Golf and rugby sevens will become Olympic sports from 2016 after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted to raise the number of sports from 26 to 28.

Both sports will become part of the programme in Rio de Janeiro and in 2020 and were approved despite some opposition which claimed the Olympics could not be viewed as the pinnacle of their respective sports. However, the International Rugby Board (IRB) has said it will scrap the Sevens World Cup to ensure the Olympics becomes the world's premier sevens event.

The golf event will consist of men's and women's 72-hole strokeplay competitions with 60 players in each field. The best 15 players in the world would qualify automatically for each draw, while existing golf tour schedules would be altered to avoid any clash with the Olympics.

Rugby had 81 votes in favour and eight against, and golf 63 in favour and 27 against. Seven sports had been considered for inclusion by the IOC, with squash, karate, softball, baseball and roller sports all rejected.

"Congratulations to both federations. We all look forward to great competition in 2016 and 2020," Jacques Rogge, the IOC president, said.

Padraig Harrington said he hoped the Olympic tournament would soon surpass the majors for golfers.

"I do believe in time the Olympic gold will become the most important event in golf and I don't believe it will take that long," he said. "In the four years between the Olympics there will be 16 majors, so winning gold will be that much more special."

Harrington admitted that golf's elitist image may have contributed to the 27 votes against. "I believe it was a stumbling block and could have caused some of those votes against us," he said.

"But being in the Olympics will help change - it has changed over the last 20 years, and 99 per cent of the professional players are not from elite backgrounds."

Harrington, 38, said the 2016 decision provides the perfect incentive for him to stay at the top of the sport. He added: "It's seven years away, and physically I should be capable of continuing for a number of years. Competing in the Olympics gives me the motivation to push on - I want to be there in 2016.

"Being an Olympian is a big deal in Ireland, one of the greatest honours for any Irish person, and I want to be one."

Peter Dawson, acting president of the IGF, said the result was better than he had hoped for. Dawson said: "We are absolutely delighted to be back in the Olympic programme after 105 years.

"When you consider where golf was just a few years ago the votes we received today were very high up in my range of expectation. All of golf is committed to providing an excellent event in 2016 and 2020, and when things are reviewed in 2017 I'm sure the event in Rio will have a big bearing on our future."

Dick Pound, from Canada, argued that the 106 members had not been given the opportunity to vote on the five sports including squash and karate, who had been excluded earlier this year by the IOC's executive board.

"The fact is we were not allowed to consider all seven sports," Pound said. "That's a mistake, it's not fair to the other five sports, and because we do not know why this was decided it is not a transparent process.

"The session was asking for guidance not a decision that would be 'take it or leave it'."(sourced via timesonline.co.uk)