If I was to say the name George Lyon, there’s a good chance a lot of golfing enthusiast wouldn’t know who I was talking about. 

Yet Canadian Lyon is the current reigning golf Olympic champion. He won gold at the 1904 games held in St. Louis, and golf has never featured at the Olympics since.

However golf has been rubber stamped to appear in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games for the first time 112 years. Golf was included ahead of many other sports hoping to be represented in Rio including baseball, softball, karate and squash.

 

It is almost impossible to give a definition of an Olympic sport that will please everyone. Some people say it should be the pinnacle of a sportsman career. Others say it should have a global appeal. Well golf certainly has that, but would winning an Olympic gold medal mean more to the worlds top golfers than winning the Masters? 

Golf isn’t the only Olympic sport where a gold medal may not be their top prize. I think it's fair to say almost every footballer in the world would rather win the World Cup, and every tennis player would rather win Wimbledon, yet football has been at every games apart from 1896 and 1932, and tennis has been there ever since 1984. 

The main debate about whether or not golf should be included revolved around whether or not the top players in the world would participate, despite their already busy schedules. 

However former world number one Tiger Woods is a big supporter of golf at the Olympics and wrote personally to the IOC, as well as recently saying “I think its great for golf. It’s a perfect fit for the Olympics.”

The proposed format is a 72-hole stroke play event with 60 players in the field. The top 15 ranked players will qualify automatically and all professional tours have agreed to alter their schedules to avoid a clash. 

If all the top players do participate then golf could be a fantastic addition to the games, and something that will remain a permanent fixture for many years to come.