It’s not as if golf’s return to the Olympics Games has not had enough to bear already.
Widespread scepticism about the rationale for the sport’s first appearance since 1904. Considerable criticism of the course construction of the new course in Rio, the format and just about everything else.
Leading players like Adam Scott and Charl Schwartzel pulling out. World No 1 Jason Day and Rory McIlroy visibly “swithering”. Now the Zika virus.
On top of all this, it’s been uncovered the last strident advocate for golf in the Olympic Games seems to have been…Adolf Hitler.
The curious and unlikely exposing of Hitler as a golf fan is detailed in a fascinating new book by the former Courier golf correspondent Alan Fraser, “The Hitler Trophy – Golf and the Olympic Games” (Floodlit Dreams £9.99).
What started as an overview of golf’s brief appearances at the Games in 1900 and 1904 and a detailed appraisal of the way back plotted by Peter Dawson and the International Golf Federation found a much more interesting story dating from 1936.
Hitler, apparently, badly wanted golf in the Games – despite having previously thought it an elitist pastime – and indeed for the noble game to be one of the national sports of Nazi Germany.
And he wanted it part of the Berlin Games of 1936, even though by the time the Fuhrer’s focus came upon the game, there was no way to fit it into the IOC programme.
Undeterred, the Nazis simply held their own event “The Golf Prize of Nations” under the umbrella of the main Games. And if there was any doubt that this event had approval from the very top, the trophy – a gold plate encrusted with eight medallions of the finest German amber – was personally gifted by Hitler.
36 countries were invited to Baden Baden , but only six turned up, with England the only established golfing nation represented, by the duo of Arnold Bentley and Tim Thirsk.
Naturally they won easily, and there is a fantastic tale that the Fuhrer himself, on his way to the course to present his trophy, turned back in pique when he was informed the Englishmen and not the Germans had won.
Whether that tale is true or not is forensically examined, as well as how the frankly rather unlovely trophy found its way to a Glasgow collector, then to the British Golf Museum, and finally to be purchased at auction for £15,000 by Hesketh Golf Club, where it now proudly resides on display.
Quite apart from the remarkable story of Hitler’s trophy, the book examines the golf’s chequered Olympic history, when events were called off due to lack of entries (1908 and 1920) and the general hostility from the game’s establishment. Some of the detractors from 1908, for example, sound uncannily like those in 2016.
The Zika excuse
Staying with more contemporary Olympic issues, it seems widespread fear of the Zika Virus is convincing wavering golfers not to go to Rio.
Rory McIlroy first brought it up, before investigating the issue properly. Everyone else seems unable to, perhaps restricted by their knees jerking.
Zika is borne by mosquitos, and there is evidence that that it has already reached well beyond Brazil to Mexico and the Caribbean.
Unless Donald Trump’s proposed wall has fabulous security beyond anything we imagined, it’s not going to be long before it hits the USA.
In any case, a large amount the contemporary cases of Zika are sexually transmitted. Unless the golfers are planning a different kind of Olympic trip than we envisaged, they’ll surely be okay.
Plus, as Rory discovered when he consulted expert advice, there’s an accurate test for Zika and even in the unlikely event of contracting the virus, it passes through the system in six months.
Maybe I’m cynical but it just seems like for some people this is a ready made excuse to back out of Rio.
Disingenuous statements
I’m struggling to judge which is more disingenuous statement last week – the R&A/USGA’s laughable joint statement on distance or Tim Finchem’s declaration that moving the WGC away from Donald Trump’s Doral to Mexico was “in no way political”.
The ludicrous governing bodies statement we shall leave to another time. As for Finchem, of course the Trump decision was political.
The reason the WGC had to move was because the sponsor, Cadillac, pulled out. They did so because they did not want to be associated with Trump, and his political statements.
Meanwhile, Trump’s Turnberry reopened to great fanfare last week. I didn’t attend, but I believe my colleagues who did when they say the Ailsa is much improved.
Only, the quality of the course is not the issue in terms of the Open going back. It was good enough even before Martin Ebert’s spectacular improvements.
The relevant issues are logistic, financial, and most of all the real fear that Trump will turn golf’s greatest championship into a personal publicity stunt.