How Augusta National Almost hosted Olympic Golf in 1996!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Here is a fascinating story of how August National almost hosted Golf for the 1996 Olympic Games. But even the might of Payne Stewart and Billy Payne could not overcome one woman’s objection. Find out what that was. Thanks to Sam Weinman of Golf Digest for this breaking story!
Rio Olympics.
If you’ve been at all following golf’s inclusion in the Rio Olympics, you likely know that the sport has returned after a 112-year absence. What you might not know, however, is how golf almost returned two decades ago. Or that the potential course was not some hastily constructed new layout, but the most celebrated venue in golf.
A brief refresher: After succeeding in bringing the 1996 Olympics to Atlanta, Billy Payne, then the head of the Atlanta Games organizing committee, turned his attention to making golf an Olympic sport. Better yet, he got then Augusta National chairman Jackson Stephens (at this point, Payne, now Augusta National’s chairman, was not even a club member) to agree that Augusta National should be the host venue. Payne’s promise of delivering both the best players in the world and the storied venue was enough to persuade International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch to get on board with the idea as well.
Arnold Palmer hitting the opening tee shot at the 2015 Masters.
In October 1992, Payne and Stephens held an outdoor announcement at Augusta National, where, according to a follow-up story in Golf Digest, “Augusta National gave trinkets adorned with the familiar Augusta National logo, but featuring the five Olympic rings inside the Augusta flag.”
What do you think of the Course for Olympic Golf in Rio in 2016.
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Olympic Golf returned in 2016. The significance of this event globally is HUGE!
This golf course, built specifically for the Olympics, will be used as a public course once the Olympics are over. Additional bonuses in the creation of the Rio course include the utilization of some fairly useless land. It helps to grow the game in Brazil, where there are no high-level players of note. Congratulations to Gil Hans, who has persevered through thick and thin to get this project finished (with a few more grey hairs), and thanks to Will Medlock of Golf Monthly for the story!
We take a look at the Reserva Marapendi Golf Course in Rio.
In less than twelve months time, golf will make its long-awaited return to one of the biggest sporting stages in the world.
At the 2016 Rio Olympics golf will be welcomed back after a 112 year absence, with some of the best players in the world set to compete for a gold medal.
There will be 60 professional men and women taking part, despite the call from many for the sport’s return to be open to amateurs only.
We decided to take a better look at what we already know about the course that the likes of Rory McIlroy will play for the very first time next August.
You Won’t Believe Which Sport in the 2016 Olympics is Your Best Bargain!
Golf Chats is a website to encourage discussions on various subjects relating to the game of golf. I am Mel Sole, Director of Instruction of the Mel Sole Golf School and SAPGA Master Professional. I invite you to enter into a discussion on this or any article on the golfchats.com website. The input is for the entire subscriber base to learn something new each time! Please post your comments below. Keep it clean and tasteful. We are here to learn from one another!
Yes, it is golf—what a great surprise.
Alan Bastable, writing for GOLF Magazine, tells us that other sporting events will set you back between $90 and $125 each.
See this story to find out how to get in on this amazing deal!
The Olympic Course for the 2016 Games has not been without its problems. However, Gil Hanse says it will be ready on opening day!
Ticket-hunting for the 2016 Olympics in Rio?
Admission to the preliminary rounds of judo and equestrian jumping will run you up to $90. Top-end tickets for the gymnastics, swimming and volleyball prelims cost about $125 a piece. While a premium seat to the opening ceremony will set you back a cool $1,600.
