Would You Rather…?

[Big C]

Hmm.......

US Olympic Gold medalist payouts = $37,500

Major Championship winner payouts = $1.9 million - $2.2 million

I think winning a major is a more prestigious honor than winning a gold medal (for golf, anyway), but even if the two were close, the financial piece would push it over the top for me.

[dagolfer18]

7 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Would you rather...? #20:

Win an Olympic Golf Medal in Golf this year or Win one of the majors this year (you can pick which one)? 

I would much rather win a major, probably the British Open. The British Open is the tournament I look forward to watching the most, so it would be awesome to win it.

[David in FL]

1 hour ago, Big C said:

Hmm.......

US Olympic Gold medalist payouts = $37,500

Major Championship winner payouts = $1.9 million - $2.2 million

I think winning a major is a more prestigious honor than winning a gold medal (for golf, anyway), but even if the two were close, the financial piece would push it over the top for me.

It’s also worth remembering that a gold medal in the Olympics doesn’t even qualify you to participate in the next Olympics.

While it varies from major to major, winning any of them provides at least some significant exemptions, both on tour, and into subsequent majors.  

[Desert Driver]

8 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

This came up in conversation with my wife yesterday. Once again, you'll have to imagine you are an elite level player.

Would you rather...? #20:

Win an Olympic Golf Medal in Golf this year or Win one of the majors this year (you can pick which one)? 

Win a Major . . . no contest.  Would love to hang out at Augusta National every Spring. 

Desert Driver

[Double Mocha Man]

2 hours ago, boogielicious said:

I figured you'd be more the Waffle House kind of guy like Bubba! 

I might have a waffle with that champagne... delivered from IHop...

2 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

@billchao I don't want to be the one to have to tell you this, but New Jersey isn't actually a foreign country.  … It just seems that way. 

That's pretty funny!  Don't tell that to Corey Booker...

10 minutes ago, Desert Driver said:

Win a Major . . . no contest.  Would love to hang out at Augusta National every Spring. 

Desert Driver

Start practicing your interview skills for Butler Cabin...

[IowaGreg]

Would you rather...? #20:

Win an Olympic Golf Medal in Golf this year or Win one of the majors this year (you can pick which one)? 

If you are the level you win an Olympic gold, you have a better than average chance on qualifying and winning a Major on your own in the future.  Soooooo  With the flip of a coin, probably rather have the Olympic Gold.

 

[bkuehn1952]

8 hours ago, Double Mocha Man said:

...That would be the only way I'd ever get to play Augusta National for a week... 

I am not knocking your choice but I suspect a few members of ANGC would be thrilled to have the Olympic Gold Medal winner come play. And they would likely give you the Crow's Nest if you asked.

[Double Mocha Man]

45 minutes ago, bkuehn1952 said:

I am not knocking your choice but I suspect a few members of ANGC would be thrilled to have the Olympic Gold Medal winner come play. And they would likely give you the Crow's Nest if you asked.  

Inside the Crow's Nest at Augusta National - Golf Digest

---

 

 

Hell, I'll take one night in the Crow's Nest and getting to play hole #12, once.

Crow's Nest tradition never gets old

---

Part of Augusta National's tradition of honoring amateurs is allowing them to stay in the club's Crow's Nest, a 30-by-40 foot...

 

Edited March 5, 2020 by Double Mocha Man

[iacas]

14 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

Hell, I'll take one night in the Crow's Nest and getting to play hole #12, once.

The Crow's Nest is for amateurs. Odds are you're not getting in there.

[Double Mocha Man]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

The Crow's Nest is for amateurs. Odds are you're not getting in there.

I am an amateur.  But your second part is probably correct.

[Buckeyebowman]

14 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

 

Would you rather...? #20:

Win an Olympic Golf Medal in Golf this year or Win one of the majors this year (you can pick which one)? 

 

11 hours ago, David in FL said:

Not even close.  Win a major.

But then, I’m a bit of an Olympic purist and don’t even think that golf belongs there.

Why? There have been pros all over the Olympics for years. And from far before the Dream Team! 

10 hours ago, David in FL said:

News flash.  Only golf fans watch Olympic golf.

It ain’t gymnastics.  

I take your meaning! For me it's lady's figure skating! 

6 hours ago, David in FL said:

It’s also worth remembering that a gold medal in the Olympics doesn’t even qualify you to participate in the next Olympics.

While it varies from major to major, winning any of them provides at least some significant exemptions, both on tour, and into subsequent majors.  

Doesn't matter. I'd be one and done! Go, thoroughly enjoy the experience, and have it in my memory bank! Why do you think the Dream Team guys went?

[ChetlovesMer]

19 minutes ago, Buckeyebowman said:

Why? There have been pros all over the Olympics for years. And from far before the Dream Team! 

 I have to agree with @David in FL

I don't really think Golf should be an Olympic sport either. Not because of the professional thing. I couldn't care less about professional vs non-professional, if you have a passport from the country you can represent them as far as I'm concerned. 

I don't think golf should be an Olympic Sport because the best in the world get together to play all the time. For me, the Olympics should be a chance for the best in the world to compete in something in which they don't often get to have the best in the world get together. 

Having said all of that, I am probably not the best person to speak on that. I haven't watched even a second of any of the Olympic games since the fall of the Soviet Union. So I doubt the Olympic committee gives a rat's rear end on what I think, because I don't watch it. I'm not bitter, I'm just not interested. 

[iacas]

59 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I don't think golf should be an Olympic Sport because the best in the world get together to play all the time.

They do in other sports, too.

Tennis has majors. Basketball has the NBA. Hockey has the NHL (and the KHL). Etc.

Figure skating has world championships, etc. Ditto for track and field. Skiing. Snowboarding.

[ChetlovesMer]

6 hours ago, iacas said:

They do in other sports, too.

Tennis has majors. Basketball has the NBA. Hockey has the NHL (and the KHL). Etc.

Figure skating has world championships, etc. Ditto for track and field. Skiing. Snowboarding.

You are correct. I guess for me the difference is three fold. 1 - In the NHL and NBA you play for your pro team most of your career. But then once every 4 years, you reshuffle the deck and represent your country. Those sports almost never get together and compete on "per country" basis. 2 - Figure skating, track and field etc. you have the world championships and the like, but those are yearly events and very few people outside that sport really notice who wins. So, the Olympics for them is a big deal. Why put golf in their to distract from these other sports that are almost never watched by average joe-public? 3 - The biggest thing for me is if you have a world wide pro-league you don't need to be in the Olympics. I always thought the Olympics was about giving sports that nobody ever gave a poop about a chance to show off their athletes on the grandest stage. 

So, Golf, Tennis, etc.. For me, they don't need the Olympics.  

I might argue Basketball, Baseball, and Hockey don't need the Olympics either, but that's off topic. (btw - I'm aware that baseball is no longer an Olympic Sport) 

Lastly, maybe I'm just old. Because the real reason is that golf just doesn't "Feel like an Olympic Sport" to me. 

14 hours ago, IowaGreg said:

Would you rather...? #20:

Win an Olympic Golf Medal in Golf this year or Win one of the majors this year (you can pick which one)? 

If you are the level you win an Olympic gold, you have a better than average chance on qualifying and winning a Major on your own in the future.  Soooooo  With the flip of a coin, probably rather have the Olympic Gold.

 

I have to say I think @IowaGreghit the nail on the head for me. 

The other reason I'd take the Olympic Gold Medal is that I truly think that Golf will not be an Olympic Sport for long. Much like Baseball I think it will disappear from the Olympics. That Olympic Gold Medal you win in Golf will be really really rare. I don't know the number off the top of my head, but (I'm guessing) hundreds of guys have won majors. When it's all said and done only a handful of Olympic Gold medals will ever be given out in golf. 

So, even though I don't think Golf should be an Olympic Sport. I'm going to select option 1 and win the Olympic Gold Medal. 

[iacas]

2 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

You are correct. I guess for me the difference is three fold. 1 - In the NHL and NBA you play for your pro team most of your career. But then once every 4 years, you reshuffle the deck and represent your country.

There are world junior tournaments, etc. as well. But still, the best play the best regularly. Just in a different orientation (NBA teams, for example), which is what you said.

2 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

2 - Figure skating, track and field etc. you have the world championships and the like, but those are yearly events and very few people outside that sport really notice who wins. So, the Olympics for them is a big deal.

Fans of those sports still know who won the world championship. The Olympics just has others caring. The same is true (slightly) in golf - other fans might know who won Olympic Gold in golf even though they don't otherwise follow golf.

2 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Why put golf in their to distract from these other sports that are almost never watched by average joe-public?

Nobody who doesn't want to watch is forced to watch. Especially now with 8-channel coverage of the Olympics.

2 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

3 - The biggest thing for me is if you have a world wide pro-league you don't need to be in the Olympics.

Then you wouldn't have an Olympics as every sport would be out. There are established events and "tours" and everything for all of them. It's not like runners just train for four years and never compete. Some sports remain a bit more "amateur" than others, but all have established events, tours, schedules… you just seem to be unaware of them?

Every major sport would be out even with a stricter interpretation of your "world wide pro-league".

2 hours ago, ChetlovesMer said:

I always thought the Olympics was about giving sports that nobody ever gave a poop about a chance to show off their athletes on the grandest stage.

Well, that's where you're wrong.

You can look up their mission statement, which is "The mission of the IOC is to not only ensure the celebration of the Olympic Games, but to also encourage the regular practice of sport by all people in society, regardless of sex, age, social background or economic status." It's not and never has been "to promote the under-promoted sports."

Anyway, I chose option 1 too, for similar reasons, though I'll stand by that even if golf remains in the Olympics for 100 more years, as that's still only 25 medals… compared to 400 majors or so.

[ChetlovesMer]

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Every major sport would be out even with a stricter interpretation of your "world wide pro-league".

And I'm okay with that. 

1 hour ago, iacas said:

You can look up their mission statement, which is "The mission of the IOC is to not only ensure the celebration of the Olympic Games, but to also encourage the regular practice of sport by all people in society, regardless of sex, age, social background or economic status." It's not and never has been "to promote the under-promoted sports."

Fair enough. I've never actually looked up the IOC's mission statement. I just remember the Olympics of the 70's and 80's. They felt really different back then. But, you are very right in one aspect. I probably need to drop my "back in my day" sort of thinking. Yes, back in the 70's and 80's you never saw any of the "Olympic" sports until the Olympics. You usually didn't know any of the athletes names who were competing, unless it was their second Olympiad (or if you followed college basketball). So, the Olympics back just felt different. Not to mention we had the cold war, so their was that. 

I think a lot of people, myself included, want things to be/stay the way they remember them when they were a kid. Of course, the world is totally different now. I guess I should allow the Olympics to be different too. 

[burr]

On 3/4/2020 at 6:06 AM, ChetlovesMer said:

 

Would you rather...? #20:

Win an Olympic Golf Medal in Golf this year or Win one of the majors this year (you can pick which one)? 

at one time, the games were for the amatuer athlete.  Now I don't know about no Ruskies, Czecks, or anybody in a different society, but the USA teams were amatuers that made no $$ off the sport.  It was afterwards that they went on the Wheaties box and made the spoils. 

Me thinks it was the politics of the matter of the easterns were wearing our asses out on the basketball court that started it all and it kinda snowballed, with all these elites wanting a medal on their chest, like they didn't already have a mantel full (plus the multi-millions).  Some of these skipped the college work to make immediate $$ and although each had done some amatuer status of some sort at some point and each had 'paid the dues', I saw no right to play the games (in the original concepts).  If we picked the kids, the jrs, the amatuers, I would appreciate it.

As for the question, since these changes, the games make little difference to me;  I'll take the Masters Tournament.  and I've been attending since GeorgeArcher won it...

   

[pg15]

Major no question, this is the ultimate in our sport, Olympics should be for Amateurs and almost a right of passage before going professional, a bit like a lot do in boxing where they turn pro after Olympics, only my opinion, although I do still like watching the golf in the Olympics :-)