Olympic Golf Brings Partners Together in Carnoustie

(ATR) As the world’s finest tour pros compete for the prestigious Claret Jug at the 147th Open Championship in Carnoustie, Scotland, International Golf Federation president Peter Dawson says that Olympic golf is right on course for Tokyo 2020.

Dawson and IGF executive director Antony Scanlon held their regular board meeting, along with members from the R&A and other Olympic tournament delivery partners earlier this week in Carnoustie.

"It has been a great catalyst – the IGF Board and Olympic golf are bringing all the big bodies in golf together, it is perhaps one if its great side effects," Dawson tells Around the Rings during the second round at the venerable course.

Dawson said a one-hour meeting was productive. The Scottish golf executive – who led the R&A for 16 years, before becoming IGF’s first and only president – said the two primary topics addressed were preparations for Tokyo 2020 and the governing body’s bid for golf in the Paralympics.

"There are not too many hot issues now, things are flowing well," Dawson advised.

"One of the things we do set out to do is to be a really supportive and participative member of the Olympic family – we see that as part of our role here.

"We like to give the IOC and other bodies like WADA every support that we possibly can and Antony does a sterling job with that."

The IOC released the competition schedule for Tokyo 2020 earlier this week, and as expected, everything remains the same for Olympic golf as in Rio 2016. The men will contest a four-round, stroke play tournament culminating on Sunday, Aug. 2 followed by the women who will conclude their event the following Saturday.

The Olympic tournament will be played on Kasumigaseki Country Club’s East Course, which dates to 1929. Renowned designers Tom and Logan Fazio completed renovations in 2017, raising the caliber while substantially lengthening the venerable course from 6,970 to 7,466 yards.

"We have no issues at all with the golf course," Dawson said, praising the work done by the Fazios.

"We’re going to be putting some more agronomy help in there, not because it is a crisis, we just think we can do it a little more.

"We have a stable situation in Tokyo, unlike the situation we had in Rio, where we ended up with a wonderful golf course, but it was a torturous process."

Dawson said Tokyo 2020 will be an entirely different situation than in the lead up to Rio 2016, when numerous elite pros opted to skip golf’s return to the Games after 112 years for a myriad of reasons, including concerns over the Zika virus.

"I think the players will enjoy the course – having seen the first edition of golf in the Olympics in the modern era in Rio and the wonderful medal podiums we had with Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar, and the wonderful podium for the women, I think we’ll have no difficulty attracting all the players who want to play," he said.

Dawson said Japan’s passion for the sport will bode well for Olympic golf.

"Japan, being the second largest golfing nation on the planet, I think support for the event will be phenomenal," he said.

Japanese golf star Hideki Matsuyama, 26, is currently ranked number 16 in the world and should contend for medals in 2020.

"What would a Japanese winner do for the game in Japan and the Olympics?" Daswson asked rhetorically. "I just can’t imagine – it would be phenomenal and it could happen."

Olympic golf is among 28 core sports extended through Paris 2024 by the IOC executive board in June 2017.

The Paris 2024 Olympic course will host the largest international event in its history as the 2018 Ryder Cup will be contested on the greens and fairways at Le Golf National in late September.

"Having a Ryder Cup there, you’re going to know about the golf course and what it can do, so we should have no fears for 2024," Dawson said.

Written and reported by Brian Pinelliin Carnoustie, Scotland

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