Ian O'Riordan: Golf’s future at the Olympics is already stuck in a bunker

You know it’s almost summertime in the Dublin mountains when the O’Brien brothers knock up for some golf and a pint outside Johnnie Fox’s. Not necessarily in that order, it turns out, as they had a pint first and then headed off for some golf.

In fairness, the glen has been magnificent all week: that first scent of golden-fleeced gorse, the sprouting ferns and sprinklings of yellow primrose, the gently crying lambs off in the distance. Even for non-golfers such as myself, there’s something serene about the short fairways and soft greens of Willie Fox’s Par 3, and any game that allows for a pint beforehand deserves approval.

That doesn’t mean it deserves a place in the Olympics. Indeed, the case supporting golf’s readmission for Rio later this summer, after a 112-year absence, took a major hit this week when three leading names in the game declared their intentions not to take part. None of them mentioned the fact there is no prize money in Rio, although more leading names are expected to follow suit, and already it feels like they’ve turned Baron de Coubertin’s old motto on its head.

Louis Oosthuizen from South Africa was the latest of them, the 2010 British Open champion declaring on Thursday that “family and scheduling issues” had forced his withdrawal. A day earlier, Australia’s Adam Scott declared likewise, the 2013 Masters champion citing an “extremely busy playing schedule”.

Exhibition event

Scott had previously admitted that winning an Olympic medal wasn’t something he’d ever aspired to, and that the golf in Rio was “an exhibition event”. It’s clearly not the pinnacle of his sport, in other words, when that should actually be the primary measure of all Olympic events. It’s worth noting too that Scott has hardly figured at all in any of the golf tournaments scheduled around the time of the Olympics for the last couple of years.

Vijay Singh, meanwhile, also withdrew over what he declared were concerns about the Zika virus. The 53-year-old from Fiji may well have some pregnancy issues to prompt that decision, although no male athlete serious about winning an Olympic medal is letting the Zika virus stand in his way. Not yet anyway.

No wonder the International Golf Federation (IGF) are suddenly fretting, stating later on Thursday such withdrawals were “regrettable”, but that “it is our belief that the unique experience of competing will live forever with athletes that take part”.

The problem is that they can’t even convince their own golfers of that. Rory McIlroy has already admitted that “an Olympic medal is still not as big as a major”, while American world number two Jordan Spieth was a little more diplomatic, saying he’s “unsure” and that only after 10 to 20 years will he know how significant a gold medal will be in golf.

The worry for the IGF is that golf may no longer be an Olympic sport by then. When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted in 2009 to add golf and rugby sevens, raising the number of sports from 26 to 28, it was for 2016 and 2020 only – with a vote to extend that taking place next year. Part of the condition was that they prove the Olympics could be viewed as the pinnacle of those sports. That might be happening for rugby sevens, but not yet for golf.

That 2009 vote may actually have sensed it: rugby sevens was voted in 81-8 by the IOC members, golf getting a much less emphatic 63-27.

No one was being blinkered by the fact money was doing much of the voting here. By opening its doors to golf – as opposed to squash or karate – the IOC has significantly sweetened its TV money pie, although if the leading golfers aren’t there, that becomes a harder sell beyond 2020.

Indeed lack of interest was the reason golf was initially scrapped: the Canadian George Lyon, who beat six Americans for the gold medal in St Louis in 1904, showed up at the London Olympics in 1908 to defend his title, only to discover he was the sole entrant.

It may still be too early to tell the exact motivations for the likes of Oosthuizen, Scott and Singh to bypass Rio, and whoever else presumably follows suit. Maybe they simply got cold feet after this week’s reminder the Olympics are fast approaching, with the ceremonial flame relit on Thursday.

There is another notable date hovering. By Friday week, May 6th, all potential Olympic golfers must sign up to more stringent drug testing by the US Anti-Doping Agency, including random out-of-competition tests and information on their whereabouts in the run-up to Rio – neither of which are currently demanded under the PGA Tour’s anti-doping policy.

Banned

Indeed, the PGA Tour is effectively a year behind the Wada code; meldonium, for example, is still not on their banned list until the end of the 2016 golf season.

Not that golf has ever had any major doping scandals, Singh himself one of the only leading players to cause any stir when in 2013 he admitted to using the banned growth hormone IGF-1, which was contained in his deer-antler spray. Singh was cleared of any doping offence, partly because the PGA Tour weren’t actually testing for IGF-1 at the time.

So, while there is little to suggest any golfer will be bypassing Rio because of more stringent drug testing, there is already enough evidence that golf at the Olympics should be treated as a mere exhibition event, which at least one of its leading players has recognised.