Mickelson wants golf to reach for the Olympic rings

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The global boost that golf would enjoy should it become an Olympic sport would be ‘exponentially more important to the game of golf than the majors,’ Phil Mickelson said Tuesday.

Mickelson spoke from Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., where he’ll try for a fourth major title at the PGA Championship that begins Thursday.

‘The majors are incredibly big as we know,’ Mickelson told Reuters, ‘but we still capture the same audience that are already interested in the game.’

Mickelson believes that scheduling conflicts largely could be avoided. ‘It’s only once every four years,’ he said. ‘It’s not a big disruption by any means.’

Masters champion Trevor Immelman of South Africa, however, begs to differ.

‘I don’t think that golf should be an Olympic sport, at all,’ Immelman told Reuters. ‘I don’t think basketball should be an Olympic sport. I don’t think tennis should be an Olympic sport.’

‘To me the Olympics was founded on amateur sports. Guys go in there training for four years and putting their whole lives on the line to win a gold medal.’

-- Greg Johnson