Back in the Games

 Article by: Lexi Clary 

The last time golf had an appearance in the Olympics was 1904 during the saint Louis games. Unfortunately, the men who showed up to play were from Ireland and Great Britain, sadly they were told that they would no longer be able to participate because they didn’t have enough room on the boat to transport the lads. Instead they decided to replace them with tug of war. That left the U.S. to compete against Canada. And if you think that’s lame, well, it only gets lamer. Canada actually beat the U.S., and until now I had no idea that Canada ever beat the U.S. in anything except for hockey. In 2009 they renounced that golf would be brought back into the games to play at the 2016 Rio Olympics, held in Rio Brazil.

With the return of golf, both men and women competed for the gold, bronze and silver medals. Although I personally am glad that they have chosen to add the sport back in, competition may not have been as grand as a person would think. Due to the Zika virus, many top players dropped out of the competition. This list includes Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlory, Jason Day and a few other top players in the game. The hope of golf returning to the Olympics is that it will help expose the game all over the world, and bringing more people to game whether it is to play or simply to watch. 

The format for the competition consisted of stroke play, which is where the total number of strokes taken to complete the course for an individual and the individual with the less number of strokes wins.

For the 2016 Olympics the format for competition would have probably been better with match play, that is when players are paired up in teams and the teams win by holes and not by individual strokes. One player, Matt Kuchar, had no idea that the competition was going to be played individually. An article by Kyle Robbins, thinks that the format is “counterintuitive and wasted an opportunity to set up an exciting an interesting team and match play event.” I would personally agree with Robbins, considering that for people who tend to think golf is boring, a match play; U.S. against Australia and Asia against Europe would have been quit a bit more exciting than the standard play of golf that we see all the time. The format would resemble much of the Ryder Cup match play. According to Olympic.org they are trying “to use the unprecedented exposure of the Games to increase participation in countries that do not already have a strong golfing background.” With hopes of attracting more spectators and participators in the game of golf.

https://youtu.be/R0aYbDdWiEw