Tim Finchem believes that golf has an “excellent chance” of becoming an Olympic sport in 2016 and the commissioner of the PGA Tour in the US has five reasons to support his opinion.

“One, we’re global — we are on every continent,” Finchem said. “Two, we are in a growth mode, particularly in Asia. Three, we are attracting more and more young people to the game all over the world. Four, because we are diverse as a sport and our diversity is growing, we are marketable.

“Five, our television impact compared to other sports is very significant. We have TV audiences that are important to sponsors so, from the point of view of the Olympic Games, it would be a plus. If you stand back and look at those factors and vote on them, I’ve got to believe we have an excellent chance.”

The decision on whether to admit golf to the Games will be made in Copenhagen in mid-October. Finchem knows that the sport has an image as a country-club pursuit and that competing in an Olympics is never likely to be as satisfying to a professional golfer as being in contention at a major championship. Nevertheless, he insists that the campaign to get golf accepted will be successful.

“The private club golf in the US is a minority of play now and we are not doing a good enough job telling that story,” Finchem said. “That is up to us. I think we are effective in telling the story in a situation like talking to the IOC. It is the general public we need to educate on this issue.”

He also recognised the difficulty of saying years in advance who would compete in the Games and that many players would not regard the Olympics as the peak of their sport. “Who the best players are changes regularly,” he said. “The thing we can do is get the best current players to speak on the subject of golf in the Olympics, which they have done unanimously. They’re excited about it.”

“In the US, players do not feel that playing in a Ryder or Presidents Cup is at the same level as being there on Sunday afternoon at Augusta from a personal standpoint. It is not what they grew up with. Yet they compete just as hard. They play great golf.

“I have never believed that if you take a world-class athlete in our sport and say, ‘This tournament is worth this and this tournament is worth that and where should we rank this one. How is this player going to compete?’ If he is a true professional, and let’s use Tiger Woods as a model, he will never turn up unless he is going after a win. I think it is vital that we make players understand why it is so important to the game and make it a good experience for them.”

Finchem, 62, is not only the head of the biggest, richest and most successful golf tour in the world. He is a keen amateur golfer who has a handicap of 5.8 and says that he is three quarters of the way towards completely rebuilding his swing. Finchem also spoke of the excitement there had been in the US on the night that President Obama, also a keen golfer, was inaugurated.

“I don’t think I have seen anything like that with young people since Kennedy in 1960,” he said. Asked if he had voted for Obama, Finchem, who worked in President Carter’s administration, paused and then grinned. “I’m not saying. That’s why voting booths are secret,” he said.

The commissioner’s main focus is on securing the future of those professional tournaments in the US whose sponsors are due to renew their commitments in the next couple of years. There are 11 tournaments sponsored either by car makers or financial service companies, which are obviously at risk in the economic climate. There are six tournaments rumoured to not want to, or possibly not be able to, renew their agreements when they expire next year.

Finchem has spent 15 years in his post and his contract runs out in 2012. He is as yet undecided whether he will retire or want to try to continue. “These things change, don’t they?” Finchem said.