The next attempt to include golf in the Olympics was for the Games of 1920 in Antwerp, but once again the plans had to be scrapped for lack of interest. The following year the International Olympic Committee drew up stricter conditions for participation in the Games, including the provisos that a sport must be played in 40 countries and have an international governing body.
Golf, with its two separate ruling bodies, was therefore not eligible as an official participating sport for the 1936 Games in Berlin. But a tournament was held in association with the Games, at Baden-Baden, and Adolph Hitler gave a trophy and promised to present it in person if a German pair won.
In the event, a German pair held a handsome lead with one round to go and Count von Ribbentrop, foreign minister of the Third Reich, felt justified in sending a message to the Fuhrer telling him a German victory was in the bag and he could start his long journey from Berlin for the presentation.
When Hitler arrived an embarrassed von Ribbentrop had the delicate task of telling him how the British pair of Tony Thirsk and Arnold Bentley had broken the course record and overhauled the Germans. The Master of the mastered race got straight back into his Mercedes to return to Berlin, leaving the president of the German golf federation to present the trophy.
Shortly afterward the world became engulfed in a competitive international contest that reversed Baron de Coubertin's edict that it is not the winning but the taking part. The "win at all costs" philosophy of the world war survived to infiltrate the Olympic movement and golf organizers decided that in the future they would organize their own international competitions.
This article originally appeared in the April 1993 issue of Golf Digest.
- Text Size:
- Small Text
- Medium Text
- Large Text
