Success of Olympic Golf

Golf made its return to the Olympics in 2016 after not being seen at the games since 1904. The most recent playing of Olympic golf could be deemed to be the most successful of the modern Olympic golf events. The event was played at Le Golf National in Paris, the same course which hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup. The course received tremendous praise, and the competition itself was an amazing spectacle for not only golf fans, but Olympic fans.

The final day produced a titanic battle with many of the golf's best players in contention going down the stretch. The significance of this battle between these players is that there was a mix of PGA Tour players and LIV players. The game of golf has been divided for a couple of years now with money at the centre of it. However, at the Olympic Games, we saw the best players in the world battle it out with no money on the line, and we won one of the most exciting golf tournaments in recent memory.

The Issues in Golf

The game of golf is going through troubling times at the moment ever since players from the DP and PGA tours defected to LIV Golf in 2022, taking huge signing-on fees. The game has become about money, with even the PGA Tour having to create signature events with massive prize funds in order to counteract LIV and stop more players from defecting to LIV. The game of golf is no longer about the history of the game anymore, which is worrying for fans. Throughout his career, Jon Rahm has voiced his opinion about how important the history of golf is to him, saying, “I want to play against the best in the world in a format that has been around for hundreds of years,” and continued about LIV that “the format is not appealing to me.” Rahm is now a member of LIV Golf, showing that money talks more than history, which is a shame. Rahm is not the only one to go back on his word, but this is most painful because of how important he is to European golf and his previous views on the history of the game.

Olympic Golf is the Blueprint

Olympic golf definitely had a different feel about it than other tournaments. Similarly to the major championships where LIV and PGA tour players reunite, it felt important. However, unlike the majors the players were not competing for prize money, they were competing for history. They spent the week surrounded by Olympic athletes, and no doubt this would have shown them the importance of the Olympics and history. These athletes want to etch their name in history books forever, and you get the sense that these golfers feel the same. We saw huge emotion from gold medal winner Scottie Scheffler mid-round as he chased gold, more emotion than we have ever seen from him in his other tournament victories. Rory McIlroy was full of praise after the Olympics, saying, “I think with how much of a sh*tshow the game of golf is right now, and you think about the tournaments that might be the purest form of competition in our sport, we don’t play for money in it”, referring to the Olympics and the Ryder Cup, showing that the players enjoyed competing for history.

The history of the game is very important to the sport, and it felt like history was on display at the Olympic golf. Money was not the centrepiece; sporting excellence was. Money was always part of golf, but it felt as though the history of the game was always intact. However, this is now not the case. Hopefully, the Olympics can be a blueprint of what golf needs to get back to being.

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