The 2024 Summer season Olympic Video games in Paris are right here, with the Opening Ceremonies kicking off Friday night from the Metropolis of Gentle.
Virtually 11,000 athletes will compete in 329 occasions throughout 32 sports activities in France, together with two particular person stroke play occasions for among the world’s greatest female and male golfers.
Each golf competitions will happen at Le Golf Nationwide, the location of the 2018 Ryder Cup. The Europeans dominated that 12 months, defeating the People 17.5-to-10.5. It additionally marked Tiger Woods’ most up-to-date look within the biennial Competitors.
However, just like the Ryder Cup, the Olympics are all about nationwide satisfaction.
This 12 months, for the People, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, and Wyndham Clark will signify the celebrities and stripes—none of whom made the Ryder Cup staff in 2018.
Nelly Korda, Rose Zhang, and Lilia Vu will achieve this on the ladies’s aspect.
“Taking part in in your nation is at all times extraordinarily thrilling, and it will likely be fairly surreal doing it on the Olympic stage,” Scheffler stated lately.
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“It’s additionally good bragging rights for those that inform me golf is just not a sport—I can say it’s an Olympic sport. I’m simply excited to go there and expertise the Olympics, see another sports activities, go to the village, see different athletes, and simply be a part of all of it. It needs to be a enjoyable, particular week.”
However golf followers and pundits alike have struggled to place a label on the place the Olympics rank amongst golf’s most prestigious occasions. Are they on the identical airplane as a significant championship? A PGA Tour occasion? Or do they draw similarities to the President’s Cup or Ryder Cup? Then once more, this isn’t a staff occasion—though the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 is reportedly taken with making a staff competitors for the video games.
To reply these questions, I imagine the Olympics fall into their very own class. They’re one step beneath the 4 majors however actually a step above a daily PGA Tour victory—together with Signature Occasions. The Olympics serve a particular function and must also be a major spotlight of a participant’s resume.
For example, Schauffele now has two majors, after his spectacular triumphs at Valhalla and Royal Troon this 12 months. However he additionally has a gold medal to his identify. That accomplishment needs to be included when discussing Schauffele’s legacy: he has two majors and a gold medal—one thing just one different man, Justin Rose, can declare on the boys’s aspect.
Ought to Schauffele win once more at Le Golf Nationwide, he will likely be often called the primary participant to win a pair of golds. He received the Males’s Olympic Golf Competitors on the 2020 Olympics—held in 2021 in Tokyo because of the pandemic. That may be one thing to notice.
A gold medal would additionally finalize an unimaginable 12 months for Schauffele and maybe wrap up Participant of the 12 months honors on the PGA Tour regardless of Scheffler’s astonishing season.
Scheffler received six occasions on tour in 2024, together with at Augusta Nationwide and TPC Sawgrass. 4 different Signature Occasion trophies sit on his mantle at dwelling, a testomony to how effectively he has performed. However Schauffele has two majors, and will he go on to win the gold amongst an elite 60-player subject, the Participant of the 12 months dialogue turns into far more fascinating and maybe ideas in Schauffele’s favor.
All that apart, the Olympic Golf Competitors ought to have a particular place within the sport. Followers ought to acknowledge that, too, however actually, some will disagree.
What do you suppose? The place do you label the Olympics?
Jack Milko is a golf employees author for SB Nation’s Taking part in By. Be sure you try @_PlayingThrough for extra golf protection. You’ll be able to observe him on Twitter @jack_milko as effectively.
