Colin Montgomerie has said that golf should become an Olympic sport - but only on the proviso that amateurs alone can compete.
Scot says amateurs should compete
Colin Montgomerie has said that golf should be added to the roster of sports contested at the Olympic Games - but only on the proviso that amateurs alone can compete.
Golf is now a sport recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after random drug testing was introduced last month in an effort to move in line with the Movement's own Anti-Doping Code.
Officials from the sport's ruling bodies also lobbied International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge in May to have the sport added to the 2016 Games schedule.
Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk are among the big names who have spoken in favour of golf being added to the roster of Olympic sports.
And Montgomerie has now joined their number, the Scot albeit saying that it should not be the like of Mickelson, Furyk and himself going for gold.
"I would take the best two amateurs from Britain and let them play the best two amateurs from France, Germany...all sorts," he told
Sky Sports News.
"Professional sports at the Olympic Games does not work with me. The tennis...that just has never worked for me at all and neither has the basketball.
"I think the American team in Barcelona was earning $70-odd million per year. That's probably more than it cost them to put the Olympic Stadium together."
Two sports from golf, baseball, karate, roller sports, rugby sevens, softball and squash will probably be included in eight years' time.
