Golf will rejoin the Olympics games, about 112 years after it stopped being an Olympic sport. The International Olympic Committee’s executive board voted to include both at its Berlin executive board meeting.
The recommendation must be rubber-stamped by a full meeting of the IOC congress in Copenhagen in October.
Softball, squash, baseball, karate and roller sports were also hoping to be included, but have all missed out.
Golf was played at the Paris Games in 1900 – when Walter Rutherford and David Robertson won silver and gold respectively for Great Britain – and four years later in St Louis, but has never returned to the Olympic agenda.
One of the main issues has been whether top players will compete in the Olympics when they already have a full schedule, but superstar Tiger Woods indicated on Tuesday he would play.
The proposed format would be a 72-hole strokeplay competition for men and women, with 60 players in each field. The world’s top 15 players would qualify automatically, and all major professional tours would alter tournament schedules to avoid a clash with the Olympics.
IOC president Jacques Rogge said winning an Olympic gold medal would remain one of the main ambitions for top golfers, despite the traditional lure of the four major championships – The Masters, The Open, The US Open, and The USPGA.