Preview Of The 2024 Olympics Golf: Americans Expected To Dominate The Podium.

For only the third time in 100 years, the Summer Olympics will feature golf. The men’s golf tournament for the 2024 Paris Olympics will commence on Thursday and conclude on Sunday, making it the third consecutive installment of the sport in the Olympic Games. Golf made its Olympic debut in the 1900 Games and participated again in the 1904 Summer Olympics. However, it took a 112-year hiatus before returning in 2016.

Le Golf National, a par-72, 7,331-yard course located in a southwest suburb of Paris, was chosen as the venue for golf during the 2024 Olympics. This golf course previously hosted the Ryder Cup in 2018. The qualification process for the tournament is unusual in that, while it does depend on the Official World Golf Ranking, each nation is limited to a maximum of four golfers. Only the top 15 ranked players automatically qualified, as long as they were among the top four from their respective countries. The remaining spots in the field were filled based on rankings, with a maximum of two players per nation and representation from each continent.

Due to this unique qualification system, Patrick Cantlay, who holds the 8th rank globally but is the fifth-ranked American, did not qualify. On the other hand, Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen, ranked at No. 378, secured a spot in the tournament. Nonetheless, the field for the event is stacked, with all of the top seven-ranked golfers and eight out of the top 10 players in the world participating. The United States contingent comprises Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark, and Collin Morikawa, all of whom rank in the top six.

Among the four American participants, each has won major tournaments, making an American golfer the favorite to claim the gold medal. Among the other 31 represented nations, only Ireland has two golfers who have won majors, namely Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry. Besides the four Americans and the two Irishmen, four other players in the 2024 Olympics golf field have previously won major championships: Jon Rahm from Spain, Hideki Matsuyama from Japan, Matt Fitzpatrick from Great Britain, and Jason Day from Australia.

Despite their past achievements, the American golfers face a challenge in terms of familiarity with the venue. None of the four American golfers were part of Team USA during the 2018 Ryder Cup, which means they have never competed at Le Golf National before. In addition to hosting the Ryder Cup, this course also annually hosts the Open de France, a tournament on the European Tour. Therefore, several European players who currently or previously competed on that tour are much more acquainted with the course and its intricacies than their American counterparts.

One such player is Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, representing Great Britain in Paris 2024. Fleetwood played a significant role in Team Europe’s victory over Team United States in the 2018 Ryder Cup, earning a remarkable 4-1 record during the event and contributing the second-highest number of points (four). He also claimed victory in the Open de France at Le Golf National the previous year, making him the player with the best course history heading into the 2024 Summer Olympics. Other golfers in the Olympic field who have won the Open de France at this course include Alex Noren from Sweden (2018) and Guido Migliozzi from Italy (2022).

Once the tournament commences on Thursday, it will resemble a typical golf event observed on the PGA Tour. The competition will consist of four rounds, with 18 holes played in each round, employing a stroke play format for scoring. One notable deviation from the norm is the absence of a cut; therefore, all 60 players who tee off will compete in all four rounds, unless they choose to withdraw. In the event of a tie for one of the three medal positions, a sudden-death playoff will determine the winner. The 2020 Olympics also witnessed a tiebreaker to determine the bronze medal winner, as seven golfers were tied after 72 holes of play. Pan Cheng-tsung from Taiwan (competing as Chinese Taipei in the Olympics) emerged as the bronze medalist from that group after four sudden-death playoff holes.

Taiwan is one of six nations that have won a medal in men’s individual golf at the Olympics, spanning the four previous Games in which golf was contested. Sweden, Slovakia, and Canada each have one medal, while Great Britain has three. However, the United States leads the pack with six out of the 13 individual Olympic medals (there was a tie for bronze in 1904). Additionally, a team golf event was featured in the 1904 Games, and the U.S. swept all three medals, although no other nation participated. In total, American golfers have secured more Olympic men’s golf medals (nine) than all other nations combined (seven). The quartet of Scheffler, Schauffele, Clark, and Morikawa aims to continue this legacy of success on the links of Le Golf National.