Word today that the International Olympic Committee, in their typical wisdom, has decided to jettison wrestling as of the 2020 Summer Games. They can petition to get back in, which several other sports are trying to do already (such as baseball and softball). The decision was made to "streamline" the Games, which is kind of a funny rationale given the recent inclusion of golf and rugby. It's also odd that they'd try to streamline things by taking out one of the sports contested in the original Olympics. So much for tradition.

There are better ways to fix things. In fact, I can think of five things, which brings us to:

MAKING IT BETTER: THE SUMMER OLYMPICS

1. Give the IOC a line item veto for events. Part of the problem currently is that the IOC can't adjust events, they can only add or drop an entire sport. So instead of cutting down on the number of weight classes or something, they have to drop the entire thing. I'm sure there's some sort of political reason for this between the IOC and the governing bodies of each sport, but having the ability to cut some events rather than an entire sport makes more sense. Some humble suggestions:

• Race walking
• Trampoline
• Synchronized diving
• Duet synchronized swimming
• At least one weight class in men's weightlifting and boxing.

Granted, this would be an annual bloodbath, but at least it would give the IOC more flexibility and more opportunity to do what it does best: behind the scenes politicking and bribery.

2. Get rid of tennis and golf. I'm assuming that their inclusion in the Games is an attempt to draw some star power, as you can wedge the Olympics into the schedule every four years in a way that you can't with, say, baseball. Still, it hasn't worked quite so well for tennis, which has drawn some big names but seems to be just below Davis/Fed Cup in terms of excitement for players. I can't imagine this will work any better for golf, though maybe there's a groundswell of interest in it as we get closer. Still, neither has much Olympic pedigree and fans can just tune into any of the dozens of events that normally dot the tennis and golf calendar to see their favorites.

3. Move some stuff to winter. Rather than cut stuff entirely, let's load level and push some stuff that doesn't need to be held in the summer on to the Winter Games. Wrestling would work here, as would weightlifting, fencing, badminton, table tennis, volleyball (with beach staying in the summer, of course), judo, taekwondo, and shooting.

4. Use the LIFO method if you have to cut. If you have to cut something from the program, using a "last in, first out" method causes the least disruption, certainly in tradition if not in practice. The IOC would not be getting the negative reaction they're getting if they dropped taekwondo,which was only added as an official sport in 2000. Well, except from South Korea, who would likely take it personally.

5. Go for the one or two nation dominated sports first. Like any sport, wrestling has its dominant nations, but if you look at the 2012 results you see a pretty diverse group of countries. Russia won the most, but the top 10 includes countries like Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Hungary. Compare this to table tennis, which saw half of all medals go to China. In fact, half of all medals in the history of table tennis have gone to China.

Not that table tennis would get bumped, because who wants to piss off China? But the point remains, if half of your medals go to one or two countries, maybe you shouldn't be an Olympic sport quite yet. It's the same logic (sort of, and only in part with respect to baseball) that saw baseball and softball dropped.

Virginia Vacation - Day 6

My brother is an excellent golfer. My father loved to play, and wasn't too bad, either. One of his uncles was, for a time, the pro at the Westchester Country Club. So there is some connection to the game in my family.

I, for whatever reason, don't seem to share that connection, or at least not to the same extent. Which is why I had some trepidation going into this day of the vacation, the day where I annually tee it up with my father in law and the wife's uncle.

The Golden Horseshoe Golf Club in Williamsburg has two championship courses, one designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr. and the other by his son Rees. We did not play either of those. Instead, we opted for the $29 special to play the Spotswood Course. Which, when you think about it, isn't a bad deal considering it allowed us to play unlimited holes and included carts.

The course itself needs a little work. The 8th hole (which is the subject of the bottom right picture on their web page) may not be draining properly given the level of green slime on the water, and had more sand than grass on its green. Overall, though, it's a perfect course for hackers like us.

We're quite a trio when we go out, considering that the wife's uncle is legally blind and I often play like I am. Seriously, if this were a Cooch golfing recap I'd have had to contact MIT to design a polygon to contain some of my more egregious scores. But as we played on I got into the rhythm of things and even had legitimate par opportunities on occasion. Not that I converted any of them; it's hard to putt when you're more used to doing so while timing the arms of a tiny windmill. On at least two holes I took shots from under trees with a left-handed seven iron that my dad carried around for just such an occasion.

We wound up playing the course three times, as the second time around we zipped through in just about an hour. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but around hole 23 we started to flag, and we more or less played it out to satify honor.

The day ended up pretty much like every other vacation golf day, I enjoyed myself but not so much that I want to play every week. Though we do have a municipal course in town that's fairly cheap...

Book Log 2007 #41: Tales from Q School: Inside Golf's Fifth Major by John Feinstein

I've always found the idea of Q School - the PGA's tournament for bestowing tour cards on golfers who have not otherwise earned one - to be fascinating, as it's a rare look into the lives of golfers who are (excuse the pun) on the fringe. I've also always enjoyed Feinstein's books. So I figured this would be a perfect match.

But it isn't. There are too many golfers entering and exiting the story, and it seems like a fair amount of the narrative is aimed at hammering home the idea that anything can happen at Q School, and usually does. Part of me thinks that may be the point, that the book is written in a way to mimic the nature of the event. Or at least I hope it is.

All of that said, I didn't think it was a bad book. The stories are still entertaining, and there are some great insights as to what it takes to succeed on - or not succeed and keep trying to make - the PGA tour. I was also interested to find a longish section on Pat Bates, a golfer who I knew growing up. I've not talked to him in a good 20 years at least, so it was something to get to compare the person he's become with the kid I knew.

In any case, it's probably a book best left for people who are more interested in golf than me.