Features
The 2024 Summer Olympics,
officially known as the Games of the
XXXIII Olympiad, is a forthcoming
international multi-sport event to be
hosted by either Los Angeles or Paris.
On the men’s side, last year’s Olympic golf
was boosted by a thrilling gold-medal tussle
between Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson,
which has been understood to have spawned
elevated Television audiences in comparison
with other sports.
Steve Mona, Chief Executive of the World
Golf Foundation (WGF), reinforced the view
that golf’s presence in the Olympic Games
has positively affected participation numbers
around the globe.
“What we’ve observed by watching how other
sports really have taken a nice bounce…off
of their Olympic exposure, is if young people
can watch these great athletes from their
country do well in the Olympics on television,
then they’ll be more likely to wanting to
emulate them,” Mona said ahead of the event
last year.
“We believe the Olympics is going to inspire
young people who are already playing
the game to replicate what they see these
athletes do on TV and compete at a higher
level. One day, they may also be standing on
an Olympic podium.”
Before IOC’s latest announcement, golf
was only previously approved for the 2020
Games in Tokyo, with the men and women’s
competition to be held at Kasumigaseki
Country Club.
With Paris being bookkeepers’ choice for the
2024 host city, Le Golf National ¬– the site of
next year’s Ryder Cup, would be the course
where the men’s and women’s tournaments
would be contested.
If Los Angeles would win the bid, the host
venue is expected to be Riviera Country Club,
the annual site of the PGA TOUR’s Genesis
Open.
The news of utilising an already existing golf
course is welcomed, as the Rio course has
been a white elephant.
Only three months after the Games ended,
the $19 million facility created by star US
designer Gil Hanse, is looking neglected and
eerily empty without a pro-shop or a golf pro.
With too few locals playing and no apparent
plan in place for attracting international
players, funding has become an imminent
problem for the course.
Neil Cleverly, the Briton who built the course
and now manages the upkeep, says the
company he works for, Progolf, has not been
paid for two months. “What happens when
we run out of gas or diesel? We’ve been
close,” Cleverly said.
“None of us know if there’ll be a job for us in
December.”
The Olympic site, run by the Brazilian Golf
Confederation, is open to the public with
green fees as high as $74-$82 per person for
residents and $192 for international visitors.
Golf Industry Central I Winter 2017
27