Olympic Golfing Glory

Once every four years, the Olympic Games brings a special opportunity for the 60 golfers who qualify. Aside from the four golf majors, I think winning a gold medal at the Olympics ranks up there, although the limited field and qualifying rules needs tweaking.

Only four golfers per country is allowed, regardless of world ranking. So, if the US or South Korea has five players in the top 60, only four can participate (if the four are ranked in the top 15). Complicated and a bit unfair if you ask me. That needs to change, if we want the very best to be there.

While golf isn’t seen as a real sport by some, I think it is but right to include our beloved game in the Olympics. Golf is more mental than physical. While pro golfers today hit the gym as much as the range, the strongest, fastest and fittest golfer isn’t guaranteed wins.

So, in the athletic sense, golf isn’t a typical sport. But why do so many retired pro athletes turn to golf after their careers? The challenge, the mental toughness, the testing nature of golf feed the competitive cravings of pro athletes who are past their physical prime. In that sense, golf is as great a sport as any, maybe even the greatest.

Golf used to be in the Olympics in the early 1900s, but more as an exhibition rather than true competition. In Rio in 2016, golf made its return to the summer games, although the reception was quite mixed. For one, the top players in the world weren’t all competing.

The threat of the Zika Virus made some of the best golfers withdraw from the 2016 games, with Bubba Watson (World No. 5 then) being the highest-ranked golfer to play. Still, golf at the Olympics was still great and eventual winner Justin Rose fully deserved all the glory. On the women’s side, Inbee Park won the gold.

With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics being delayed due to Covid, the next Games would be held in 2021. Still under unusual circumstances, the competition in Japan was thankfully better than in Rio.

Most of the world’s top players competed with Xander Schauffele narrowly beating Rory Sabbatini for the gold. On the women’s side, Nelly Korda won the gold, also in nail-biting fashion, over Lydia Ko and Inami from Japan.

This year in Paris, the game’s best will once again be battling for gold. More importantly for us in the Philippines, our flag will be flown at the Paris games with Dottie Ardina and Bianca Pagdanganan qualifying.

On the men’s side, some notable names will be absent, particularly US Open champion Bryson DeChambaeu. With the four-per-country max rule, and with Bryson’s ranking affected by his playing at LIV, he didn’t make the US squad.

But other LIV stars like Jon Rahm, Abraham Ancer, Joaquin Neimann and a few others made the cut by either being in the top 60, or because of the four per country limit, they still made the cut.

With or without everyone being there, the Olympics should still make for awesome watching. Enjoy watching the summer games in Paris!