Augusta National Floated as Backup Plan for Rio Golf

Is one of the world’s most famous golf courses ready if Rio 2016 can’t deliver the one under construction?

Worries about whether the grass will be ready for the world’s best professionals in August 2016, when golf returns to the Olympic program, is among the top concerns about preparations in Rio from the IOC.

The course in the city’s West has been under construction for more than a year but still has yet to be seeded, a process which won’t begin until July. While two years seems like a long time for grass to grow into turf of world-class quality, sometimes there are problems with the first growth and reseeding in the next season is needed. That is the scenario which would lead the IOC to look for a dramatic plan B, ATR is told

In Belek, Turkey, where the IOC Executive Board met this week, rumors swirl that Augusta National, site of this weekend’s Masters tournament, is plan B. Located about three hours east of Atlanta, Georgia, the club is now headed by Billy Payne, once the president of the Atlanta Olympics.

While this rumor is being raised by a member of the IOC commission for Rio which just visited the city, an IOC member who knows golf says it would be impossible. The biggest problem, he notes, is that Augusta is closed in the month of August, two months ahead of the normal opening of the course.

Moving an Olympic event out of the host country has been done once before. In 1956, Stockholm took over the equestrian events when quarantine rules prevented horses from traveling to Melbourne, Australia where the rest of the events were held.

If it ever came to pass that Augusta did host the golf, the irony would not be lost on Billy Payne. In October 1992, Payne convened a press conference at Augusta wherehe unilaterally declared that he wanted to bring golf to the 1996 Games and do it at Augusta.

Things went downhill pretty quickly with civil rights leaders in Atlanta and across the U.S. complaining about the absence of black members at the club (which also excluded women). Not consulting the IOC beforehand was also another mistake and he dropped the idea a couple of months later after IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch let him know it would not be supported.

South Korea IOC Member in Ethics Probe

Around the Rings is told that the IOC Ethics Commission has reopened its file on South Korean IOC member Dae Sung Moon.

The tae kwon do Olympic medalist is accused of plagiarizing his doctoral thesis by the South Korean university which awarded him a degree in 2007.

The Ethics Commission opened a file on Moon in 2012 when the university issued its first verdict against him. Last year, as the appeal process dragged on at the school, the commission closed the file but said it could be reopened once the appeal was finalized. That happened earlier this year and the ruling affirmed the plagiarism charges, stripping Moon of his doctorate.

Moon has denied the charges and is said to be launching a civil action against the university to get his degree reinstated. It remains to be seen whether this legal maneuver will forestall the ethics inquiry that happened when the probe originally started.

Now 38, Moon is a member of the IOC by virtue of his election in 2008 as a member of the IOC Athletes Commission. He has two more years to serve in his term.

Written by Ed Hula

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