Olympic Preview

News & Tours

Olympic Preview: Golf In The Rio Olympics

Everything you need to know about golf's return to the Olympics in 2016.

Released on 8/2/2016

Credits

Director of Photography:

Christian Iooss

Transcript

00:00

So golf in the Olympics will take place

00:01

over two weeks.

00:02

The men will play from the 11th to the 14th

00:05

of August.

00:07

And the women will play from the 17th to the 20th

00:09

of August.

00:10

Separate weeks on the same golf course.

00:15

So the format of the Olympic tournament

00:17

basically think a WGC event.

00:19

There's no cut, it's 72 holes of stroke play.

00:23

Some people ask, isn't this boring, you know,

00:26

we have a new event, why not do something different?

00:28

Have partners, have alternate shot, have long drive,

00:32

something to make this the Olympics.

00:35

And the answer to that question really is,

00:37

this tournament isn't for the hardcore golf fan.

00:40

This is to, you know, present golf to the rest

00:42

of the world.

00:43

And so, why not showcase anything other than your

00:46

true proven championship format?

00:49

On the men's side, Roy McAvoy's dropped out,

00:52

Jordan Spieth dropped out, Jason Day's dropped out.

00:55

You still have some marquee value though.

00:57

You've got--

00:58

Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler,

01:00

Matt Kuchar and Patrick Reed are all playing

01:01

got the Americans.

01:03

Next up, England, who has Justin Rose, a master's

01:07

champion Danny Willett.

01:08

Another strong team would be Spain.

01:10

They have Sergio Garia and Rafael Cabrera-Bello.

01:14

The qualifying period, it goes based on world rankings.

01:17

So, if you have players that are injured or have

01:20

been injured or struggling recently, like Tiger Woods

01:23

for example, you don't get sort of an entry bonus

01:26

for being an all-time great.

01:28

It's totally based on what you've been doing,

01:30

really in the last 12 months and to a lesser extent,

01:33

the last 24 months.

01:34

Those guys who are all in the top 100 of the world

01:37

ranking, it's a high-level play.

01:40

You know, yeah, it's not name recognition.

01:42

It's not Tiger, but I mean, we don't know who

01:44

the bi-athlete's are either.

01:45

We don't know who most of these guys are.

01:47

You know, the 400-meter champion.

01:48

We probably don't know much about him.

01:50

And then we find out about him during the Olympics

01:52

and that actually, you know, that storytelling

01:54

as television always calls it is really what draws

01:58

the audience in.

01:59

You can have storytelling for less well-known golfers

02:01

as well.

02:02

I think the segment of golf that has the most

02:05

to gain from the Olympics is the Women's game.

02:09

The LGPA in particular.

02:11

And I don't think it's an accident that you're

02:13

not seeing any LGPA players pass up this opportunity.

02:17

You have Lexi Thompson, Stacy Lewis, and Gerina Piller.

02:21

A name who you might recognize because her husband

02:24

Martin has actually contended on the PGA tour

02:26

a few times this year.

02:27

You have the dominant world number one Lydia Ko

02:30

representing New Zealand who has said that the

02:32

Olympics are her highest priority in 2016.

02:35

South Korea will field four very strong players

02:38

led by Inbee Park and Sei Young Kim.

02:41

It's going to be as competitive as any women's

02:43

major.

02:44

So you don't get any money for winning

02:46

an Olympic medal but the big, you know,

02:49

carrot dangling in front of the eyes of these

02:51

Olympian golfers is exemptions into all of the 2017

02:55

majors, that's four for the men and five

02:57

for the women.

02:58

And, you know, if a golfer were going to win

03:01

who is actually going to need those exemptions,

03:03

it could be a huge story if that's what ultimately

03:06

launched their career is winning an Olympic Gold medal

03:09

to then get into golf's other great tournaments.