Golf needs a unique space in Olympics
It has been just over a week now since I worked my first Olympics covering golf for the CBC, and it’s been quite surprising how many people have approached me to talk about Olympic golf.
Opinions have varied from “one of the best golf events of the year” to “golf’s not an Olympic sport.” The latter received a big argument from me; obviously, defending a sport that is played in 245 countries and by 25 million people is not that difficult. However, when faced with the question as to where Olympic golf falls in the hierarchy of the sport, or how it might compare to a major championship or a tour win, that’s a much more difficult question to answer.
Most of the feedback I’ve received through our Golf Talk Canada audience is that even for the golf fans who enjoyed the event, they haven’t assigned much value or importance to a medal win. Was the final round of both men’s and ladies golf exciting? Certainly yes, with both needing playoffs to decide podium finishes.
Both events had the cream rise to the top, with Xander Schauffele (arguably the best player in the world who does not own a victory in a major) winning the men’s gold while world No. 1 Nelly Korda took home top honours for the women. On paper, it sounds like an event that delivered across the board, so why then are so many of the sport’s fans feeling so indifferent about Olympic golf ?
For me the answer is quite simple — we are overloaded with professional golf. Golf doesn’t have an off-season, and every week of the year you can find the best players in the world competing somewhere for large sums of money in what is likely a 72-hole stroke play competition. It’s not just an overload of professional golf, it’s also the same type of golf. With the exception of a few weeks a year when we have match play or Ryder Cup (or Presidents Cup), we are bombarded with 72-hole stroke play individual golf.
For me, therein lies the Olympic problem and answer. Golf doesn’t need another 72-hole stroke play event. Many variations of the sport exist; Stableford, mixed two-person teams, four-person teams, alternate shot and more. All these formats are played at local clubs and public courses around the globe weekly, yet we very rarely see them on display at the game’s highest level.
It’s time for the Olympic stage to have its own format and differentiate itself from the others. Combine the men and the women, have a team component as well as individual, create something that golf fans immediately identify as “Olympic Golf.”
It was an unrealistic expectation to believe golf fans would be as invested in Olympic golf after a 112-year absence from the Games as they are with, say, the Masters. So give viewers something uniquely Olympic. This is how to engage the interest of every golf fan and give Olympic golf its own place of significance.
Without a change in tournament format, without its own place in the game, we run the risk of Olympic golf being just another golf tournament and fading further into the background of the Olympic spotlight. Let’s get it right for Paris in 2024.