LONDON – Golf has no place in the Olympics and its inclusion is contributing to the dilution of the importance of the sport’s Major championships, according to eight-times Major winner Tom Watson.The sport will return to the Olympics at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, after last being played in 1904, and while its return has been lauded by players and officials alike, the 63-year-old Watson was not keen on it staying there.“I don’t want to pour cold water on it but I don’t think it should be in the Olympic Games,” Watson said ahead of the Australian Open at The Lakes Golf Club in Sydney.“We have our most important championships (the four Major championships). You have golf in the Olympics. You have diluted the importance, in a sense, of the four Major championships.”Watson said he also had an idealistic belief about what the Olympics stood for and periodic doping scandals and innuendo about athletes had tainted his feelings.Watson, who at 59 missed a seven-foot putt to win the 2009 British Open before he lost a four-hole playoff to Stewart Cink, also felt the calendar meant several end-of-year tournaments were also being diluted.
