2016 Olympics – The Promise of Women’s Olympic Golf

The women’s golf field brings a uniquely globalized spirit of competition to the Rio Games.

Amid the seemingly endless snarls and controversies that have punctuated the past year and threatened to derail golf’s return to the Olympic Games – the Olympic Golf Course, Brazilian political instability, that pesky mosquito – women golfers have quietly and persistently readied themselves for the competition.

Even as 120 golfers from 41 countries begin their competition for Olympic gold, the withdrawal of a number of top male golfers over the past year, beginning with Adam Scott and Vijay Singh and concluding with Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth, has been paralleled by a protracted debate about whether or not the sport should even be included in the modern Olympic program.

Notably, none of these issues or debates seemed to touch the women, who have been playing golf in a parallel universe, watching the world rankings, and competing for the honor of representing their country on golf’s Olympic stage as well as more immediate titles and purses.  Although the bulk of the women who’ve qualified for the 2016 Olympics are of childbearing age there was no public discussion about the real or – more likely – imagined threat Zika poses.  There was no publicly expressed concern about needing additional preparation time for competition in major championships.  Stacy Lewis even managed to squeeze her wedding in between the Women’s British Open and the Olympics and shrewdly has Rio doing double time as her honeymoon!

Best day ever! Thankful for the friends and family there to celebrate! pic.twitter.com/a0OUv163s1

— Stacy Lewis (@Stacy_Lewis) August 8, 2016

Why has women’s golf seemed to glide smoothly into the Olympic venue while the men’s competition has been plagued by dissent?  Some have suggested that money is the underlying factor.  I think that’s spurious.  However, a look at the PGA TOUR, European Tour, LPGA and LET tournament schedules makes very clear that the women’s game delivered on the promise of full support for golf’s return to the Olympic program and the men’s game did not.  One can only speculate about why the women’s tournament schedules were adjusted to accommodate the demands of Olympic competition and the men’s were not, but surely sponsorship and broadcast revenues figured into the decision-making equations for the PGA TOUR.

The money factor aside, however, I would also argue that the women’s game is advanced well beyond the men’s in terms of globalization and that this expanded and expansive mentalité, this set of shared values and beliefs, informed a near-universal desire among women golfers to qualify for their country’s Olympic golf “team.”  Amid talk about how Olympic golf will “grow the game” there’s been no talk about the remarkable diversity in women’s professional golf and the consequences of that diversity.  On a weekly basis during the golf season, women’s competitions on both the LPGA and Ladies European Tours mirrors the international texture of the Olympic field.

While smaller than the typical stroke play competition at LPGA and LET events, the women’s Olympic golf competition field is striking simply because it is in many respects utterly ordinary.  A closer look at two aspects of the field of 60 women who will compete for Olympic gold tell us a great deal about the state of women’s golf today.

The Big Four

Coming in to Rio as top seeds, Lydia Ko, Ariya Jutanugarn, Brooke Henderson, and Lexi Thompson are the best women’s golf has to offer and as a group they’re remarkable young athletes.  18-year old Canadian Brooke Henderson is the youngest and American Lexi Thompson, who’s been competing on golf’s pro stage since she was 12, is the old lady of this youth vanguard – Thompson is 21!

The real significance of the Big Four, however, is not their age but their diversity of nationality.  Among the Big Four, only Florida-born Thompson came to the game as a part of a family and cultural legacy.  Korean-born Ko is playing for her adopted New Zealand and Jutanugarn is marching under Thailand’s flag.  These aren’t countries known for making golf champions.  Ko is the first New Zealander to win a major pro championship and Jutanugarn recently claimed the same honor for Thailand.  Similarly, Henderson’s first sport was hockey – she played goalie – but Canada has embraced and celebrated her golf achievements.  All three are walking golf advertisements for their country’s young girls and Lexi Thompson is surrounded by a gaggle of girls hanging on the ropes and dressed in look-alike outfits every time she tees it up.  The message from the Big Four is clear: girls of every shape, size, and color can play golf and play it well enough to win!

The Korean Juggernaut

Korea is the only country to earn four spots in the 2016 Olympics, and with good reason.  The entire country is crazy for women’s golf and there’s not a little Korean girl who doesn’t dream of golf stardom.

Se Ri Pak, who started the South Korean women’s golf frenzy when she won the 1998 US Women’s Open, will captain the Korean women’s Olympic squad.  Korea’s Dream Team – Inbee Park, Sei Young Kim, In Gee Chun, and Amy Yang – are all proven champions.  But beyond their immediate athletic excellence, the Koreans represent what can and will happen when a country embraces a sport and encourages their youth to participate and excel.

The Olympic Spirit

The promise embedded in the Korean Dream Team is this: Aditi Ashok could be the vanguard of a sports awakening among young Indian women and Laetitia Beck might do the same in Israel.  Maha Haddioui will be a beacon for young Moroccan golfers and golf dreamers.  Julieta Granada, who was tapped to carry Paraguay’s flag in the opening ceremony, and Russia’s Maria Verchenova will be living testimony that like swimming and gymnastics and track, golf can be so much more than a country club pastime for the idle rich.

The game’s newest ambassadors will be taking the tee at Rio’s Olympic Golf Course and while Brazil may well be a soccer-crazed nation, I can almost guarantee that young Brazilian girls are going to be soon emulating Miriam Nagl and Victoria Lovelady!

The top seeds and the lower-ranked players in any golf competition field are all keenly aware that there’s an unpredictability about the game of golf.  I think that’s part of the sport’s allure and it also figures into the equation that explains why the women seemed unaffected by the controversies and debates about golf’s return to the Olympic venue.  The opportunity to compete for Olympic gold was compelling for athletes who are already globalized in perspective and golf is a sport where, in Jimmy Walkers’ words, “everybody’s got a chance to win.”

Cover Photo via Instagram