Golf wants to be in the Olympic Games so let’s start a tradition by awarding gold, silver and bronze medals from the 2007 Cadbury Schweppes Australian PGA Championship.

The gold goes to the three-shot victor yesterday – Peter Lonard – who was almost faultless in a seven-under-par 65 which captured his third PGA title at Coolum.

Lonard says he has rediscovered “the fire in the belly” and it’s all thanks to not playing golf.

That’s right. By not playing, he’s become a champion again.

When the US PGA Tour season was as good as over, he took eight weeks off where he didn’t touch a club.

He threw them in the garage at his home and didn’t pull one out, not even for a little bit of a waggle.

What did he do instead?

“Just sat around on the couch and put on about 10kg.

“That’s about it,” he said.

“I went to the gym occasionally. Went to Egypt, had a look around there.

“I’d just had enough. I think I’d just overplayed.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to get away and start again and that’s what we did.”

The break obviously has done him wonders and you would expect him to challenge for another Australian Open title this week.

Now he has three PGAs, he’d love three Opens.

Lonard comes across as a down-to-earth, good Aussie bloke who just happens to play golf very well.

He’s just a few metres away as I write this, holding a beer and happily chatting with a journo who wants to ask him more questions even after he’s been quizzed in his post-event media conference.

Last time he won, the Sydneysider ended up deducting around $8000 from his prizemoney because he had offered to shout the bar at Coolum.

There were oodles of people asking him yesterday evening if the freebies were on again.

“There must have been a few people who went (last time) because more people actually ask me if the free bar was on tonight than had ever spoken to me in my life,” he said.

The silver medal goes to the organisers of the championship, who once again turned on an outstanding show.

Crowd figures were up for the second straight year and, if the trend continues, the 50,000 spectator barrier will be surpassed next year.

There are very few, if any, complaints about what happens at Coolum over the week and that’s a great guide of what the tournament is like.

Despite concerns this column had a month ago, the PGA had arguably the best field of the year in Australia, with the additions of Americans Jason Gore, JB Holmes, Ryan Moore and Brandt Snedeker a real winner.

Their entertainment value and charm levels were high.

Clearly superior to a couple of dreary Yanks who have been at Coolum previously and haven’t been missed since.

And the bronze goes to Rory Sabbatini.

The South African world No.11 folded in the final nine holes but there were no post-round dummy spits or running away to hide in his swanky resort suite.

He made sure every autograph hunter was satisfied and even lobbed to be grilled by the media again.

With his appearance fee justified to all but his harshest critics, he flies back to the US at lunchtime today, but would love to come back after only having good words to say about his first visit Down Under.

That sort of positive feedback is what the PGA thrives on and why it will continue to be a runaway success for as long as it stays on the Sunshine Coast.