Golf: Tennis lessons for the IOC

If the International Olympic Committee is looking for the reason golf should not be an Olympic sport, the answer is Nicolas Massu.

The little-known Chilean tennis player won the men's singles in Athens by beating American Mardy Fish in the final.

A big day for Chile, who also won the doubles, but hardly a highlight for the Greeks or their visitors.

Missing from the final stages were the world number one, Roger Federer, and two of his recent challengers in Grand Slam events, Andy Roddick and Tim Henman. With no dollars at stake, they took in the sights and atmosphere and moved on to the next big pay day.

To be honest the world couldn't care less - and golf would suffer the same fate. Who's going to value an Olympic gold above a win in one of the majors?

But the IOC is not deterred.

Golf is one of the five sports, with rugby, squash, karate and roller sports, being assessed with a view to supplanting one of the established sports for the Olympics of 2012.

Paris is a contender for those Games and it is ironic that golf was a fringe sport when the Games were held there in 1900. Twelve players competed in 36 holes of strokeplay, with the gold medal going to American Charles Sands.

Ten women competed over nine holes with American Margaret Abbott prevailing.

Four years later in St Louis, the golf was restricted to Americans and Canadians, with the Americans winning a team title and Canadian George Lyon a matchplay event.

The next Olympic venue was London, but the Royal and Ancient disapproved and the golf medals were never awarded.

London is another contender for 2012 - can we look forward to a 49-year-old Vijay Singh trying to win Fiji its first gold while 37-year-old Tiger Woods sends his ageing Kiwi caddie off to find McDonald's fries for his kids?

What a difference a year has made in the career of Bay of Plenty golfer Josh Geary.

This time last year, he missed selection for the Bay team to play in the nationals at Christchurch and as reserve carried the drinks as they retained their title.

This weekend, he comes to Remuera for the Garrard Shield as number two for the Bay, but more importantly as one of the three-man team who will represent New Zealand in the Eisenhower Trophy in Puerto Rico.

The Garrard Shield is the traditional 10-man trial before Bay of Plenty, Auckland, Waikato and Northland pick their teams for the nationals, to be held next month in Napier.

The Bay are without Terry Hong and George Kinghorn from last year's lineup. Hong is in Korea and should be back for Napier but the selectors may delay naming their team. Mark Smith continues at number one with Jae An at three, Jason McIntosh at four and Danny Lee at five.

Waikato, runners-up in the nationals last season, will be without national squad member James Gill, who has university exams. The talented lefthander Guy Penrose is back in contention at number five.

Auckland will be without matchplay expert Richard Hislop and Logan Holzer. Mid-amateur champion Glen Goldfinch comes in at three behind Eisenhower representative Kevin Chun and Matt Cormack.

Teenager Dale Clarke will play number one for Northland ahead of former All White cricketer Alex Tait. Bay of Plenty hold the Garrard Shield, and Auckland will defend the junior Ralph Cup.