Wayne Riley
A lot has happened in the world of professional golf since my last column, but I wanted to discuss the Olympic men’s golf because I found it so captivating (the women’s event took place after this went to press).
I know there were negative headlines in the lead-up once again as some of the world’s best players declined to participate, but that simply didn’t matter. The event was engrossing from start to finish and it was refreshing to see golfers giving their all in an event that carried no prize fund. Everyone truly embraced the Olympic spirit.
Xander Schauffele held off a stellar chasing pack in the end to win a Gold Medal for Team USA. I’m happy for him as he seems to always be there or thereabouts in the biggest tournaments, only to fall away or come up just short.
He’s an unbelievable player, but he seems to have become golf’s nearly man over the last couple of years. You’d have to say he’s currently the best player in the world without a Major and he’s surrounded in the world rankings by players of a similar standard and age who have managed to get over the line. This win will give him huge belief that he can land one of the big four in 2022. I regard Schauffele as someone with a very similar game to Collin Morikawa and on his day he’s as good as any of them.
Behind him, it was great to see Rory Sabbatini claim silver and CT Pan bronze, the latter in a seven-man play-off that included Paul Casey, Rory Mcilroy and Morikawa. The two of them ensured a good geographical spread of medals and brought publicity to the sport in all corners of the world. That is what the Olympics is all about. What other golf tournament would see viewers from the USA. Slovakia and Chinese Taipei celebrating in unison?
I think the Olympic experience has changed certain players’ minds, too, namely Rory Mcilroy. “I never tried so hard in my life to finish third,” he said after narrowly missing out on bronze. “I made some comments before that were probably uneducated and impulsive. But coming here and experiencing it, seeing and feeling everything that goes on, not just Olympic golf but just the Olympics in general, that sort of Olympic spirit’s definitely bitten me. It’s not just another golf tournament. It’s something much bigger than that.”
I feel the Olympic golf tournament at Paris 2024 could be massive. When Rory speaks, the golfing world listens and I think some of the players who missed out this time might reconsider going forward.
In three years’ time there should be no excuses. Paris is a highly desirable city for an Olympics and I’m fully expecting a very strong field. Hopefully, the world’s best will come over for The Open and stay in Europe until after the Olympics. Le Golf National is one of Europe’s best golf courses, so that should be another selling point. The whole thing just works. It’ll also be interesting to monitor the TV rights situation. The BBC has so many events to focus on and can therefore understandably only show limited golf, but will that be the case in three years? We shall see.
One of the players who will surely be in the field again is Morikawa, who has been truly remarkable since turning pro. He’s a golfing machine – he hits the ball so well and has a brilliant golfing mind. He was unbelievable in winning The Open. In the last few years, we’ve had Rory get to four Majors, Spieth three and Koepka four, but they’ve all stalled. Is Morikawa now the player most likely to break through Nick Faldo’s mark of six and head towards Tom Watson at eight? I think so.
“This will give Schauffele huge belief he can land one of golf’s big four in 2022”