Golf was reintroduced to the Olympics at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro after a hiatus of 108 years and it remained in the schedule for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which were eventually held in 2021 following a delay because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Like the previous Olympics in Brazil, there were competitions for both men and women, with 60 players in each of the fields as the action took place at Kasumigaseki Country Club.
However, only three players in each field could claim medals. Here are the details of who eventually made it to the podium.
The men’s event got underway on 29 July 2021, with a star-studded field including the likes of four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, who had just claimed his second Major title at The Open and local hero Hideki Matsuyama, who had won The Masters less than four months earlier.
However, in the end, the three who took the medals didn’t have a Major win between them…
Xander Schauffele – Gold (USA)
Xander Schauffele won gold for the US at the 2020 Olympics
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Schauffele was one of four players on the US men’s team, along with Morikawa, Justin Thomas and Patrick Reed, and after the opening round, none were in the top 10 of the leaderboard as Austria’s Sepp Straka opened up a one-shot lead with an eight-under 63.
Schauffele headed into the second round in touch, though, at three-under, and he matched Straka’s feat in the second round with a 63 of his own to take the outright lead by one over Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz after the second round.
By the end of the third round, Schauffele’s lead was the same following a 68 to leave him 14-under for the tournament, this time with Matsuyama his nearest challenger and a final round of 67 was enough to see him claim the gold medal by one over a veteran who had to settle for silver…
Rory Sabbatini – Silver (Slovakia)
Rory Sabbatini was a surprise silver medal winner at the 2020 Olympics
(Image credit: Getty Images)
By the time the Games came around, Slovakian Sabbatini’s best days appeared to be in the past.
He had won six-times on the PGA Tour between 2000 and 2011 and finished runner-up at the Masters in 2007, enjoying a career-high of eighth along the way. However, by the time he teed it up in Tokyo, he was 44-years-old and ranked well…
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