Olympic golf is bland and unoriginal.
Golf was originally in the Olympics in 1900 and 1904 before being excluded from the games for 104 years. In the 2016 Brazil Olympics, golf was re-added allowing a maximum of four professionals from each qualifying country. This has been a massive flop.
Olympic golf had an opportunity to be different from regular professional golf and distinguish itself as a unique, once-every-four-years, tournament. Instead, they chose the same washed format we see every week.
Nearly every professional mens and womens golf tournament is four days of “stroke play” (meaning every shot over four rounds is counted). While this format typically identifies the best player, it rarely leads to an exciting tournament. The Olympics could have chosen a format like match play where individual players play against each other in a bracket (similar to March Madness). How cool would it be to watch a no-namer like Fabrizio Zanotti of Paraguay play Scottie Scheffler for a gold medal?
An even better idea would have been to combine the mens and womens teams into one team. It’s insanity that there isn’t an event where men and women play against each other. A mixed-gender format would be perfect for the Olympics. It not only would separate itself from other professional golf, but it would be one of the few Olympic events where men and women compete for the same medal.
The first Olympics with golf back was 2016 in Brazil. Barely any notable mens professional golfers made the trip. Most cited Zika virus (which only affects pregnant women) as the reason for skipping. Nobody watched and nobody cared when Justin - cat face - Rose won gold for the Brits.
The 2020 Olympics in Japan were more of the same. It was made slightly more interesting when the obscure American golfer, Rory Sabbitini, changed his citizenship to Slovakian (his wife’s birth country) because he couldn’t qualify for the US team. This prompted amusing nicknames like “The Silver Slovak” and “The Boy From Bratislava”. In a shocking turn of events he ended up getting a silver medal! For Slovakia! Sadly, The Silver Slovak won’t be making the trip to Paris.
Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark (fluffer), Collin Morikawa, and Xander Schauffele will be competing for the US men's team in Paris. Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu, and Rose Zhang will compete for the women's team. You can watch it in the middle of the night on Peacock (The Cock).
I don’t tune in to the Olympics to watch the sports I watch all year. It feels special to watch swimming, track and field, and gymnastics because you know you only get to see it once every four years. Don’t waste your time watching Olympic golf.