The International Golf Federation (IGF) is making a push to make golf an Olympic sport.  Annika Sorenstam, Colin Montgomerie and other tour leaders have been meeting with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) this week with the goal of making golf an Olympic sport in 2016.  Six other sports (baseball, squash, karate, roller sports, rugby sevens and softball) are trying to do the same.

The IOC is listening to proposals from all 7 sports and will select 2 sports in August that will join the 26 current summer Olympic events.  Golf is believed t to be the unofficial front-runner among the 7, due to its wide appeal and international presence.

The IGF’s presentation will call for a 72-hole stroke play tournament for men and women.  There will be a 60 player field and three hole play-offs will determine the medal winners.

Here’s an interesting article I found regarding the ban of smoking on golf courses. If you are like me, you like to have a nice cigar while playing golf with the fellas.  I’d be a little disappointed if courses banned smoking on the course.

Now, I can understand the health concerns behind the bans that certain cities and states have on smoking in restaurants and other buildings.  It’s hard to escape large amounts of second hand smoke when you are crammed in a building with other people.  However, it’s very hard to suck in second hand smoke while outside.  So what is the health concern that courses will hang their hat on if they attempt to ban smoking?  Who knows.

All I know is that I would limit the courses that I play if any of my favorites decided to ban smoking.  I find it best to protest with my wallet.

What about you?  Do you think courses should ban smoking?  Would you stop playing at a course if they banned smoking?

Cable channel WGN America and the organizers of an amateur golf tournament have agreed to a deal that will allow the tournament to be televised in mid-May over 13-episodes.

So what’s the big deal about a golf tournament getting a cable deal?

The rules of this tournament are loosely based on the rules of poker.  The players will bet on each hole using chips, with the player with the fewest strokes on the hole as the winner (basically forcing your opponent to “fold” the hole).  The entry fee for the tournament is $10,000, with an expected first prize at $300,000.  The tournament will be held at the Las Vegas Paiute Resort.

The tournament was aired on CBS last year, but tournament organizers opted out of the contract, thinking that cable would bring more flexibility to the scheduling and playing of the tournament.

May will mark the PGA’s 12th annual Free Lesson Month.  Throughout the month, PGA and LPGA professionals will provide free 10-minute lessons to golfers of all skill levels.

For a full list of professionals participating in in Free Lesson Month, click here.

Will golf make a return to the Olympics in the 2016 games?  It will if Tiger Woods and other prominent golfers have anything to say about it.

Woods and several other players have recently made a push with the International Olympic Committee to have golf added as an Olympic sport again.  Golf was last recognized as an Olympic sport at the St. Louis games in 1904.

Read the full article here.

Anyone want to see golf played in the Olympics?  Or, given the number of foreign born players on the PGA Tour currently, would it be just like any other tour event?  What sort of format would you want to see?