Golf is back in the Olympics for the second consecutive Summer Games, and some of the best golfers in the world are playing. And some aren’t.
But the return of golf to the Summer Games has re-ignited more than just the debate over who is and isn’t participating. When golf returned to the Olympics in the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, critics complained about the stock format with a four-day, 72-hole no-cut competition.
Why, the critics asked, should this look like most of the tournaments on the PGA Tour, the European Tour, the LPGA or the Ladies European Tour? This is the Olympics. Do something to shake that up, the critics howled.
That howling has returned in 2021 in Tokyo. It’s not that the format doesn’t produce legitimate gold, silver and bronze winners, but it might be a missed opportunity to do golf differently.
Here’s five things golf and the Olympics might want to consider: