JTOG: The Spirit of Olympic Golf, Born Again, Rio 2016…

PLEASE click here to make a donation to The First Tee. I am back in St. Louis at the Union Station Hotel and Glen Echo CC, host to the 1904 World's Fair and the Summer Olympics, on August 5th, 2015, exactly one year from the Opening Ceremonies of the 2016 Summer and Golf Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Nearly two years ago I came here with my knickers and hickory-shafted golf clubs to officially kick off the 'Journey to Olympic Golf,' a 100-day, 14-country, 18,471-mile odyssey from the 1904 Olympic Golf in St. Louis to the new Olympic Golf Course in Rio that will host Olympic Golf for the first time in 112 years. Why? Because the idea came to me as a creative journey to try to define something abstract and elusive as a feeling or an emotion, what defines the 'Spirit of Olympic Golf,' something that has not been experienced for 112 years. How best to get to this new understanding? Visit Olympic Cities—Atlanta, St. Louis and Mexico City along the way to the newest Olympic City of Rio to extract the spirit of the Olympics. Combine that with the history and tradition of golf, enhanced by first hand playing and investigative experience in those 14 countries along the way, to arrive at a new fundamental  definition of the 'Spirit of Olympic Golf.' Nearly two years into this quest, now with only one year remaining before that spirit will be experienced by 60 female and 60 male Golf Olympians from around the world, I am closer, but not yet there to put my thoughts and feelings down on paper. After reflecting back I point to the following three experiences of this "golf voyager and documentarian." The first experience to reference would be walking the fairways of Glen Echo CC, which are virtually the same as when the club hosted Olympic Golf in 1904. Only 75 golfers from two nations (3 from Canada & 72 from the United States) competed in a 36-hole stroke play qualifier with 32 golfers advancing to the 36-hole match play competition. Only one Canadian qualified for match play and he went on to win the Individual Men's Gold Medal—George Lyon. The second contributory experience was from this (CLICK HERE) highlighted video interview with Champions Tour player Mike Hulbert. While many can and will argue that Olympic Golf is no more and probably much less than playing for one's country in the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup, or even winning a Major Championship or THE PLAYERS Championship or a World Golf Championship (WGC) or a historically equivalent world-wide competition like the World Cup, I think Mike tapping his chest in a simple and genuine heartfelt gesture says it may be a whole lot more. One could start with the fact that 10,500 athletes from 205 countries will compete in the 2016 Olympics. Olympic Golf is different with an all-inclusive, world-wide, human spirit of which golf will only be a small contributing part. The 'Olympic Spirit of Golf,' I sense, is something bigger than golf and will define golf in a new and healthy way. The third contributing experience has to be the artwork of Pebble Beach artist Suzanne Yost McCourt. Golf is in her genes as her father was a top-rank amateur from the Northwest that competed in the Masters at Augusta National and many Crosby's on the Monterrey Peninsula. Only through the discovery of his golfing memorabilia long after his death was the ember of a golfing spirit reignited in her being that focused and transfixed her artistic genius to the game of golf. One example of what the 'little girl in the red dress' produced is this piece of artwork entitled 'The Journey to Olympic Golf.' Her neo-realism technique of art and documentation captured the essence of the 100-day, 14-couintry, 18,471-mile journey to Rio following the creative spirit through Olympic cities and around golf courses along the way. A sense of rediscovery, personal, sport and world-wide impactful is captured in the transformation of the hickory golfer to the modern golfer as the Olympic golf ball is teed up and swooshes from St. Louis to Rio. McCourt's creation captures the essence of how far the game of golf has come in the last un-Olympic 112 years. There is more to come. That Olympic golf ball is teed up and ready to soar on the Gil Hanse-Amy Alcott and around the world in one year when the first Olympic Golfer swings at it. Who knows what the impact on the game of golf will be? In reality, these three contributions—the history and experience of Olympic Golf at Glen Echo CC, Mike Hulbert's heartfelt gesture, and Suzanne Yost McCourt's artwork—capture the essence of the Olympics beyond the sports competition. This sentiment was well voiced by Paulina De Labra in this (CLICK HERE) highlighted Video Interview in Mexico City—any sport in the Olympics is as much about cultural and everyone that makes up our world community as it is about the sport. As Paulina says, "We are all only one kind of beings- human beings, defined by friendship and respect (of each other's cultures). We are all the same with the right to create and to develop our dreams." Let's dream, let's let the 'Spirit of Olympic Golf' be born again. Let the Games of the XXXI Olympiad begin, in a year from now... and the 'Spirit of Olympic Golf' will materialize for sure!