The strange history of golf at the Olympics

<!–

–>

This history of golf at the Olympics isn’t long, but what it lacks in depth it more than makes up for in curiosity.

This week at the Golf National in Paris the game will appear for the fifth time in the Games and the first four were the most spectacular with obscure details, unusual connections and surprising stories.

Yes, golf was not part of the first Olympics in Ancient Greece and did not participate in the Modern Olympiad of Athens in 1896, but it was introduced in the Paris games of 1900 and began as it intended to continue. .

Twelve men lined up for that opening event that took place in October, just five months after the first event of the Games in France. They played two rounds at Compiegne GC and the action was packed with British and American golfers filling the first nine spots.

The winner was Charles Sands of New York who, as was the case with the times, was a sportsman. Primarily a tennis player, he reached the last eight of the 1894 US Open with a racquet, but won that effort with rounds of 82-85 to win the golf in Paris.

In a mixed story, Scottish publisher Walter Rutherford was second; another Scot, rugby player David Robertson, came third; American management consulting pioneer Frederick Taylor was fourth; American friend of the Wright Brothers (the first men to fly) Albert Lambert was eighth; and a Greek Royal Court Chamberlain named Count Merkati Alexandros was 11th (a paltry 79 shots behind the winner).

If you think that sounds weird, you haven’t read yet.

Margaret Abbott, an American born in the British Raj, was the daughter of a wealthy father and a mother, Mary, who was a book editor. Mother and daughter were avid painters and went to Paris to study with Auguste Rodin and Edgar Degas.

They also enjoyed golf and noticed that a nine-hole tournament was underway in early October. They entered. Mary rolled her ball 65 strokes to tie Baroness Lucile de Fain for seventh and Count Merkati’s mother-in-law Abbie Pratt third.

Margaret scored 47 points to win by two, collected the gold plated pottery, returned to her art work, her home in clay and died at the age of 76 in 1955. – 1980s.

After four years St Louis hosted golf at Glen Echo GC. The women’s event was canceled when the men’s team was introduced.

The 75-man event featured 72 American and three Canadian golfers. That was it.

So, Chapeau, to George Lyon of Ottawa who won the 36-hole stroke play and moved through the US golfers in the playoff bracket and ended up losing in the final to Chandler Egan of Chicago (who completed the double that year by winning again the US Amateur Championship).

The team competition had even more weight for the athletes. Three groups entered. The winners were from the Western Golf Association (based in Illinois), silver went to a team from the Trans-Mississippi Golf Association and bronze went to the United States Golf Association. In other words: an American clean sweep.

There was supposed to be a golf tournament in 1908 but that event in London was also chaotic. George Lyon traveled from Canada in an attempt to improve on his 1904 silver, but when English and Scottish golfers argued over qualification rules the event was cancelled.

The shepherds offered Lyon the gold automatically but he refused. The 1920 Antwerp Games were also planned to include golf but a lack of entries (not even the brave Lyon entered) led to them being quietly dropped.

The game finally returned to the biggest festival in Rio in 2016 and who entered was an important question. Men, in particular, were not immune to Olympic excitement and Zika fever. It was widely thought that the latest scare was a good excuse to make other plans.

Justin Rose (gold) and Henrik Stenson (silver) changed the ideas of modern Olympic golf in a simple way: they simply enjoyed the experience of competing alongside the best athletes in world sports and standing on the fairway watching their country’s flags fly. up. Korea’s Inbee Park won the women’s gold.

Then in Tokyo. Nothing strange but a very good understanding.

Nelly Korda and Xander Schauffele received gold medals. Both are American. Both are children of immigrants. Both are children of European immigrants. Both are children of European immigrants who are very successful in sports and dream of Olympic success.

Korda’s parents are from Czechia. His mother Regina represented that country in the 1988 Seoul Olympics and his father Petr won the 1998 Australian Open.

Schauffele’s mother Ping-Yi was born in Taiwan, raised in Japan and moved to the US where she met her husband Stefan, a German who was on his way to represent his country as a decathlete when a drunk driver hit him and ruined his career.

Only one question remains: What surprises and news does golf have in store for Paris 2024?!?

Both tournaments take place at Golf National, home of the Open de France and host of the 2018 Ryder Cup.

The men’s event takes place 1st-4th August, the women’s event 7th-10th August.