By Kent Paisley
Go back to the start of 2021 and tell Nelly Korda this is how her season would go. The 23-year-old would be a four-time winner, the World No. 1, a major champion, and an Olympic gold medalist. Her reaction would be like that of any reasonable golfer.

“I would tell the person to leave,” she said. “Honestly, it’s crazy.”

Korda continued her dream season with a tumultuous final-round 69 at Kasumigaseki Country Club to win the women’s golf gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Saturday. Korda, whose victory completed an American sweep of the golf gold medals after Xander Schauffele’s triumph in the men’s tournament, fought through a double bogey, being caught twice and waiting through a late 48-minute delay with two holes to finish because of looming Tropical Storm Mirinae.

“It’s crazy,” Korda said. “It sounds absurd that I’m a gold medalist and an Olympian. I don’t know. It hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Korda started Saturday with a three-shot lead that moved to four with birdie on the second hole. It was her first in 14 holes, going back to the sixth hole of the third round.

Playing in the same final threesome, Lydia Ko, wasn’t waiting for Korda to close the door. Ko, who ultimately shot 65, birdied four of the first five holes to cut the lead to two. Ko served as a final-round foil for the second time in 2021, as her Sunday 62 in chase of winner Patty Tavatanakit at the ANA Inspiration this year came to mind early at Kasumigaseki Country Club.

It was at the par-3 seventh where Korda’s mettle faced arguably its biggest test. She tugged her tee shot to the left of the back-pin location, with her ball rolling down into the collection area.

Korda faced a problematic downhill lie for her chip, but you couldn’t have reasonably expected her to take three shots to get onto the green from there. Her first barely got above the fringe to the false front, and it trickled to an uphill lie. After her second didn’t stay up either, rolling rolled back past her feet, the fast-playing Korda stepped up the pace and took nine seconds to hit her third. She knocked it pin-high to save double bogey, but had fallen into a three-way tie for the lead alongside Ko and Aditi Ashok.

“I feel like it [the double bogey] just motivated me more,” Korda said. “I can’t play like this today. I can’t go out like this. I always want to fight, and I’m going to fight until the end.”

Stephen McCarthy
Nelly Korda (left) is congratulated by her sister Jessica Korda after winning the women’s Olympic golf tournament.

Fought Korda did—spectacularly. She birdied Nos. 8, 9 and 10 to battle back to a three-shot lead. Korda holed a 21-footer on the eighth, responding to Ko after the Kiwi knocked a wedge close to the pin to set up an easy birdie of her own. The American maintained the momentum with eight- and nine-foot birdies on Nos. 9 and 10, returning to 17 under par, and back to three ahead of Ko and Ashok.

Korda’s three-stroke advantage held until Mone Inami of Japan entered the picture on the back nine. The five-time Japan LPGA Tour winner in 2021 birdied four straight holes from Nos. 12-15. The streak cut Korda’s lead down to one as Inami walked off to the 16th. Ko again challenged, too, capitalizing on the scorable final side with three birdies in a row from the 13th through 15th to get one behind Korda. Her close contact didn’t last, as Ko bogeyed the 16th to fall two off the lead with two to play.

The looming weather system—one that had International Golf Federation officials on edge all week, nervous it might wipe out the final round and force the tournament be cut to a 54-hole affair—struck on the 17th. After Inami marked her 15-foot putt for birdie and the last group teed off, the horn blew. Thankfully, it was only a brief delay, and when the players returned, the break didn’t cool off the Japanese star. She drained her putt for the fifth birdie of her last six holes to tie Korda.

Korda missed a downhill five-foot birdie putt and remained tied with Inami with the 18th left. Ko two-putted for birdie at 17 to linger just one back.

Inami bogeyed the last after hitting her approach into the wet bunker in front of the green and being unable to get up-and-down. She shot a six-under 65 Saturday, earning the silver medal after defeating Ko with a par on the first playoff hole. It adds to Japan’s great 2021 in golf, with Hideki Matsuyama winning the Masters and Tsubasa Kajitani capturing the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

“I’m so grateful [for] the Japanese to win this medal,” Inami said. “I’m so happy.”

Korda wiped any lingering thoughts of the double-bogey finish to Thursday that ruined her chance at a historic 59 with hitting the 18th green in regulation. The World No. 1 polished her golden coronation with an easy tap-in par, becoming America’s second women’s golf gold medalist alongside Margaret Abbott from the 1900 Paris Olympics.

Mike Ehrmann
Nelly Korda celebrates with the gold medal after finishing off a closing 69 to win by one shot.

As the national anthem played during the medal ceremony, Korda teared up as her historic accomplishment sunk in. “You don’t really understand it until you’re in the position,” Korda said. “It’s such an incredible feeling, because at the end of the day you’re not just playing for yourself, you’re playing for your country, and there’s so much history in the Olympics. Just to be a part of that feels amazing.”

The podium moment marks three wins for Korda over the last six weeks, including the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, where she became the No. 1 player in the world. Leave it to Jessica Korda to put her sister’s dominant year into proper context.

“I would just say that this is like a dream season,” Jessica said. “This is what you would expect out of Inbee Park. This is just kind of like almost legend status that you would get on just as a golfer period, male or female. This is just a dream season to have.

“I hope that it keeps continuing, because it’s so much fun to watch it.”

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By Joel Beall
The field for the 2021 Summer Olympics was finalised Tuesday. But the news was not necessarily who is in, but who is not.

Marquee names like Louis Oosthuizen, Tyrrell Hatton, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer were surprising last-second withdrawals from the list of 60 players and their alternates for the Tokyo Games. The drop-outs join Dustin Johnson and Adam Scott to pass on the trip to Japan.

Oosthuizen, who finished runner-up at the U.S. Open and PGA Championship, said his focus is on a strong finish to the PGA Tour season and on honouring family commitments.

“Qualifying for the Olympics is a humbling accomplishment and there’s no greater honour than representing your country, so it has been a very difficult decision for me, my team and my family to withdraw from playing in Tokyo,” Oosthuizen said in a statement. Representing South Africa will be Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Garrick Higgo.

Team England saw Hatton and Fitzpatrick turn down invites, with Hatton citing schedule issues. With Lee Westwood stating at the PGA Championship that he wasn’t going to make the trip, the alternate spot goes to Tommy Fleetwood, who joins Paul Casey for the Brits.

Garcia said that it was a difficult decision but “My first priority (is) to represent Spain on the international stage in the Ryder Cup.” Garcia’s spot will be taken by Rafa Cabrera Bello, with fellow Spaniard and U.S. Open champ Jon Rahm also in the field.

“My number one goal is to identify in the European team without having to wait for hopeful invitations,” Garcia said. “Representing Spain in the Olympic Games is an honour and an enormous responsibility that requires 100% of your mental effort.”

As an interesting side development, two Dutch golfers—Joost Luiten and Wil Besseling—qualified for the Olympics, but the Netherlands Olympic committee requires its participants to be ranked in the top 100 in the world ranking. “I would have loved to go to Tokyo, despite the restrictions that will apply due to corona,” Luiten told golfNL. “[The Dutch Olympic committee] proves with what I consider unnecessary extra demands that they understand little about golf. It is common for golfers to win tournaments outside the top 100 in the world.”

For the Americans, while Johnson took his name out of consideration, the top four that were eligible—Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau—are all listed in the field. Should anything happen before the Games, Patrick Cantlay is the team’s first alternate.

The three medal winners from the 2016 Games—Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar—failed to qualify for the event.

The men’s competition at the 2021 Summer Olympics begins July 29 at Kasumigaseki C.C., just outside Tokyo, Japan.

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By Joel Beall
Jon Rahm said it’s his dream to be an Olympian. That doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily see the Spaniard at the Summer Games.

Speaking ahead of the AT&T Byron Nelson, the World No. 3 expressed displeasure Wednesday at the rules imposed by the Tokyo Olympic Committee.

“Yeah, I want to play,” Rahm said. “They’re not making it very easy.”

A number of restrictions will be in place for the Tokyo Games due to COVID-19 restrictions, including no international spectators. According to Rahm, athletes won’t be able to attend other sporting events and family access will be limited. Rahm also said Olympic golfers won’t be able to see the course until the day before their event and the course is a “one to two-hour drive” from where the athletes will be staying.

“The Olympic committee is not making it very easy for us to choose it,” Rahm said.

Rahm further described the sport’s packed summer schedule as problematic. “It’s between the British Open and the WGC,” he said. “I can understand why a lot of people are prioritizing the FedEx Cup events and great golf events. The Olympics are relatively new for golf, and I don’t blame them.”

Dustin Johnson and Adam Scott are two stars who have already pulled out of Olympic consideration, with Webb Simpson also expressing hesitation at traveling to Japan for the competition. However, Rahm has not ruled out participating in the games.

“I’ve been able to win championships representing Spain as an amateur in almost every manage level, and to bring back the gold medal would be something amazing,” Rahm said.

The top 15 players in the Olympic Golf Rankings (which essentially mirror the Official World Golf Ranking for men and the Rolex Rankings for women) will be eligible for the Olympics up to a maximum of four golfers per country. After the top 15, the field will be filled until getting to 60 golfers by going down the Olympic Golf Ranking, with the top two ranked players qualifying from any country that does not have two or more players from the top 15. The host country, Japan, is also guaranteed at least two golfers in the field. Men’s qualifying ends on June 21, the day after the U.S. Open; women’s qualifying ends June 28.

The men’s competition at the 2021 Summer Olympics begins July 29 at Kasumigaseki C.C., just outside Tokyo, Japan. Justin Rose is the defending gold medal winner.

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By Alex Myers
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Hideki Matsuyama capped off the week of his life on Sunday by winning his first major at the 2021 Masters, but a dream year could just be getting started.

Of course, there are still three more men’s majors on the golf calendar. The biggest tournament for the Japanese star, however, might just be the one being hosted in his home country this summer.

That’s when the newest green jacket winner will try to claim a gold medal.

“I’m really looking forward to the Olympic Games in Tokyo,” said Matsuyama, who, like several other top golfers, didn’t compete in Rio in 2016 due to Zika virus concerns. “If I am on the team, and maybe it looks like I will be, I’ll do my best to represent my country, and hopefully I’ll play well.”

The 2020 Summer Olympics were postponed due to COVID-19, but its new date will only create a bigger buzz around the golf portion in the golf-crazed country after a dominant two weeks for Japan at Augusta National. In addition to Matsuyama winning the Masters, 17-year-old Tsubasa Kajitani captured the Augusta National Women’s Amateur last week.

“It was unfortunate I wasn’t able to watch it,” Matsuyama said of that event on Saturday night. “I was playing last week in Texas, so I didn’t get to see her victory, but it was fantastic, and I hope I can follow in her shoes, and again, make Japan proud.”

He certainly did that with his one-shot victory over Will Zalatoris on Sunday. Matsuyama became the first Japanese player to win a men’s major championship.

As a result, he’s expected to move to No. 14 in the Official World Golf Ranking. And as the top-ranked Japanese golfer by far, Matsuyama would have already been expected to be one of the favourites in Tokyo, but there’s an even better reason to like his chances in July.

The tournament venue, Kasumigaseki Country Club, was also the site of one of Matsuyama’s previous big wins, the 2010 Asian Amateur Championship. That victory earned Matsuyama his first invite to Augusta National, where he finished T-27 and as low amateur at the 2011 Masters.

But there’s also a chance Matsuyama could do more than just play in the Olympic Games. Nick Faldo speculated during Sunday’s telecast that Matsuyama might carry the Olympic torch, and Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee suggested the golfer could carry his country’s flag.

“It would be quite an honour,” Matsuyama said. “But I’m not sure about my schedule. If the schedules worked out and I am in Japan when that happens and they ask me, what an honour that would be.”

MORE MASTERS 2021 STORIES FROM GOLF DIGEST:
The clubs Hideki Matsuyama used to win at Augusta National
Hideki Matsuyama’s caddie found a touching way to celebrate their win on the 18th green
You just won the Masters. Here’s what happens next
A comprehensive history of every change made to Augusta National Golf Club
Green jacket and gold medal? Why Hideki Matsuyama should be the Tokyo Olympics favourite
Hideki Matsuyama’s pause might be pretty, but here’s why it might not be for you

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By Brian Wacker
Webb Simpson has won a U.S. Open and a Players Championship. It sounds like he doesn’t have much interest in trying to add an Olympic medal this summer, though.

“I think it would be an honour to represent the country,” Simpson said on Tuesday from TPC Sawgrass. “Nothing against the Olympics, but I’m personally more interested in trying to win majors, the Players Championship, the FedEx Cup than be a medalist in the Olympics.”

Of course, to be able to win a medal, he’d need to qualify to play in the belated Summer Games in Tokyo, scheduled for late July. Simpson, currently 10th in the Official World Golf Ranking, is the eighth-ranked American. Only the top four, at a maximum, can qualify.

Dustin Johnson, the current World No. 1, said last year that he would not play in the Olympics. Later, he said he would consider participating should the PGA Tour’s schedule be accommodating for flying to the Tokyo amid a busy summer schedule of big tournaments.

The men’s Olympic golf tournament is slated at Kasumigaseki Country Club, about 35 miles northwest of downtown Tokyo, from July 29-Aug. 1. That’s less than two weeks after the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s in the south of England concludes and a few days before the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, which Johnson won in 2018 before it became a WGC

Simpson, too, doesn’t seem keen on travelling halfway around the world.

“Part of it is exciting for me, but the thought of going halfway around the world for that time frame in that part of our season is really tough for me to swallow,” the 35-year-old seven-time tour winner said. “I haven’t made any kind of mental decisions yet, but it would be a hard one for me to go to, knowing what’s at stake here on the PGA Tour.

“I think the travel is what’s getting me, because we build our season around three championships for the FedEx Cup, and that part of the season is already hard for me because we have WGC Memphis, I played Wyndham, and so it would be hard for me to put that much effort into going to Japan. I feel like it would really shoot me in the foot for the playoffs, and right now in my career, the playoffs are more important to me than the Olympics.”

That is assuming the Games move forward as scheduled. Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the Games. So far, the International Olympic Committee is preparing to move forward with the Games this summer.

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“In recent weeks, the global golf community has come together to collectively put forward a calendar of events that will, we hope, serve to entertain and inspire golf fans around the world,” Augusta National G.C., the European Tour, LPGA, PGA of America, PGA Tour, The R&A and USGA said in a joint statement April 6. “We are grateful to our respective partners, sponsors and players, who have allowed us to make decisions – some of them, very tough decisions – in order to move the game and the industry forward.”

With that, we look at what the remainder of 2020 might look like for the game’s elite events and tours.

CANCELLED
149th Open Championship
July 2020
Royal St. George’s G.C., Sandwich, Kent, England

“We care deeply about this historic Championship and have made this decision with a heavy heart. We appreciate that this will be disappointing for a great many people around the world but we have to act responsibly during this pandemic and it is the right thing to do. I can assure everyone that we have explored every option for playing The Open this year but it is not going to be possible.” – R&A Chief Executive Martin Slumbers

The 149th Open will still be played at Royal St George’s but now from July 15-18 next year. The 150th edition will be played at St. Andrews from July 14-17, 2022.

RESCHEDULED
102nd PGA Championship
August 6-9 (originally May 14-17)
TPC Harding Park, San Francisco, California

“Sports, and particularly the game of golf, are important vehicles for healing and hope. With our country going through extremely difficult times, it will be an honour for all of us at the PGA of America to hopefully help turn a page in August with the PGA Championship and September with the Ryder Cup.” – PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh

RESCHEDULED
120th U.S. Open
September 17-20 (originally June 18-21)
Winged Foot G.C., Mamaroneck, New York

“We are hopeful that postponing the championship will offer us the opportunity to mitigate health and safety issues while still providing us with the best opportunity to conduct the U.S. Open this year.” – USGA Chief Executive Mike Davis

AS SCHEDULED
43rd Ryder Cup
September 22-27
Whistling Straits, Kohler, Wisconsin

“We have begun to talk about whether you could create some virtual fan experience, and we’re going to try to be as creative as we can. It’s [still] to be determined, frankly, whether you could hold it without fans or not.” – PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh

RESCHEDULED
84th Masters Tournament
November 12-15 (originally April 9-12)
Augusta National G.C., Augusta, Georgia

“We want to emphasise that our future plans are incumbent upon favourable counsel and direction from health officials. Provided that occurs and we can conduct the 2020 Masters, we intend to invite those professionals and amateurs who would have qualified for our original April date and welcome all existing ticket holders to enjoy the excitement of Masters week.” – Augusta National G.C. Chairman Fred Ridley

PGA TOUR

The PGA Tour has moved its final regular-season event  – the Aug.13-16 Wyndham Championship (Sedgefield C.C., Greensboro, North Carolina) – and three FedExCup Playoffs a week later than originally scheduled.

FedEx Cup Playoffs
Aug. 20-23: The Northern Trust, TPC Boston, Norton, Massachusetts
Aug. 27-30: BMW Championship, Olympia Fields CC, Olympia Fields, Illinois
Sept. 4-7: TOUR Championship, East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta, Georgia

It also hopes to reschedule tournaments into the weeks formerly occupied by the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and the Men’s Olympic golf competition in June and July.

EUROPEAN TOUR

As we went to press, the European Tour had postponed nine (10 including the Olympics) and cancelled five regular-season events, not including the R&A-administered Open Championship. The next scheduled event, the British Masters hosted by Lee Westwood at Close House in Newcastle, looked doubtful in its original July 30-Aug. 2 slot but European Tour CEO Keith Pelley remained upbeat in a statement April 17:

“…my primary message to you, as a valued fan of the European Tour, is actually one of optimism because I am genuinely hopeful that from now on the information I send you in relation to our 2020 schedule will be positive.”

In an earlier memo to players, Pelley said the European Tour were looking at a number of rescheduling options including playing several events in the same location, two events in the same week or three in a fortnight, or “three or four tournaments back-to-back in the UK with a 14-day quarantine period” to allow non-Brits to be able to play. He did warn however, that whatever shape the revised 2020 schedule took, the tour would look “radically different” going forward.

“The reality is, the pandemic is going to have a profound impact on the tour financially, as well as many of our partners, both in sponsorship and broadcast areas.”

LPGA TOUR

The LPGA’s revised 2020 schedule is set to resume June 19 at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. It has also rescheduled the first two majors of the year – the ANA Inspiration in California (to Sept. 10-13) and the U.S. Women’s Open in Texas (to Dec. 10-13).

LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR

The LET were, curiously, conspicuous by their absence from the joint ‘Golf World Presents Revised Calendar of Events for 2020’ press release on April 6. Four events had been postponed as this edition went to press and there was no official word of a planned return to action. However, the inaugural $1 million Aramco Saudi Ladies International, originally scheduled for late March, has been rescheduled for Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City from Oct. 8-11. The €260,000 OMEGA Dubai Moonlight Classic remains earmarked for its original Nov. 4-6 timeslot at Emirates G.C.

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By Alex Myers
The phrase, “It’s a fluid situation,” has emerged as the unofficial motto of sports leagues throughout the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, the 2020 Olympics became the latest big event to make a quick change in plans.

Less than a day after the International Olympic Committee announced it was giving itself a four-week window to decide the fate of the 2020 Olympics, longtime committee member Dick Pound says a decision has been made to move back the Tokyo Summer Games.

“On the basis of the information, the IOC has, the postponement has been decided,” Pound told USA Today’s Christine Brennan. “The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”

Pound also told USA Today he expects an official announcement to be rolled out soon.

“It will come in stages,” Pound added. “We will postpone this and begin to deal with all the ramifications of moving this, which are immense.”

Sunday’s statement, which followed a conference call with the IOC executive board, revealed an outright cancellation of the event was not an option. Pound indicated it would not take place until 2021, but details are still to be worked out.

Since Sunday’s statement, both Canada and Australia announced they wouldn’t send any athletes to the Games this year, while calling for the Olympics to move to 2021.

The men’s Olympic golf tournament is currently scheduled for July 30-Aug. 2 at Kasumigaseki Country Club, with the women’s tournament taking place a week later at the same venue. But again, both look unlikely to be played as planned.

Golf returned to the Summer Games at the 2020 Olympics in Rio. England’s Justin Rose and South Korea’s Inbee Park are the reigning gold medal winners.

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While that hope may one day manifest, it will not be in 2020.

According to the Golf Channel, players received notice on Monday that the qualification process for both the men’s and women’s competitions will remain unchanged for the Tokyo Games, as will the stroke-play format.

Qualification begins on July 1, 2018, and will end on June 22, 2020 for the men. The top 59 players from the Olympic Golf Rankings—which is fuelled by the Official World Golf Ranking—will earn an invitation to Japan. The host country is guaranteed a spot in the field.

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By Kent Gray
Shergo Kurdi is a huge Adam Scott fan, utterly beguiled by the Australian’s graceful swing. We suspect the Jordanian teen might be just as taken by Darren Clarke by week’s end in Aqaba.

In another grouping masterstroke by the MENA Tour, the 13-year-old will play the first two rounds of Jordan’s inaugural 54-hole Ayla Golf Championship in the inspiring company of the 2011 Open champion on Thursday and Friday.

England-domiciled Kurdi hopes to represent Jordan at the 2020 Tokyo and/or 2024 Paris Olympics and knows a front row seat watching the battled-hardened European Tour and Ryder Cup star ply his trade can only help make that dream reality one day.

“It will be some experience to savour,“ said Kurdi. ”I am sure I will be able to take a lot of positives from the week that will stand me in good stead for the future.”

Kurdi has already served notice of his burgeoning talent, winning the U-15 Pan-Arab Junior Championship and the Surrey county title before making the cut in last week’s Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Open following rounds of 75-74-77 at Yas Links (the top 50 players plus ties – professionals and amateurs – make the 36 hole cut at MENA Tour events although there must be a minimum of 10 amateurs).

After first hitting balls at the age of two with his father, Moussa, Kurdi Jnr has reportedly won 113 junior tournaments, mostly in England where he pursues his golfing career.

“These are still early days, but the aim for him is to represent Jordan in the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympics and then, hopefully, the Summer Olympic Games in 2020, or maybe 2024,” said Moussa.

Kurdi is supported by the Jordanian Golf Federation and attached to Ayla Golf Club, a new stop on the Pro-Am developmental circuit. He also has the impetus of the MENA Tour’s “Project 300” behind him. The initiative aims to deliver at least one regional player to the Olympics by 2020. Players hoping to qualify for Tokyo must get within 300 in the world rankings, thus the moniker.

The Jordanian will be joined by some of the best amateur talent in the region on the Greg Norman designed- Ayla G.C., including Khalid Yousuf and Ahmed Skaik (both UAE), Saudi Arabia’s Othman Almulla and Oman’s Azaan Al Rumhy. The Arab players will all be hoping to match up to the standard set by English 21-year-old Todd Clements this season. The reigning English Amateur champion is a runaway leader of the amateur order of merit after runner-up finishes at the Dubai Creek Open and at Yas Links last week.

Whoever gets up to claim amateur honours will have played well, Clarke says.

“The course is just magnificent, one of the best I have played in recent years. It will present a fair test to the players this week,” Clarke said.

Related: Darren Clarke headlines strong field for Jordan as OOM race heats up

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But then there’s the negative side – the feeling that golf is mired in problems entirely of its own making and becoming increasingly peripheral in the post-Tiger Woods era. There are the frequent rules fiascos, like the one that farcically dominated the final round at the U.S. Open, the bane of slow play and golf’s general reluctance to modernise and accept that changes need to be made to appeal to a younger, more demanding audience. Golf and its players can appear detached from the wider sporting community, evidenced by the widespread refusal by many of its top players to embrace golf’s return to the Olympics.

Should golf be an Olympic sport? It’s an endlessly debatable point but in truth, those still stuck on that argument cannot claim to have the game’s best interests at heart. The Olympics may not have the power to unite a single nation in the same way that the FIFA World Cup does, but no event on the planet has the capacity to better capture the imagination of the wider public than the Games. And it’s not even close. The Olympics is an utterly immersive celebration of the very best of sport and its most dedicated and talented athletes, and this year, golf got a chance to be a part of that show. How could that be anything other than a wonderful opportunity?

Rory McIlroy did golf no favours when he declared that he would only be watching the Olympic events ‘that matter’

I understand why Rory McIlroy snapped at the Open Championship after fielding probably his 1,500^th tedious question on the Olympics. But in saying he would only watch the events “that matter”, McIlroy entirely missed the point. They all matter. Every medal adds to a country’s tally. Every Olympian, from Michael Phelps to Justin Rose, is part of the wider, national effort. And if tennis – another individual sport with four majors, a Davis Cup and a host of other tour events to mirror golf’s own set-up – can place a gold medal right up there alongside Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows, whose to say golf can’t finally find its fifth major?

You only have to see the tears shed by both Novak Djokovic in defeat (describing his early loss to Juan Martin Del Potro as among the toughest of his career) and double gold-medal winner Andy Murray in victory – to instantly appreciate that this prize is every bit as precious as a grand slam. And I would love to know if Rose’s gold yesterday was indeed more special to him than his only major to date at Merion three years ago. I think we might be surprised by his answer.

Try telling Justin Rose his gold medal wasn’t as significant as a major championship

So, after all the debate, the drop-outs and the negative headlines, the Olympics staged a golf tournament, and it came good. No disrespect to Marcus Fraser, but this event needed Henrik Stenson going toe-to-toe with Justin Rose down the stretch. It needed to be a great advert for the game, and it undoubtedly was. The Gil Hanse golf course was a revelation, and I’m hearing that his layout here in the UAE at the Trump International Dubai will be every bit as good.

But more importantly, the players embraced it. This wasn’t a sideshow at some outpost miles from the Olympic Village. Sunday’s final round was a 15,000 sell-out, which for a non-golfing country like Brazil was mightily impressive. And clearly judging by their willingness to excitedly pick up players’ balls, many of the spectators had never so much as set foot on a golf course before. Martin Kaymer and Sergio Garcia both called Rio 2016 the greatest week in their careers. Matt Kuchar said he had never been so proud to finish third. This was no run-of-the-mill tour event.

And at the climax, we saw a piece of skill from Justin Rose that epitomised everything that is so great about this game. A pitch on the 72^nd hole when everything was on the line – it was a stroke that called for both enormous skill and nerveless execution – and was worthy of golf’s first gold medal in 112 years.

A short while after that, Tiger Woods was offering his congratulations to all who took part and Jordan Spieth (somewhat sheepishly) followed suit, stating his goal to qualify for Japan 2020. We can only hope the Zika virus hasn’t found its way to the Far East by then. Something tells me there might be some humble pie on the menu at a few press conferences over the coming weeks.

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