Golf at the Olympic Games

With an official statement on Tuesday the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach announced that the 2020 Summer Olympic Games are postponed for 2021. This decision shouldn’t be a surprise for most of sport fans as almost there is no sport running at the moment due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. So the Olympic golf tournament becomes the latest international golf event which is postponed due to the pandemic.

Golf makes his Olympic debut in Paris in 1900. The first Olympic golf tournament is played at Compiègne Club, 50 km north of Paris. This is one of the few golf courses outside the United Kingdom at that time. Men’s competition was held on 2nd of October with each golfer played two back-to-back 18 holes rounds. American Charles Sands won the gold medal after rounds 82 and 85. Walter Rutherford finished second, while the bronze medal went to David Robertson, both from Great Britain.

Women’s tournament was played on the next day with women competing on nine holes only. Margaret Abbott (USA) took the golf medal after shooting 47. The other two medals also wen to team USA thanks to Pauline Whittier and Daria Pratt. With this title Margaret Abbott became the first American female with a golf medal from Olympic Games.

At the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri, United States two golf tournaments were played. They both were for men – one individual and one team tournament. The number of participants was 77, all of them coming from two countries – USA and Canada. The individual tournament was played in match play format and it was won by George Lyon (Canada). American Chandler Egan took the silver, while two other Americans – Burt McKinnie and Francis Newton took a bronze medal after sharing third place. As expected the top three spots at the team competition were won by American teams.

Golf was supposed to be part of the 1908 Summer Olympics as well, but the tournament was cancelled. Before the event there was a dispute among the British golfers and at the end they have decided to boycott the tournament. As a result the 1904 champion George Lyon was the only participant in the event. He was offered the gold medal by default, but he refused to accept it and that’s how golf Olympic fairy tale ended.

It took golf more than a century to return back to the Olympic family. This became a reality in 2016 in Rio. There was a serious dispute whether golf should be an Olympic sport or not as many of the leading players at that time skipped the event. They were honest saying that they prefer to concentrate on majors and regular tour events which give a lot of money and plenty of world ranking points. But still the 2016 Olympic golf tournament was successful with golfers from more than 35 countries competing at the Olympic Golf Course in Rio in both – men’s and women’s tournament. 

Englishman Justin Rose won the gold medal after finishing at 16 under par, two clear of his good friend Henrik Stenson. The bronze medal went the USA thanks to Matt Kuchar.

The women’s tournament was won by the former world number one Inbee Park. Park, who almost missed to qualify for the tournament, showed his best golf in Rio and brought the gold medal home after finishing five shots clear of Lydia Ko. Shanshan Feng took the bronze for China.

In 2020 we expected more of the leading golfers to find a place in their schedule for the Olympic tournament. The busy schedule makes the Olympic Games unattractive for golfers and this is something the governing bodies in golf should think on.