Clippings: Olympic Golf’s Return...A Year Out

A year and a few days removed from golf's Olympic return the buzz is understandably more like a low hum thanks to the over-saturation of the product, as envisioned by Lord Farquaad. I'm confident that as we get closer, the Olympic excitement will kick in, but in the meantime golf's year-round approach seems to be producing

If you're a fan of the Olympics than this Guardian story gives a nice one-year-out overview, though the hopes of the British athletes can be skimmed over. More interesting is that it's clear the recent news of unhealthy water seems destined to overshadow the golf course drama since our venue won't be able to induce violent bouts of diarrhea.

IGF Olympic Golf Committee Vice President Ty Votaw reflected on Morning Drive about the effort since April 2008 to return golf to the 2016 Rio Olympics. Watch Morning Drive on Golf Channel.

Kevin Maguire looks at the field if the event were held today.

Bob Harig on the mixed views about Olympic golf. Rickie Fowler channeled his inner Yogi Berra.

"It's a new thing for golf obviously being the first time in there,'' said Rickie Fowler, ranked fifth in the world. "For me, it would be a dream come true I haven't ever dreamt of. You always watch the Olympics, and you look at the opening ceremonies and closing ceremonies and being around the best athletes in the world in their respective sports.

A dream come true I haven't ever dreamt of. Take that Yogi!

On the business side, it's interesting to note in this AdAge story (FWIW) by Jeanine Poggi on corporate sales for NBC is the addition of golf’s role in adding more content to sell.

NBCU has even more time to sell in the 2016 Games with the reintroduction of golf into the Summer Olympics. NBCU-owned Golf Channel will be airing the golf matches, "so we have a lot more sports to bring to the marketplace," Mr. Winter said.