it.

Exhibit A was the four cans of mosquito repellent, bought in the United States, that were sitting unused on a table in my hotel room, a still life to fear.

This is not to imply that the Zika virus has not been a major issue in Rio or that water pollution in Guanabara Bay does not remain one. But it is to make clear that a lot of us in my business got it wrong when it came to the impact those issues would have on the Olympics themselves.

“All we do is read what’s in the headlines, and the headlines always scare you,” said Bubba Watson, one of the leading golfers who did elect to play in the Games when many opted out.

Rio deserved a more balanced, less hysterical prologue, just as it deserves a more balanced, less triumphal epilogue.

Tweaking The Olympic Golf Format: Golf Needs More Disciplines

Even if you have disdain for the Olympic golf concept or discussion of the Games at this point, the issue of what to do going forward in Tokyo 2020 is important for all to consider.

Why? Because the fallback excuse for golf not broadening its format horizons is consistently lame: 72 holes of stroke play is the most recognized format for deciding a champion. Therefore, we're stuck with it in the Olympics even though even the most casual fan can see it's not very Olympian.

Stroke play is only the most recognized because any effort to introduce new formats has been strangled, trampled and bemoaned by players, who are paid not for their creativity and vision, but to display their golf skills. Yet as the Ryder Cup reminds us every two years when played with formats that most modern players would have torpedoed in a policy board meeting, the event produces consistency entertaining spectacles.

Olympic golf offering more disciplines and team fun should be our immediate priority, while weaving in other formats beyond the Games should also become a focus of the IGF. Showing fans the many ways golf can be played beyond card-and-pencil stroke play will do more good than any grow-the-game initiative.

Doug Ferguson of the AP declared Olympic golf a success in this story, quotes Peter Dawson mentioning how the IOC doesn't want a "trial format," and then gets to a possible solution that gets team play into the 2020 games.

The Summer Youth Olympics nailed it in China two years ago, though the field size was 32 players instead of the 60 players for the men's and women's competition in Rio.

The boys and girls each played the first three days for a 54-hole individual medal. Then, they played mixed team the next three days — 18 holes of foursomes, 18 holes of fourballs, and two singles matches to reach a 72-hole score. Sweden won the gold in a playoff over South Korea, while Italy won a playoff for the bronze over Denmark.

One idea being kicked around is to stage a mixed-team event the last two days between the men's and women's competitions. That could be either fourballs and foursomes on the same (long) day, or a 54-hole event with foursomes one day, and two singles the next day. That way, every shot would count.

My colleague Jaime Diaz made a valid point: the men’s event was such a success, that this actually frees the IGF to propose a bolder format tweak to Olympic golf instead of merely trying to keep it in the Games as is.

My polling of IGF officials, players and Olympic veterans suggests the following parameters must be kept in mind:

—60 player fields will probably not change. Even though many golfers, as expected, stayed outside of the Olympic Village because they traveled with family and spouses, golf still most can’t exceed that number.

—World Ranking points will likely remain for qualifying. But it sure would be fun to hear of a more creative way that introduces a "play-in" element that serves as a great way to create excitement going into the games. If team play is introduced, shouldn't players be able to pick their partners ala beach volleyball?

—Individual stroke play will remain, and it'll be 72 holes. A 36-hole final day could be interesting, but with five hour rounds that would be a long day for players, volunteers and the course maintenance crew.

--The IOC doesn't like competitions within competitions. Therefore three days of stroke play that determines a two-person team medal, followed by a one-day stroke play event, does not work for them. Unless its gymnastics.

—The Olympic format should be recognized in some international event of significance. Pointing to the Ryder Cup for Four-ball and Foursomes play makes our task easier. The WGC Match Play has added pool play, so that’s covered too. However, proposing rounds of less than 18 holes become an issue in this scenario.

—Mixed Events Are Big With The IOC. I haven’t thought of a way that a mixed doubles event works outside of the one outlined above by Ferguson, but the mixed team concept appeals to many. Though it would appeal more if players could select their partners and qualify (think Martin and Gerina Piller!). Golf would need to have a mixed event added to the PGA Tour, LPGA and European Tour schedules, something that is long overdue anyway.

—One week is enough for each gender. Keeping the golfers at the Games for all two weeks would be excessive. As would too many 36-hole days. Let them go enjoy the Olympic spirit. As we saw with Rickie, Bubba and the other golfers last week, having our game’s stars interacting with the other athletes not only gave a great impression, it positively changed their perspectives.

As I discussed with Gary Williams on Monday's Morning Drive, we have to get a two person team competition. Based on the feedback of those in Rio and in watching, I'd like to see one of two ideas considered (neither incorporates the mixed element).

--72 holes of stroke play, with the three low two-person teams awarded medals after 54 holes for best aggregate scores. Yes, some countries only send one player, but enough send two (or four) that world rankings could determine teams. Not a perfect concept and it's not introducing match play, but it's a competition that would spice up the first three days significantly.

--72 holes of stroke play, followed by two days of team match play. Award medals for individual performance and use the medal play days to whittle the match play down to the best 8 teams from the first four days. This gives players something to play for if they are out of the individual medal race. From the 8 teams qualifying,  play a four-ball or foursomes match play event over two days to determine three more medals.