COMMENTARY

By Jim Litke

AP columnist

updated 7:43 p.m. ET Sept. 23, 2004

Think the dozen golfers on the U.S. Ryder Cup team looked dyspeptic last weekend getting drummed by Europe? Just wait. The real fun could still be a few years off.

One day, those pampered souls and their putters might have to face Fiji, mighty Fiji, in the Olympics.

The soonest it could happen is the 2012 Games, and that’s only if the International Olympic Committee gets its way. You’d think taking junkets all the time and handing out medals every four years — not to mention taking one back occasionally — would be tiring enough to keep the swells who run the IOC from hatching grand new plans in between. But no.

In another sign they haven’t yet filled up all the working hours once devoted to taking bribes, the IOC on Wednesday notified the governing bodies of golf and four other sports that they made the short list for possible inclusion in 2012.

It’s hard to muster strong feelings about rugby, squash, karate and roller sports, but golf is a different matter. Like mountain climbing, choral singing, dumbell-swinging, still fishing and tug of war, it was once part of the Olympic roster. Golf was dropped following the 1904 St. Louis Games and there hasn’t been much clamor for its return before now, other than some preliminary discussions in 1992, when the Atlanta power brokers who locked up the 1996 Summer Games dangled the possibility of playing matches at nearby Augusta National.

Golf certainly satisfies the most important criteria laid out for a sport to join the Olympics. It has an ever-growing number of participants and spectators around the globe, and the last dozen years have seen the emergence of world-class professionals in even the most far-flung corners.

But let’s be clear about this: What makes golf considerably more attractive to the IOC and NBC is money, money and more money. Enough to line the pockets of most everybody involved.

However, the last time the subject came up, most of the talent had too much money at stake and too little time to voluntarily punch a two-week hole in their schedules to represent their country free of charge.

Peter Dawson, secretary of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, has already gone on record saying neither the PGA nor European Tour were thrilled by the idea. Small wonder. Like tennis, another proven moneymaker jammed into the Olympic schedule without much fanfare and even less return, it remains to be seen whether the public would buy into an Olympic golf tournament as a way of producing a true world champion.

The U.S. golfers, to be sure, won’t march willingly in anybody’s opening ceremony parade. The last time the subject was broached, the late Payne Stewart, a veteran of Ryder Cup and several other international competitions, shook his head slowly and smiled. “That might take some convincing,” he said. “Most everybody out here is used to playing for something.”

Anybody who heard all the whimpering that followed their latest humbling in the Ryder Cup was reminded of that. A dozen U.S. players are already committed to that event and the Presidents Cup in alternating years, and a few of the top-ranked golfers usually compete in the World and Dunhill Cups on top of those. And the last thing the Olympics need is another set of disgruntled pros expressing that unhappiness by tearing through the minibars in some five-star hotel.

Besides, the idle rich already have enough to do at the Olympics. Even forgetting all the pros from moneyed sports like basketball, tennis and hockey, they’ve cornered the market on sailing and equestrian. And with figure skating, synchronized swimming and gymnastics already part of the games, who needs another set of high-strung actors decked out in bad costumes?

IOC president Jacques Rogge repeatedly has said the roster is frozen at 28 sports, with around 10,500 athletes, and sports will be added only if others are dropped. By carving out a place for golf on the short list, the IOC told hopefuls such as bowling, water skiing, billiards, ballroom dancing, chess, bridge and surfing not to expect an invitation anytime soon.

So golf has that going for it, at least. It’s mind-boggling to think what could have happened if ballroom dancing went big-time and Don King horned in. Anybody for a “Last Tango in Paris”?