The next two weeks are all about Olympic golf.
It starts with the men competing this week followed by the women taking the stage next week. Each tournament will be 72 holes of stroke play, the same format we see for major championships and most big golf events.
While I will continue to crow that the Olympics should change to a college golf-style format where countries select their own competitors (rather than having the Official World Golf Ranking be the deciding factor), there is another change—a realistic one—potentially on the horizon.
Olympic golf is heading for a mixed team event
We rarely get to see the top men and women compete at the same time. And by “rarely”, I mean virtually never.
There is a real possibility that will change in 2028 when the Olympic Games come to Los Angeles.
The International Golf Federation, the governing body for golf in the Olympics, confirmed reports from earlier this year that a proposal was made to the International Olympic Committee for a mixed golf event at host Riviera Country Club.
How would it work? It would potentially be 16 teams of two (one man and one woman) playing 36 holes—one round of foursomes (alternate shot) and one round of fourball (better ball). Each country would likely only have one team so there are a maximum number of countries represented.
Nothing would change with the format for the 72-hole individual events—the individual tournaments would still feature 60 players from around the world—although the men’s competition would move up one day to start on Wednesday and finish on Saturday.
The mixed team event would be Sunday and Monday with 18 holes each day.
International Golf Federation Executive Director Antony Scanlon said the 2028 event organizers are “fully supportive” of the mixed golf format. Top men and women pros seem to have an appetite for a mixed team event.
There is likely to be a decision in early 2025 to confirm the mixed team event being a part of the golf competition.
“At the beginning of next year, they should make the decision as to what events will be in the program for L.A.,” Scanlon said. “And we’re hoping that the fact that there’s no additional athletes and no additional resources required that the mixed event would be approved by them, especially given the support of the organizing committee.”
What could this look like?
The addition of a mixed team event would be a huge bonus for golf. I would be in favor of this concept expanding down the road (and I wouldn’t be surprised if that happens).
This is what the teams could have looked like if this was in place for this year’s Games:
- Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda (United States)
- Rory McIlroy and Leona Maguire (Ireland)
- Ludvig Åberg and Maja Stark (Sweden)
- Jon Rahm and Carlota Ciganda (Spain)
- Hideki Matsuyama and Yuka Saso (Japan)
- Tommy Fleetwood and Charley Hull (Great Britain)
- Matthieu Pavon and Céline Boutier (France)
- Sepp Straka and Emma Spitz (Austria)
- Jason Day and Hannah Green (Australia)
- Tom Kim and Jin Young Ko (Korea)
- Viktor Hovland and Celine Borge (Norway)
- Nick Taylor and Brooke Henderson (Canada)
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Ashleigh Buhai (South Africa)
- Stephan Jaeger and Esther Henseleit (Germany)
- Nicolai Højgaard and Emily Kristine Pedersen (Denmark)
- Ryan Fox and Lydia Ko (New Zealand)
Wow. I know it would only be 36 holes but this event would probably be the most popular of the three golf competitions. Just the thought of having Scheffler and Korda join forces is worth the watch.
We’ve seen a successful mixed event in Australia. One of the joys of that tournament, the Vic Open, is how the men and women play different styles of golf from separate tee boxes.
Putting that on the Olympic stage would be a home run.
Could there be expansion in the future?
While winning Olympic gold might not have the same value as winning a major—at least on the men’s side—the stock should grow in future years.
Hopefully, we see a format change with the individual tournaments and the introduction of new formats.
If the 36-hole mixed team event gets approved, what other formats could also get added in the future?
Perhaps the world of long drive can have a place in the Games? Could they create two mixed team events with different formats and lengths? Perhaps an 18-hole “sprint” where mixed teams play foursomes followed by a 36-hole contest of fourball.
The main issue you run into is the amount of play. Both the men and women have a lot of golf to play after the Olympics so it’s tough to add significantly more golf and have the golfers extend their stays.
“My only issue with it would be sort of the run of events, it being two weeks in a row,” Xander Schauffele said of adding in a mixed team event. “If you take it for what we have now, we are playing this tournament, we have one week off and then we have three weeks in a row for our (FedEx Cup) playoffs. It would be sticky to do two tournaments in a row and, because of that, you may lose some guys.”
The natural counter to that is that asking players to stay for essentially one more day—the Monday between the individual events—isn’t all that taxing. The men would still be able to fly back on Tuesday and have at least five days off before the first FedEx Cup Playoff event.
There could also be some creative problem solving like overlapping the individual events with the team events. If everyone is playing their own ball (as is the case in fourball), then two events with different formats can potentially run at the same time, even if it’s just for one round.
Of course, the world of golf could look completely different by 2028. It’s really anyone’s guess what the schedule could be at that point.
Regardless, I think it’s important to get a mixed team golf event in the Olympics. It distinguishes Olympic golf in a way that doesn’t exist right now.
That will be good for the game down the road.
Top Photo Caption: Corey Conners and Brooke Henderson could find themselves together in an Olympic golf mixed team event. (GETTY IMAGES/Cliff Hawkins)
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