Olympic golf test event pushed back until 2016

Golf’s return to the Olympic Games after a 112-year absence is just over a year away but the test event the International Golf Federation hoped to stage this year has been pushed back to the first quarter of 2016.

Ireland’s Olympic Team Captain, Paul McGinley is one of a long list of players the IGF has contacted as it bids to assemble a top class field and stage what will now be a one-day exhibition rather than a full tournament on the Gil Hanse designed course near Rio de Janeiro that has been plagued by red-tape trouble since construction began.

The IGF denied at St Andrews yesterday that there were any pending legal actions against the golf course, which opened in March amid criticism from environmental activists. Ostensibly, the reason for the delayed announcement of the test event is more to do with the lack of infrastructure around the site than the added difficulty in getting players to Brazil in December.