Paris Olympics: Golf fans deserve a better Olympic golf format

GUYANCOURT, France — I’m not sure how many different ways there are to pronounce “Rory,” but I’m pretty sure I heard most of them while following the marquee players in Thursday’s opening Olympic round at Le Golf National.

A French-accented dropped-R “Rory.” A German-accented sharp-R “Rory.” Spanish. Japanese. English. Irish. Good ol’ American. Rory McIlroy, playing for Ireland, inspired them all, and waves of “Allons-y!” (“Let’s go!”) chants radiated out across the course. There were flags everywhere, shouts and cheers for players of every nation.

“It’s just fun, such a unique crowd not like the typical American crowd at home that is yelling every fairway,” Australia’s Jason Day said after his round. “Every person has got support out there, which is fantastic.”

The atmosphere at Le Golf National is humming, sizzling, joyous. So it’s a shame that the actual golf is … not.

Oh, there’s definitely some spectacular golf being played at Le Golf National. Hideki Matsuyama turned in a fiery -8 round to claim the clubhouse lead, and defending gold medalist Xander Schauffele is still riding the heat that snared him a Claret Jug last month.

The players aren’t the problem. The standard four-day, 72-hole stroke-play format is. At a venue like this, with a gallery like this, golf ought to be putting on a show with higher stakes and more meaningful hole-by-hole drama. Golf already has a format that generates tension and engages the gallery — it’s called the Ryder Cup, and guess what, there was one of those right here at Le Golf National in 2018.

“It’s not all golf fans; It’s Olympic fans or gold medal fans,” Sweden’s Alex Noren said. “They root for us because they can root for medals. It feels like they care a lot.”

“It’s impressive to see how much sport brings a lot of people together,” Day said. “There’s all different types of countries out there rooting for their favorite players, and you can definitely hear it.”

There’s plenty of reasons from a logistical perspective to push for a different, shorter, punchier Olympic format. To start, golf faces challenges not present in other sports. Unlike, say, swimming or track and field, where the Olympics is one of the sport’s pinnacles, the golf world presently regards the Olympics as kind of a spiced-up field trip — more important than the weekly PGA Tour Midwest Insurance Company Classic, yes, but not quite as significant as a signature event like the Memorial or the Players, and certainly nowhere near the league of the majors.

Plus, unlike basketball, the Olympics falls in the middle of golf’s season. The majors are done, yes, but the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs remain, and with them the chances for playing opportunities the next season. So why keep with the standard four-day, 72-hole stroke play format? Why not come up with something a little more engaging to the casual fans?

Or why not go even further? Why not fully embrace the Olympics’ move toward gender equality and create a mixed-team event? Why not think bigger and bolder?

“In the Olympics, you can make some special stuff. You can play team events, and you can play mixed women and men,” Chile’s Joaquin Niemann said. “They could mix it a little bit, make it more incentive to people to follow a country, not just follow one guy.”

Responsibility for determining the format falls to the International Golf Federation, which must adhere to the dictates of the International Olympic Committee. The IOC understandably wants to present golf in a familiar light. But the IOC has also shown its willingness to break with tradition before — the presence of breaking (or break dancing) and BMX racing in the Olympics is testament enough to that — and this would be a case where some tweaks would be additive, not gimmicky.

To be sure, there’s an argument to be made for sticking with tradition. For example, Olympic soccer doesn’t suddenly change the number of points you get for scoring a goal, after all. “Seventy-two-hole stroke play probably seems right. Every other sport does what they do throughout the year, so we should probably do the same,” Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood said. “I would like the chance to have a team aspect to it too, just because there would be more chance for a medal, and I would like more chances for it.”

But tennis and basketball do play abridged versions of their regular formats. Moreover, golf is surging so quickly in popularity that there’s a real opportunity for positive change heading into the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

"When golf got back in the Olympics in 2016, I think some people were surprised that it was only individual stroke play, and they didn't try to mix it up with some different formats,” McIlroy said earlier this week. "If that came to fruition in L.A. where there was a mixed team event, or even another team event that was not mixed, and Shane (Lowry, McIlroy’s Irish countryman) and I could play in it if we qualify, yeah, I'd love that. I think that would be a great format to bring to this competition."

Golf is in the midst of getting some rare good press this week. Entire new audiences are learning about the game. It’s time to deliver them the very best product possible.