Olympic golf has been in an awkward position since the sport was reintroduced to the Summer Games in 2016.
The first two editions were moderately successful but lacked the juice of a big event. In 2016, the Zika virus was used as justification for several top men’s players to skip the tournament. Five years later, there were missing players due to COVID-19.
Now we have a clean slate for the 2024 Games in Paris as the men’s and women’s tournaments will be held at Le Golf National, host of the 2018 Ryder Cup. The top players figure to show up with few exceptions.
And, still, golf in the Olympics doesn’t have the same gravitas as other top events on the calendar. The women’s game has embraced it more than the men have but we’ve yet to see Olympic golf flourish into its full potential on either side.
Some of that will take time. No golfer grew up dreaming about being in the Olympics—they dreamed of winning majors. It takes time for history to build.