Loyal readers of this column – I continue to be in awe of your enduring powers of stoicism by the way – will know that I do like a national observance.
There was one Tuesday, for instance, when these back page musings and meanderings appeared on World Tripe Day, which was all wonderfully fitting.
Try telling that, though, to the brassed off folk at the Tripe Marketing Board who sent me a strongly-worded letter informing me that this tenuous association with my weekly witterings brought terrible publicity to the edible stomach linings of various ruminant animals.
You may be intrigued to know that we are now in the merry midst of International Clown Week. “It lasts the whole bloody year with you,” grimaced the sports editor as he stubbed his toe on his golf writer’s comedic oversized shoes.
In the big top of fun that is the Olympics, meanwhile, golf is savouring another cracking day.
Yes, I know many of you probably joined the legions that were groaning about the lack of coverage on the BBC – in a nutshell, Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) bought the Olympic rights back in 2015 and the old Beeb can’t afford everything, hence the dippings in and out – but if you did catch it then it was quite the treat.
Let’s face it, there’s been a lot that’s turned people off men’s professional golf over the last couple of years. The greed, the entitlement, the petty bickering, the prolonged palavers about framework agreements and frankly yawn-inducing updates from subcommittees. Golf itself has been a mucky four-letter word.
The Olympic event is hardly a break from the norm. It’s still a staple 72-hole strokeplay competition after all, but it provided a refreshing change.
It was all about pure competition, if you can say that about the Olympics these days. I’d better check the IOC terms and conditions on that one. Apparently, you still can. Just.
Anyway, the Paris 2024 golf showpiece felt memorable and meaningful, not money driven. It was a thrilling spectacle jampacked with storylines as a world-class fight for supremacy unfolded at a boisterous Le Golf National.
The brilliant Scottie Scheffler captured gold, but, in many ways, golf had captured hearts and minds.
Scheffler, the world No 1, was reduced to tears as the medal was draped around his neck after he produced a 62 on the final day to deny the gallant Tommy Fleetwood, who took silver at the end of a week in which appalling atrocities had visited his hometown of Southport.
Scheffler has amassed something like $28 million on the PGA Tour this season but standing on top of the podium made him sob. Or maybe it was because he’d earned only $37,500, the amount the US Olympic Committee pay all gold medal winners?
I’m kidding. That medal is clearly worth its weight in you know what for golf’s dominant figure. This was about pride and passion, not personal gain.
A crestfallen Jon Rahm walked away with nowt having been in command, Rory McIlroy mounted a charge then, infuriatingly, found water out of nowhere while Frenchman Victor Perez generated the kind of racket that just about shoogled the girders on the Eiffel Tower with a rousing 63 that left him one shot shy of a medal.
Then there was the tale of Tom Kim, who needed to win a gong to avoid a stint of national service with the South Korean army.
Can you remember as a young ‘un when you used to stand over a putt and whisper, ‘this for The Open’. Imagine hovering over a knee-knocker and muttering, ‘this to avoid 21-months of mandatory military training’. That would focus the golfing mind.
In the aftermath of it all, McIlroy made a telling admission. “I still think that the Ryder Cup is the best tournament in our game; it’s pure competition,” said the Northern Irishman, whose ruinous plunge into the water with a short iron on the 15th scuppered his hopes of a nabbing a place on the podium.
“I think this (the Olympics) has the potential to be right up there with it. With how much of a s*** show the game of golf is right now, the two tournaments that might be the purest form of competition in our sport, we don’t play for money.
“So, it speaks volumes for what’s important in sport. I think every single player this week has had an amazing experience.”
Golf didn’t need the Olympics but being part of it is certainly no bad thing. In many nations, Olympic status generates government funding for vital development.
Yes, it’s easy to be cynical but it’s important to embrace the wider value of golf’s presence at the Games, even though it will take time for that significance to be truly measured.
“I feel like only two percent of Chile know what the PGA Tour or LIV Golf is,” suggested Chilean standard bearer Joaquin Niemann last week. “The other 98%, probably 100%, all know what the Olympics are.”
The world’s best female players, who embraced the Olympic spirit far more readily than their male counterparts when golf returned to the Games at Rio in 2016, get their chance to shine again this week.
The men’s event will take some beating, but the good ladies will be hoping to conjure another Olympic Sunday that money just can’t buy.
