London, Mar 02: A whodunnit involving the royal and ancient game of golf, Adolf Hitler and a missing Olympic Games trophy sounds extremely far-fetched.
Even fictional detectives Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot would have been hard-pressed to solve a sporting puzzle that remains a mystery to this day.
It all began shortly after the conclusion of the 1936 Berlin Games when golf, twice before an Olympic sport, featured as a post-Olympic competition in the spa town of Baden-Baden.
The Berlin Olympics, best remembered for Hitler's failed attempts to transform them into an Aryan propaganda campaign, had been dominated by American athlete Jesse Owens and his remarkable haul of four gold medals.
Seven nations took part in an amateur foursomes competition at Baden-Baden on August 26 and 27 that year, with France and England installed as pre-tournament favourites.



''It is hard to explain the origin of the event -- Germany had no golfing tradition nor champions, and only some 50 golf courses,'' George Jeanneau of the French Golf Federation wrote in a book entitled 'Golf and the Olympic Games'.



''The Reich (German government) may have wanted to follow up the Berlin Games with the organisation of some non-Olympic sporting events -- such as horse riding, tennis and golf.''


Bureau Report