Olympics Golf in Rio Part 1

After an 112-year reprieve Olympic golf is finally back but not without some controversy and quite a few big names from the mens professional ranks declining to participate in Rio de Janeiro for reasons usually pertaining to the Zika virus.  By the way, August is winter in Rio so that means a lot less mosquitos and risk to the virus.  Also, according to the Olympic course golf architect Gil Hanse, all of the water on the course is from pure clean ground water.  That said, I don't want to get into all of the politics of why some golfers are not competing, however, those were some facts that are worth noting.

In this post we'll take a look back to the last Olympic golf tournaments, tournament format for this year's event and an overview of the Olympic course.

This years event format includes 72-hole stroke play tournaments (with a 3-hole playoff in the event of a tie) for both men's and women's events. Eligibility for each golf was determined by International Golf Federation (IGF) rankings.  The men's competition is scheduled for 11–14 August and the women's for 17–20 August.  (See Team USA Page)

The last time golf was in the Olympics was in 1904 in St. Louis at the Glen Echo Golf Club.  This was just only the second time after it was originally introduced in 1900 in Paris at the Compiègne Club.  The 1904 and 1900 formats were quite different.  In 1900 the tournament was 36-hole stroke play for men and 9-hole stroke play for women.  In 1904 the tournament only had a mens division where golfers played two 18-hole rounds in qualifying play and the top 32 golfers advanced to match play.  

The final field of 32 in the 1904 Olympics consisted of 31 U.S. golfers and only one Canadian by the name of George Lyon.  Lyon took on the field of U.S. golfers and won the gold after defeating Chandler Egan 3&2 in the gold medal match.  (See great Golf Magazine article on George Lyon.  See Golf Digest's history of golf in the Olympics YouTube video.)

1904 Gold Medal Winner George Lyon, Canada.

The decision to have a 72-hole stroke play tournament for men and women by the Olympic committee was mainly because it was the "safest" format to go with by the IGF.  Others cited that it is considered the "least controversial" format as well.  I do wish there was more of a team aspect to this year's Olympic golf.  If you have ever watched the Ryder Cup or the College Golf Championships on television you probably noticed more excitement and action on the leaderboard because in those events every hole and every shot has a lot riding on the outcome.  

In 2015, the NCAA decided to change the format for College golf to add excitement to the mens and womens championships.  I watched both the mens and womens live coverage on the Golf Channel the last two years and I think the NCAA got it right.  Here's the format the NCAA implemented.

• Three days (54 holes) of stroke play for all, Friday through Sunday.
• After Monday, the top eight teams advance to the match-play team championship, and the 72-hole individual national champion will be determined.
• The team national champions will be determined by a match-play format consisting of quarterfinals and semifinals played on Tuesday, followed by the finals on Wednesday.

I suspect the Olympic Committee will evaluate how the format works this summer and then possibly tweak it more towards a team event or add some match play elements in 2020 in Tokyo. The format used in 1904 with stroke play to advance to match play seems like an exciting format that would allow all countries to participate who may not have the numbers for a team event.  So maybe they had it right back in 1904?

The 2016 Olympic golf field really demonstrates how much the game of golf has grown throughout the world since 1904.  Where as the 1904 Olympics had one Canadian and the rest were golfers from the United States, this year's Olympics will have golfers from every corner of the globe.  Henrik Stenson (SWE) after winning the British Open, looks to be a favorite to win a medal.  On the women's side Lydia Ko (NZ) and Brooke Henderson (CAN) should be favorites to medal.  Another factor, however, is how all of the golfers match up with the Rio Olympic course.

Designed by renowned golf architect Gil Hanse the Rio Olympic course features minimal rough and a lot of native grass areas around the fairways.  The back nine design should make for exciting finishes to each round and possibly the final day.  Par 5 hole 10 is a definite birdie hole then holes 11-14 will force golfers to struggle to keep par then holes 15-18 will provide birdie and eagle opportunities which should add to the excitement.

To get a better feel for the course the Olympians will be playing Golf Digest in partnership with Adobe software has posted some very cool flyovers of the Olympic course on the Golf Digest YouTube channel.  For more Golf Digest YouTube coverage see GolfDigest channel coverage at GolfHubz.com/news and for other YouTube Olympic coverage visit GolfHubz.com.  

360 degree Virtual tour

Front 9 Holes at Rio Olympic Course

Back 9 holes at Rio Olympic Course