5 reasons to be cheerful over men's golf in The Olympics

05/08/2024 17:00

If the International Olympic Committee were looking for some positivity about golf’s third renewal in the Games then a leaderboard that read Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood, Hideki Matsuyama, Victor Perez, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm would be a very solid start.

Any one of the above would have proved to be a big step forward for a sport that has yet to truly light up the Games.

The build-up and the farcical scenes over the Dutch team’s non inclusion might have captured some of the pre-tournament headlines, it seemed that logging on to Discovery Plus was beyond many of us but we got there in the end with huge crowds, a dazzling and dramatic course and even a local hero in Perez being serenaded as he made his way up Le Golf National’s iconic 18th.

Here are 5 reasons why we loved golf in The Games this year:

1) To state the obvious golf needed a big winner and here, while Rory McIlroy would have been the ideal gold medalist, we got the best player in the world on top of the podium. And he shot a nine-under 62 doing it; the American would come home in 29, 10 shots better than the leader Rahm, to pull it off in style.

We might not have got the winning putt moment or any play-offs for medals but the quality of the leaders was like nothing else.

“That’s what Olympic golf needs for sure. This is the kind of field and kind of show the tournament needs and for all the top players feel like they want to play it. It’s good quality golf and it’s exactly what it should be in the Olympics,” explained the two-time Major winner and defending Olympic champion Xander Schauffele.

“It is a different feeling and this year was incredible. This year is very different with the fans and the people and being able to see other Games. It was much closer to what is a real Olympics experience.”

2) Four years ago we had Schauffele, Rory Sabbatini and CT Pan on the podium, away from any crowds, so this surely has to help with the big sell of the sport. Tommy Fleetwood finished one adrift of Scheffler while Matsuyama, who lost out in a play-off for bronze in Tokyo, picked up a medal.

While it was different to have a Slovakian and Chinese Taipei golfer with a medal round their necks, it’s going to do nothing to boost the overall appeal. Here we had three of the traditional golf-mad countries in the top three and not just the easy headline of Scheffler.

According to the R&A's 2023 Global Golf Participation Report, outside of the United States, the top five on-course adult golfer markets were Japan (8.1 million), Canada (5.6 million), Republic of Korea (5.4 million), England (3.4 million) and Germany (2.1 million). If you want to talk glibly about ‘growing the game’ then this is a tap in.

3) If we’ve learnt anything in the past few years it’s that money is a huge turn-off for the fans and for at least some of the players. McIlroy is generally good at saying the right thing at the right time and his post-tournament quotes will be picked up all over the world.

“Nico (Hojgaard) reckons it’s the best tournament he’s ever been involved in, and he’s played a Ryder Cup. I still think that the Ryder Cup is the best tournament that we have in our game, pure competition, and I think this has the potential to be right up there with it.

“I think with how much of a sh-t show the game of golf is right now and you think about the two tournaments that might be the purest form of competition in our sport, we don’t play for money in it. So it speaks volumes for what’s important in sports. I think every single player this week has had an amazing experience. It was probably one of the best individual competitions I’ve been a part of.”

As for Rahm, who led by four at the turn having tested positive for Covid in Tokyo, he also gave it a big thumbs up.

“It’s different to the Ryder Cup, it’s not a Major either. But I feel like it’s almost the ultimate prize representing your country. That’s what makes it so special.”

When the organisers are piecing together their PR for the 2028 Games then expect these words to play a big part.

4) As well as money we’ve heard plenty about formats in the past few years and, since day one, it seems everyone is after some sort of mixed format. The players might play in teams but it’s a truly individual week and Jason Day explained what most of us have been thinking for the past decade.

“If they do a mixed version where you have low men’s and women’s and join, like an aggregate score, that would be great. That way we could play the tournament the same time as the women’s.

“I don’t think we need to spread it out over two weeks. We just like have a morning wave, afternoon wave, and then you kind of just keep doing that through the four days and that’s where you have men and women; you’ll have maybe even bigger crowds with that tweak.”

As for the 72 holes to decide the individual medalists McIlroy had a different take.

“If they wanted to do a two-day team type of competition and we played for six days, I’d be all for that. But in terms of the individual gold medal, I don’t think there’s a better way to determine a champion than 72-hole strokeplay.”

5) In four years the Olympic golf will be staged at Riviera Country Club which will comfortably make it the best course we’ve seen to host the Games.

Bizarrely ‘Riv’ has already hosted an Olympic event but it has nothing to with golf – in 1932 it hosted dressage equestrian as well as as the riding part of the modern pentathlon.

This is one of the players’ favourite stops on the PGA Tour and, whatever it might look like, we’ll see a rolled back ball in Los Angeles.

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