DPA/St. Andrews


Olympic chief Thomas Bach has advised the world’s top golfers to shun their accustomed luxury living and stay in the Olympic Village when golf returns to the Games next year.
“I can only advise them to stay in the Olympic Village, because if they don’t, afterwards they will regret it,” he said at the Open Championship in St Andrews yesterday.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, who won a team gold in fencing at the 1976 Games in Montreal, wants the likes of world number one Rory McIlroy and this year’s two-time major winner Jordan Spieth to mix with other athletes in Rio de Janeiro.
Bach said the NBA Dream team in Barcelona in 1992 had insisted on renting whole floors of hotels, but after they made a tour of the Olympic Village they asked to stay in the village for future Games.
Multi-millionaire golfers - some of whom are accustomed to flying to tournaments in private jets - should also “share the Olympic spirit” by staying with the athletes in the village.
“If they don’t do it the first time, I’m sure given this experience they will do it the second time,” he said.
Bach said he wanted to see the world’s top golfers compete but conceded this probably won’t include 14-time major winner Tiger Woods, currently 241st in the rankings, in the 60-strong field on current form.
Earlier this year Bach discussed playing in Rio with former number one Woods, who told the IOC president he would love to play at the Games but was not sure whether he would qualify.
“Seeing what’s happening here, unfortunately maybe he was right, so I would really feel sorry for him, but this would in no way influence the quality of the Olympic tournament,” Bach said.
Golf is to be played at the Olympics for the first time since 1904 and will feature men’s and women’s individual events at a new course being built in the Reserva de Marapendi in the Barra da Tijuca zone.
Bach said he had been told by experts that players would love the course which would be Rio’s first public golf course and “another great legacy of this Olympic Games.”
Golfers competing at the Games will be subject to the same doping testing rules as all athletes during and before the Games, Bach said.
There will be random and target testing during the Olympic period and automatic tests for the first five.
“They all have to accept it,” he said.
“Prior to the Games and from now on, I can only encourage the PGA Tour to follow the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) code, and finally to accept the WADA code,” he said.