Everything You Need to Know About Golf at the 2016 Olympics

For the first time since the 1904 Olympic Games, golf will be a part of the Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  The event will be played at a course that has been specially built for the occasion, the Reserva de Marapendi.

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There will be both a men’s and women’s event at the Games.  It is a cause of much excitement in the golfing community and has been met with a great reaction from fans and players alike.  So with that said, let’s dive right in and answer a few of the most common questions leading up to golf’s re-introduction into the Olympic Games.

Why Has Golf Been Re-introduced to the Olympic Games?

While there has been a lot of talk over the years of bringing golf back into the circulation of events at the Olympic Games, it was only in recent years that it gained any real traction and became a realistic idea.  The official decision to re-introduce golf into the Olympic games came in 2009 during the IOC Session.  The proposal was put forward due to the rapid growth of the game on a global level and the idea was met with great enthusiasm by golf professionals and fans alike.

There were two key men in the golfing community who really pushed the proposal and had a large part to play in the re-introduction of the sport.  The first was Peter Dawson, who was heavily involved with both the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (Chief Executive) and the International Golf Federation (President), and the second was Ty Votaw, who was the Vice President of the International Golf Federation.

 
A number of leading professional golfers joined Dawson and Votaw at the International Olympic Committee meeting in 2009 in order to convince members of the committee to re-instate the sport.  These players included the three time Major Champion Padraig Harrington, Norway’s Suzann Pettersen, Michelle Wie from the United States, and the then sixteen year old Italian golfer, Matteo Manassero.  They were able to convey how much stock professional players would put into participating in a golf event at the Olympic Games.

Some of the Committee’s concerns were that many of the golfers would not choose to participate in the Games as it could potentially clash with some of the other significant events in the annual professional golf calendar.  But the Committee saw the enthusiasm from all types of golfers, both young and old, and were swayed to vote for golf making a re-introduction to both the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games.

What Type of Event Will it Be?

Golf at the 2016 Olympics is going to be structured a lot like your typical professional event.  The event will consist of a 72 hole tournaments so there will be four rounds played in total and the rules they follow will be familiar to anyone used to watching professional golf events on the PGA and European Tours.

If there happens to be players in a tie for any of the gold, silver and bronze places, there will be a three-hole playoff in order to determine who wins the medals.

What Will the Olympic Golf Course be Like?

The golf course in Rio de Janeiro has been specifically designed and built for the upcoming 2016 Olympic event.  As you might imagine there was a long process to select one course designer from a shortlist of eight highly qualified candidates.  In the end it was Hanse Golf Course Design that received the honors and they chose to work with the Hall of Fame member Amy Alcott throughout the design process.

 
While the course has been built as a host to the 2016 Olympics golf event, it will remain open as a public facility long into the future.  The hope is that it will be a breeding ground for the development of golf throughout the region and provide encouragement to all of the young golfers in the area.

When is the Olympic Golf Event Taking Place?

The 2016 Olympic Games golf event has been penciled in to start on either the 11th of August, or the 17th of August.  The exact date will be set as the Olympic games draw closer this summer.

How will the Participants Qualify for the Olympic Games?

As you can imagine there was a lot of debate over how exactly the participants would be selected.  Naturally the Olympic Games is all about representing your home country, so there needed to be a limit placed on how many participants from each country could qualify.

It was decided that the participants would be selected from the Official World Golf Rankings as  they stand on the 11th of July 2016.  In total, there will be sixty participants in both the men’s and the women’s events.  The fifteen highest players on the World Rankings list will gain automatic qualification, provided that there are no more than four golfers from a single country.  The rest of the qualifiers will be selected from the list of those who haven’t been selected going down the World Rankings list in chronological order for any country that does not have two golfers already qualified for the Games.

It has been guaranteed by the International Golf Federation that there will be at the very least one golfer hailing from each of the five main geographical regions (Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania and Africa) taking part in the games, as well as at least one participant from the host nation.

Reaction from the Players

The reaction from players with regards to golf becoming an official event at the Olympic Games once again has been hugely positive.  Despite once being feared that the allure would not be enough for these supremely successful athletes to make the trip to Rio, most of the world’s elite top players have expressed pride in representing their country in the Olympic Games and having a chance to win an Olympic gold medal.

Tiger Woods was even quoted saying that the inclusion of the sport of golf in this year’s Olympics will only lead to the further growth of the sport throughout the world.  In recent years, golf’s popularity has exploded in Asia and the Olympic Games will be a further catalyst for the sport in the highly populated region.  Other non-traditional golf regions, such as Africa (except for South Africa) and South America will surely see a large increase in the number of people taking up the sport.

 
One of the key ambassadors for players during the bidding process was Ireland’s Padraig Harrington.  He said “I do believe in time the Olympic gold will become the most important event in golf and I don’t believe it will take that long.  In the four years between the Olympics there will be 16 major championships, so winning gold will be that much more special.”

It’s clear that golf’s reappearance in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will be a prestigious event that holds true to the spirit of the Olympic Games.

Cover Photo via Flickr