How Golf Works on the 2024 Summer time Olympics
Even if we’re getting into the third consecutive Olympic Video games with golf on the docket, it nonetheless feels just a little odd to say golf and the Olympics in the identical breath. A 112 12 months hiatus will do this. However with loads of massive title stars and dramatic finishes already on show since golf’s return in 2016, it appears that evidently the game is as sturdy as ever on this worldwide stage.
Key Factors
- Historical past: After first showing within the 1900 and 1904 Olympic video games, golf took a 112 12 months hiatus earlier than returning in 2016
- Qualification: Qualifying for the Olympics facilities across the Official World Golf Rankings, with the highest 15 robotically making it in — with a restrict of 4 per nation — and the highest two golfers from every nation chosen after that till a area of 60 is reached.
- Medal Winners: Since golf’s return in 2016, Nice Britain’s Simply Rose and USA’s Xander Schauffele have gained gold medals
Paris 2024 Schedule
Males’s Competitors
- Dates: August 1-4
- Location: Le Golf Nationwide, Saint Quentin en Yvelines
- US Workforce: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, Collin Morikawa
Girls’s Competitors
- Dates: August 7-10
- Location: Le Golf Nationwide
- US Workforce: Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu, Rose Zhang
Olympic Golf Qualification Requirements
The Olympic golf rankings are decided by the Worldwide Golf Federation, or IGF, which makes use of the Official World Golf Rankings for males, and Girls’s World Golf Rankings for the ladies. The highest 15 robotically qualify, however with a restrict of 4 per nation. After that the 2 highest-ranked gamers from nations that don’t have already got two certified gamers are chosen to fill out the sphere of 60. The host nation is assured one spot. The thought is that a number of completely different nations might be represented, even with their two eligible gamers probably falling exterior of the highest 200 on this planet.
And so the explanation the US normally sends 4 gamers when most different nations solely ship two, is as a result of they dominate the boys’s rankings. On this case, Scheffler, Schauffele, Clark and Morikawa have been ranked 1st, third, fifth and seventh, respectively, on the closing date in mid June.
However, as a result of the Official World Golf Rankings are used, meaning golfers from LIV Golf usually gained’t have sufficient factors to qualify, regardless of Byson DeChambeau not too long ago successful the U.S. Open as an example. The OWGR consists of over 400 tournaments on over 20 excursions, however as a result of LIV is the one tour that performs 54 gap occasions as an alternative of 72 holes, they will’t be factored in.
The Golf Competitors
The Olympic program for golf assorted a bit in its early years, however extra on that in a minute. Since returning in 2016, the golf olympics competitions have consisted of particular person stroke play golf tournaments for the boys’s and ladies’s occasions, with the bottom rating after 4 rounds successful the gold medal. Sudden loss of life playoffs are used to find out solo second and third place with the intention to award silver and bronze medals as nicely.
The similarities in format to the PGA Tour and different main excursions has been seen by some as a missed alternative for golf, they usually have urged the IGF and IOC – Worldwide Olympic Committee – to entertain different choices like a staff occasion, a match play event, or perhaps a extra accessible qualifying system to permit room for extra golfers – primarily proficient amateurs – to try to qualify.
Current Medal Winners
For the return of golf to the summer time Olympics in 2016, a brand new course was inbuilt Rio de Janeiro particularly for the Video games. Sadly, most of the world’s high male golfers like Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy didn’t find yourself taking part in, citing the Zika virus epidemic. So representing Workforce USA was Patrick Reed, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar.
Regardless of the lacking faces, the boys’s occasion was nonetheless led by two main winners with Justin Rose of Nice Britain successful the gold medal and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson taking house silver. And in dramatic trend, Kuchar fired a final-round 63 – tied for the low spherical of the event – to win the bronze medal for the USA.
On the ladies’s aspect, South Korea’s Inbee Park dominated her strategy to a gold medal by 5 photographs, whereas Lydia Ko of New Zealand took silver and Shanshan Feng of China took bronze. American Stacy Lewis completed in a tie for fourth place.
For the 2020 summer time Olympics in Tokyo, which have been held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the golf occurred at Kasumigaseki Nation Membership. The American males’s staff consisted of Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed and Collin Morikawa, with Schauffele successful the gold medal after taking pictures within the 60s all 4 rounds. Rory Sabbatini, representing Slovakia, took house a silver medal with a remaining spherical 61, and after a seven man sudden loss of life playoff that included Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama and Morikawa, it was Chinese language Taipei’s C. T. Pan who earned the bronze.
For the ladies’s event, Nelly Korda of Workforce USA additionally stayed within the 60s all 4 days to take house the gold, whereas Japan’s Mone Inami gained silver and New Zealand’s Lydia Ko gained the bronze after a playoff. Ko grew to become the primary individual to win a medal in golf at back-to-back Olympic Video games.
Golf’s Historical past within the Olympics
Whereas some have questioned if golf even belongs in the summertime Olympics, it’s price noting that golf first grew to become an Olympic sport through the second version of the trendy Video games in Paris in 1900, and might be thought of among the many first trendy sports activities. For that 12 months, the boys performed a two spherical stroke play golf event and the ladies performed a 9 gap golf event.
Early Olympic Golf:
- 1900 Paris: Males’s Gold – Charles Sands (USA), Girls’s Gold – Margaret Abbott (USA)
- 1904 St. Louis: Males’s Gold – George Lyon (CAN), Silver – Chandler Egan (USA)
After failed makes an attempt to carry tournaments in 1908 and once more in 1920, Olympic golf competitors formally fell off the radar till the choice was made to reinstate it in 2009. Within the restricted quantity of instances golf has been performed within the Olympics, the USA leads with 13 complete medals, together with 5 gold. They may hope to discover a comparable success at Le Golf Nationwide in Paris in 2024.
