Race for 2016: Seven sports fighting over two spots for inclusion in the 2016 Summer Olympics presented their cases to the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland.

The leaders of baseball, softball, golf, karate, roller sports, rugby and squash met the 16-member program commission, which will deliver an influential report to all IOC members.

Each sport had one-hour, with baseball making the first pitch in the closed-door presentations in Lausanne.

The golf presentation was made by Royal and Ancient chief executive Peter Dawson and US Tour executive Ty Votaw, executive director of the IGF Olympic Golf Committee.

"Golf truly is an international sport, with 60 million people playing the game in nearly 120 countries, and it continues to grow with new initiatives being implemented all over the world to teach the game to both young and old," Dawson said.

"We believe the time is right for golf to be brought back to the Olympic Games."

During the presentation, the IOC Programme Commission was shown a series of short films that featured top players expressing support for golf's bid.

The film opened up with Lorena Ochoa of Mexico, the No1 ranked woman golfer in the world, and closed with Tiger Woods. In between, the support of top players such as Annika Sorenstam from Sweden, Phil Mickelson from the United States, Australian Karrie Webb and Fiji's Vijay Singh was also highlighted.

These presentations are a key stage in a process that will culminate when more than 100 IOC members vote in Copenhagen, Denmark, next October.

The IOC has set a limit of 28 sports at the 2016 Olympics, leaving two available slots for the seven sports to compete over.

Baseball and softball were voted off the 2012 program in Singapore three years ago, and the other five failed to gather enough support for inclusion in London.

As well as voting on sports to included for 2016 the host city will be determined by a vote from all IOC Members. The candidate cities are Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

AOC and AAP