KEY POINTS:
Just as the Olympic Games are held every four years, so is there a quadrennial discussion about whether golf should be part of them.
Now, though, it's serious. Before the British Open last week, some of the heavy hitters of golf announced they want golf back in the
Olympics in 2016.
Peter Dawson, secretary of the R and A, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and his number two, former LPGA Tour boss Ty Votaw and European Tour chief executive George O'Grady are professional golf's most powerful decision-makers. Under the auspices of the International Golf Federation, they want golf back in the Olympics for the first time since 1904.
We don't know where the 2016 games will be held. Chicago, Paris, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro are bidding. If Brazil wins, then forget it. The final two sports still have to be decided and golf will be competing against rugby sevens, squash, karate, roller sports, softball and baseball.
Golf has the world's most recognisable athlete as its marquee player. And the IOC just love stars as they drive TV revenue.
Tiger will be 41 in 2016 but he'll be a lot younger when the host and the programme are chosen next year.
Golf's elite are becoming more enthusiastic. They see Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Kobe Bryant and Ronaldinho prepared to move outside their multi-million dollar worlds and play for the old-fashioned concept of glory and a gold medal - knowing full well that even more millions come with being an Olympic gold medallist.
The concept of golf at the Olympics has always been a struggle. What out its status be compared to the major championships? Should its reputation for integrity and honesty be risked by association with the sometimes tawdry antics of the IOC? Ironically, Dawson and his colleagues think that because various PGA Tours now have random drug testing, their chances of success are much better.
Olympic golf was played just twice - in 1900 in Paris and 1904 in St Louis. The current Olympic champion is Canadian George Lyon who beat the US Amateur champion H. Chandler Egan in the final. Of the 75 competitors Lyon was the only non-American.
It was strictly amateur and Lyon, who a Canadian pole vault record holder, walked to the prizegiving ceremony on his hands! He went to London to defend his title in 1908 but the British golfers boycotted the Olympics because of some internal dispute and the tournament was cancelled.
The most recent attempt at resurrection was the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Augusta National were prepared to let their famous property be used but the black politicians of Atlanta, insulted at the way the club and the sport had always treated their race, put an end to that.
The Olympic movement could do a lot worse than put this great game, and its associated values, in the programme in eight years.
