Golf at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics

2024 Paris Summer Games – Past, Way Past and Future of Golf at the Olympics

The very first time golf was ever played in the Olympics was in Paris in the year 1900. It was Americans Margaret Ives and Charles Sands that won the competition. American representatives Nelly Korda and Xander Schauffele are the most recent Gold medalists from 2020. It goes without saying, Xander is on fire after his historic win at Royal Troon last week. His consistent play days 1-3, stamped with a career round day 4, earned him the coveted Claret Jug. Next up in his crosshairs, another Olympic Gold Medal. Nelly is also burning up courses in her own right. Having claimed six fist place finishes, including the Chevron Open. Will we see both of them on the Gold platform in the coming weeks?

Concealed Lions around the Golf Greens 

The Paris Summer Olympics will have already opened before the men and women take to the greens August 1-4, and August 7-10, respectively. This will be only the third consecutive year golf has been part of the Olympics in the last century.  

The Olympic games are almost as old as time itself with the first written recordings in the 700s BC. Golf, certainly not as old, it has quite a few arguments as to who played a “golf” type game first. As this is not about the history of golf, we will not get into that discussion here. 

Golf was first introduced into the Olympics for the Paris games of 1900. They competed again in St. Louis for the 1904 games. It was dropped from all games until Brazil in 2016. Some argue that Golf is not a “true Olympic sport.” Thus, its hiatus for over a century. None-the-less, here we are back in Paris in 2024, for what should prove to be an extremely exciting competition. I for one am confident it has found its place in the Olympics and will not be dropped again. Maybe if the Romans had set lions loose on “a golf type game,” it would have been an Olympic sport from the very beginning.  

Who Will be Competing for Gold 

Based on world rankings, both the men’s and women’s field will consist of 60 players. No country will have more than four representatives. The men’s field of with four US competitors is the only county, including the women’s field, with four players. Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, and Collin Morikawa join Xander on the men’s side. Lilia Vu, and Rose Zhang join Nelly on the women’s side. Follow the links below to see the full list of competitors, and what it means for them to compete. https://almostaveragegolf.com/olympic-golfers-discuss-event-means-them/

https://www.si.com/golf/2024-mens-olympic-golf-full-field-paris

https://www.si.com/golf/2024-womens-olympic-golf-full-field-paris 

All players will compete in stroke play consisting of 72 holes over four days. No cuts. Best low score claims the GOLD! Silver and Bronze follow…competitors 4-60 do not receive participation medals.  

 World-Class “L’Albatros” – What does is hold 

“L’Albatros”, or Le Golf National in Guyancourt, is described on top100golfcourses.com as “a hint of Florida, a sprinkling of Ireland and a lot of France.” Which translates to, in my opinion, a lot of water, thick rough, and a lot of France. Other than once being the home to Louis X1V, I am not sure what “a lot of France” golf course translates too. It was the home of the 2018 Ryder Cup and has hosted the French Open on numerous occasions. The 72-par venue plays to a total of 7,331 yards. Whatever the course description really translates to, we can certainly expect a great competition at a beautiful venue.