Golf at the Olympics

Golf was once played at the Olympics. Only twice has an Olympic golf championship been played in the early 20th century. These were at the 1900 Paris Olympic games and the St Louis Olympics in 1904.

The first gold was won by the American Charles Sand, and two UK golfers made the top three for silver and bronze. The format for the golf championship was pretty basic, with 36 holes played with a stroke scoring format. A total of 167 was enough to win the singles, and a team based championship was also played which was won by... Canada!

The second Olympic golf championship was something of a farce as it only had U.S. and a few Canadian golfers in it. As such, they scooped gold, bronze and silver!

Hereafter, golf was abandoned at the Olympics. Until now that is, and golf is set to return in future Olympics. A new Olympic course is to be included in Rio which will be the next venue. This golf championship should have lower scores than previous Olympic golf championships, and include a much wider variety of golfers, but whether it will match the Majors is debatable.