Golf should loudly celebrate Olympic inclusion, then tinker with formats | Ewan Murray


The news golf has an Olympic future barely caused a ripple but should be shouted from rooftops – provided the formats are more imaginative than in Rio

It felt like a classic case of missed opportunity. Olympic golf had been beset by such a wave of negative publicity before the actual event got under way in Rio that the success of the competition itself, plus the weight Justin Rose placed in victory, was much needed. So, too, was the news that golf had finally and formally been retained as an Olympic sport for 2024 in Paris.

Yet it was a case of blink and you’d miss the latter situation. Rather than celebrate a stirring recovery from the point where players questioned the validity of Olympic inclusion – and in several high-profile cases refused to travel to Brazil – the news trickled out.

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