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Yahoo!
December 13, 2002.
HAVANA, 12 (AP) - Che Guevara played it. Well, once, at least. Now Cuba is
looking for more local players to give golf a try, just in case the sport is
added to Olympic games in the future.
British Ambassador Paul Hare on Wednesday donated golf clubs and balls to
Cuba as part of an agreement to exchange sports expertise: the British will help
Cubans learn to hit golf balls while the Cubans will give the British tips on
hitting baseballs.
"The main objective is to develop this new discipline (in players) at
an early age," said Humberto Rodriguez, president of the Cuban government's
National Sports Institute.
He said Cuba hopes to develop golf skills in case the International Olympic
Committee (news - web sites) decides to include the sport in future summer
games.
Under an agreement signed last year, "Cuba will collaborate with
England in it's strong disciplines such as baseball, boxing and athletics while
my country will help in terms of soccer and golf."
Socialist Cuba turned itself into a sports powerhouse after the triumph of
the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro (news - web sites), but it largely
ignored the relatively bourgeois sport of golf. It did inherit one 18-hole golf
course at Varadero, east of Havana, which had been a playground for rich
foreigners.
Shortly after the rebels took power, Castro joined revolutionary hero
Ernesto "Che" Guevara in hacking playfully around the links at
Varadero. As a golfer, Guevara is remembered for his soccer skills.
An Olympic commission recommended dropping baseball, softball and modern
pentathlon from the games and replacing them with golf and seven-man rugby. The
IOC last month voted to delay consideration of dropping any sports —
effectively putting the addition of golf on hold as well.
Cuban delegates passionately defended the idea of keeping baseball. | 
