5 on-the-ground observations from Golf’s return to the Olympics

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — There are many signs that we’re at the Olympic Games, what with the five intersecting rings and “Paris 2024” emblazoned all across Le Golf National. But the best sign that the Olympics golf comp is being contested this week? That came on the 16th tee box Monday afternoon. 

Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark were 1 down to Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele, who, though rocking the red, white and blue, were jokingly calling themselves Team China (an ode to their ancestry) in this fourballs match. All four were a bit flummoxed by the downhill par-3, too distracted by the cross-wind to realize someone had snuck up on them. As they started down the hill toward the green, a voice called out. 

“Is it okay if a territory plays just one shot and moves on to the next tee?”

The crew whipped around to see a wide-smiling Rafael Campos, there on behalf of Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States, but this week a competing country in the Olympics. Yes, the territory was allowed to play through. 

It’s all good vibes here in France. People are arriving early and arriving late. Everything is casual, out in the Paris suburbs. Plenty of shirts are untucked. A handful of female pros are out, too, mixing their practice rounds in among the men. It rained plenty over the weekend but we’re tracking for a high of 93 F Tuesday. Tom Kim thinks it’s going to firm up. We’ll see! Below are a handful of observations from the early arrivals of golf — and golfers — at the 2024 Olympics. 

Teams? Sorta!

Golf at the Olympics is strictly an individual sport. Rory McIlroy doesn’t receive a boost from a good Shane Lowry score. (At least not literally.) And we’re talking about a mostly-strictly individual sport anyway. Collin Morikawa will tell you all season long that he wants nothing more than to beat Scottie Scheffler. That doesn’t change this week, but until the strokes start to matter, the field definitely acts as teams. 

Wyndham Clark and Morikawa have spent a good bit of the last week together, vacationing at the same place in Portugal, then boarding a boat together for the Opening Ceremony, posing for countless photos together and they will even do a joint press conference Wednesday afternoon. The rare thing they haven’t joined forces for was their match Monday, where Morikawa’s par on the 18th helped him and Schauffele win 1 up.  

If you walked around Le Golf National, you’d believe this was a team competition. (So maybe it should be?) The Swedes, Ludvig Åberg and Alex Noren, are practicing together. There were eight Danes on the front nine and eight Aussies looping the back — Jason Day and Min Woo Lee in green, the caddies and player support staff in yellow. Captaining those teams are golf legends: Karrie Webb and Thomas Bjorn, respectively.

Then there’s Team USA, as mentioned, the only squad with four players. Scouting a golf course they’ve barely played gets a lot easier with four looks at it. On the 11th hole alone it was a hybrid from Schauffele, a high iron from Scheffler, a low stinger iron from Clark and a faded driver from Morikawa. That was kinda fun. 

The course is … fine. And that’s just fine

The Olympics golf experience still feels new, but the course is rather familiar territory. We’re at Le Golf National, the annual host of the French Open and the host of the 2018 Ryder Cup. (Get used to this place, European golf fans — it’ll host the French Open in just nine weeks.) 

Alex Noren won here. Guido Migliozzi won here. Tom Kim finished T6 here a year ago. Tommy Fleetwood’s epic, undefeated 2018 Ryder Cup took place here. (He also won on his own ball in 2017.) There are good vibes all around. Just don’t look for the course to punish players quite like Pinehurst, Royal Troon or Augusta National. It’s lush and green, which makes it relatively soft. There’s some rain in the forecast, which means despite the warm temps, it shouldn’t get too firm. PGA of America interim CEO Kerry Haigh is in charge of the setup this week, as he has been for previous Olympics. All of which means we can expect a finishing score in the teens-under-par. 

Scottie can win back his swoosh

Part of the charm of the Olympics is that everything feels clean from a branding perspective, even if that’s a massive nightmare for modern, corporatized athletes who possess a tendency to slap a logo on everything. To keep things as normal as possible, caddies even detach the straps from the bags they normally carry, wrap tape around any logos on the strap, and then hitch them to the new, one-off, nationalistic bags they’ll carry this week. Why? Because TopGolf didn’t sponsor Team USA — J.Lindeberg did, paying whatever hefty fee it takes to outfit the American golfers this week. 

But that sponsorship only goes so far. In many cases, brands will pay to outfit competitors during their competition, but appearances away from the venue and on the medal stand are a completely different entity. All of which means, the awkwardness Scottie Scheffler feels by wearing anything but the Nike Swoosh can be washed away by … a top-three finish. Ralph Lauren suits up Team USA during the Opening Ceremony and J.Lindeberg swags them out during the competition, but Nike owns the rights to apparel worn during medal ceremonies. If Scheffler can bag a medal, he’ll make his Nike friends doubly happy. 

Prepare to love the finishing stretch … at last

Le Golf National was once farmland, back in the 1980s when the idea for it was conceived. Now it has the reputation of being particularly penal for anyone inaccurate off the tee, in part because more than half the holes have water hazards in play. Three of those come into play on the final four holes. 

You’re forgiven if you don’t recall these holes from the Ryder Cup, but only a handful of matches reached LGN’s epic, finishing par-4. Its green (and runoff areas) are situated on an island that connects to the 15th green. Scheffler and Clark both pulled tee shots into the drink on the 18th Monday, leading the winning side to joke in their best (or worst?) French accent: “Le forfeit?”

The 15th takes on a similar shape — a shorter par-4, but with a much smaller green. The downhill, par-3 16th played into a cross-wind Monday, which makes its short-iron distance a pretty tricky one to judge. The ball is in the air for so long! Then there’s the 17th, which is the second-longest par-4 on the property. Holding on for a spot on the podium will be a bit of a grind. And rightfully so!

This is different, after all 

Part of the criticism this event faces — from players, agents, media, etc. — is that it’s not different enough from the typical golf tournaments we see week-in and week-out. At its core, it’s 72 holes of individual stroke play. But it should definitely feel a bit different.

For starters, there’s just a lone grandstand — an admittedly massive one, tucked behind the 18th green. Beneath it are the Olympic rings, behind the green and also in plain view on the 1st tee. There’s “Paris 2024” emblazoned everywhere and special tee markers that make golf genuinely feel like a tiny, growing corner of the Games, even if the Games is merely a once-every-four-years corner of the golf schedule.

It might take more than visual branding to make this week feel different with a capital D, but that’s where all the other pomp and circumstance comes in. It’s Scheffler nerding out over table tennis. Ben An, too. It’s Jon Rahm flying in from England and going straight to the Olympic Village to hang out around other athletes. It’s male golfers practicing alongside female golfers — and all these golfers trying to swap pins with other Olympians.

One question I’ve got: which other Olympians are gonna come out and watch the golf?