DURHAM, N.C. - Golf has long been the unofficial sport of choice of American tycoons and presidents, with every modern American president except Jimmy Carter being a golfer.

But the recent decision of the International Olympic Committee to include golf in the 2016 Olympics suggests that golf has outstripped its stereotypes and now has global appeal, says a Duke University cultural anthropologist who studies sports and society.

"Far from a pastime just of the ugly American, golf has gone global," says Orin Starn, a cultural anthropology professor at Duke. "Only 18 of the top 50 male players in the world are American, and South Korea has more players in the women's top 50 than does this country."

Despite Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's recent denouncement of golf as a "bourgeois" sport, golf has developed major appeal among the growing global middle classes, says Starn, who teaches a course on the anthropology of sports. "For example, Sweden is the world's single most golf-crazed nation, where one in 10 of the national population has taken up the game.

"In the U.S., golf and business still go very much hand-in-hand -- think corporate outings," Starn adds. But he notes that golf in this country has sought to improve its image with new "green" course designs and maintenance methods that use far less water and sometime provide wildlife habitat.

"Golf's not soccer, the gorilla of global sports with its vast popularity needing only a ball and a patch of ground for a game," Starn says. "But it's not just for snobs anymore."