Golf in the Olympics? Try as I might, I just can't get my head around that one. Still, if the people that run the sport are successful in persuading the International Olympic Committee otherwise, then golf will be on the schedule for 2016.

The IOC will make its decision in Copenhagen in October - when it will also choose between Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo as the host city - and is considering other applications for inclusion from baseball, karate, roller sports, rugby sevens, softball and squash.

Now, if the Olympics represents the pinnacle for any sport, then you should be looking at that little list and plumping, perhaps, for squash, karate and possibly roller sports. It is hard to take baseball's bid too seriously (although it would go down well in Chicago and Tokyo), while rugby sevens and softball are simply bastardisations of other games. Mind you, that doesn't seem to have bothered the IOC unduly in the past. Take beach volleyball as a scantily-clad example.

Golf, though, is an altogether different proposition. Who among the men and women professionals would rate the Olympics above any of their four major championships, or indeed the Ryder Cup or the Solheim Cup?

Tiger Woods, onced quizzed on the subject, was unequivocal. It would be great to have an Olympic gold medal, he said, "but if you asked any player, 'Would you rather have an Olympic gold medal or a green jacket (for winning the Masters) or the claret jug (for winning the Open Championship)' more players would say the majors."

Interestingly, it is a view that is counterbalanced by Padraig Harrington, winner of three majors in the past two years. "Some golfers say we now have four majors and that is enough," the Irishman said. "But the four majors were not the four majors 70 years ago. You never know, in 50 years maybe the Olympics will be the No. 1 major. It has to start somewhere."

In marketing speak, the game's authorities will tell you that inclusion in the Games is all about the chance to "grow the game" around the world, to raise its profile and finances and to get more people interested in playing. In which case it is hard not to conclude that the sport has missed a trick this week in submitting detailed proposals to the IOC as to how golf would fit into the Olympics.

The proposal was prepared for the International Golf Federation by a committee made up of the seven bodies that most influence the game worldwide - the R&A, the PGA European Tour, the United States Golf Association, the PGA of America, the PGA Tour, the LPGA, and the organisers of the Masters - and how dull and unimaginative it was.

So here it is. The finest 60 men and women players in the world will compete for Olympic medals in ... wait for it ... 72-hole strokeplay competitions played over four days. Leading players, we are told, expressed this format as the "fairest and best way to identify a champion, mirroring the format used in golf's major championships". In case of a tie for either first, second or third place, a three-hole playoff is recommended to determine the medal winners. Same old, same old in other words.

So what's wrong with match play, the most thrilling form of the game? Here's a thought. You could have 64 players instead of 60, play knock-out match play and reduce the field by half each day. This will give you a two-man final (wow, that's exciting) where gold and silver medals will be determined and a third-place play-off between losing semi-finalists for the bronze medal. Something like the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship that is taking place in Tucson, Arizona, next week you could say.

From the outside it looks as if golf, like tennis before it, is attempting to gatecrash the party. A 60-player field with no halfway cut is a recipe for boredom. Golf has sold itself short and might pay the price.

The world order changeth

How times are changing. When the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship was first played in 1999 there were 40 Americans in the field of 64. Next week there will be just 17, a figure that shows just how strong the rest of the world is becoming.

Mixed week for Kim

It has been an interesting couple of weeks for Anthony Kim, the world No.11. First he found himself playing with the King of Malaysia in the pro-am in advance of the Malaysian Open and yesterday, on the eve of the Johnnie Walker Classic in Perth, he was coming to terms with the deportation of his caddie, Eric Larson, from Australia. Details were sketchy but it is believed that Larson was refused entry into the country because of a criminal record in the United States, where he served 11 years in jail for his part in a cocaine ring.

Open invitation

I see that Augusta is spreading its wings once more by offering a place in the 2010 Masters to the winner of the inaugural Asian Amateur Championship, that will take place at Mission Hills, China, from Oct 29 to Nov 1. It will mark the first time an automatic invitation has been extended to an amateur championship in the Asia-Pacific region.

On the rebound

Laura Davies's win at the Australian Open on Sunday could not have been better timed. It has put her immediately in a strong position to qualify for her eleventh successive Solheim Cup team, but more than that has shown a welcome return to form after a relatively poor year in 2008.

Of most concern for Britain's best woman player, however, is qualifying for the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first major of the season, that takes place in Palm Springs in April. Davies, who has four majors to her name, has worked out that if she does not get into the field it will represent her first missed major championship in 87 events. "Not to play in it is almost unthinkable," she said this week on her return from Australia. "I'm going to give the tournament director a call to see if there's a chance of an invitation."