Golf’s governing bodies underlined their determination to take the sport into the Olympics by presenting a united front at The Open Championship yesterday and appointing one of the game’s top administrators to head their campaign, writes Steve Scott, golf correspondent.

US Tour deputy commissioner Ty Votaw, formerly chief of the LPGA Tour, has been seconded to front the International Golf Federation’s Olympic Committee which will seek to have the game admitted to the 2016 Olympics.

R&A chief executive Peter Dawson, Votaw’s boss, US Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, and European Tour chief George O’Grady joined to make the announcement at Royal Birkdale ahead of the start of the Open this morning.

“We now have a body that is representative of the professional game for men and women, representative of the major championships and the rule makers,” said Dawson, who added that LPGA commissioner Carolyn Bivens, USGA executive director David Fay, Augusta National Golf Club and the PGA of America would be on the committee as well as himself, Finchem and O’Grady.

“We will all be talking with one voice to impress upon the Olympic movement that golf is serious about wanting to join the Games. Olympic golf is comfortably the biggest grow-the-game opportunity that exists to help us in areas where it’s just starting.”

Votaw has been “loaned” to the committee by the US Tour to drive the campaign, said Finchem, adding that their support was due to increasing the game globally and the potential impact it could have for countries in developmental terms.

“There are issues relating to the competition and the details of scheduling of other major championships but they are manageable and we are dedicated to working on them,” he said.

Dawson added that during a visit to meet IOC officials in Lausanne it had been impressed upon the game’s governors that a bid from golf would be “warmly welcomed.”

“This will not be plain sailing and we have much work ahead of us,” he added, saying that golf would be vying with rugby sevens, squash, karate, rollersports and baseball for inclusion.

The structure of any competition would need to be worked out to align with Olympic requirements on representation from as many countries as possible while restricting the number of athletes, he added, but it was envisaged that events for men and women would be strokeplay-based.

For the European Tour, George O’Grady said that it has been continually impressed upon him by golf administrators in countries across the world how vital Olympic golf was.

“So many federations around the world we deal with have asked us for this for years, because in those countries Olympic representation is the only way to release developmental funding from governments,” he said.

“It is a tremendous achievement to bring together all the governing bodies of professional and amateur, men’s and women’s games, and we are all committed to this initiative.”