Pro Golfers Would Like Their Sport in Olympics

STRATTON MOUNTAIN, Vt. — With professional basketball’s dream team and the world’s best pro tennis players competing for Olympic gold medals, golfers may be next. And some of them can’t wait.

“Without a doubt,” Hall of Famer Pat Bradley said when asked if she would give up time from the LPGA Tour to compete for the gold. “Even if I was in a hot streak, I would have loved to have the opportunity.

“It’s a sacred position an athlete gets into. I think of all the things I’ve accomplished in my sport, but the one thing that might escape me is being an Olympian. I would hate that.”

Bradley, 41, and still winning tournaments, could get her chance at the Olympic experience in 1996 when the Games are played in Atlanta. Golf is expected to be a demonstration sport.

The same holds true for Jan Stephenson, who stayed up until midnight each all week to watch the Olympics though she had to be up early to play in the LPGA event at Stratton Mountain. She also was excited about the prospect.

“It’s a great idea. I’d love to represent Australia,” the Aussie native said.

She has represented her country before in international events.

Patty Sheehan, one victory away from the LPGA Hall of Fame, and Dottie Mochrie, the leading money-winner this year, also like the idea.

Seeing pro basketball and tennis players in Barcelona was not lost on Sheehan, who first thought about the Olympics when she was an amateur in the mid-1970s. She also noted that golf is one of the most popular sports in the world, and one of the oldest.

Mochrie called it a crime that golf is not an Olympic sport. “The question is not so much why, but why not,” she said.

“Everyone gets chills when you hear the national anthem played,” she said. “I’d like to play.”

Some of the men questioned at the Buick Open in Flint, Mich., also liked the idea.

“It would be kind of neat,” 1986 PGA champ Bob Tway said. “I’m not sure how they would do it, but it would certainly make a nice Olympic sport.”

Jeff Sluman, the 1988 PGA champion, said he would definitely be interested.

“I know if you had the opportunity, you would go,” Sluman said. “Guys would sure be checking to see where their parents were born.”

But the feeling among the players, and at least tour officials, is not universal.

Gene Sauers, finished 37th on the PGA money list in 1991, was against the idea.

“We’ve already got the Ryder Cup,” he said of the competition between United States and European golfers. “Besides, I believe all athletes in the Olympics should be amateurs.

“And we’d do all right with our amateur golfers, too. I think our best college players, guys from Wake Forest and Duke, places like that, would hold their own with anybody.”

Australian Wayne Grady, the 1990 PGA winner, also opposed the idea.

“Look how the U.S. tennis players performed in the Olympics,” Grady said. “They’re burned out.

“I’ve had the opportunity to represent Australia in many tournaments. And golf has four showcase events. They’re our major championships.

“Let the best amateurs from all countries play,” he said. “That’s what the Olympics are supposed to be.”