Argue as much as you like, the Olympic games have certainly never been short on controversy.
From international boycotts, cost of hosting, banning entire countries, bribery and even the loss of the event as an 'amateur' showcase, the event is still seen as the pinnacle of an athletes career, surpassing world championships in status.
But this is golf. Already hugely rewarding for the top players, it is a hard task thinking that the gold medal trumps any of the four majors per year. That seems not to be the case.
Ranked outside of the world's top-150, Joost Luiten was considered by his home Olympic committee to be not good enough to be entered into the competition. However, and here's a story, after a high-profile court case he has been permitted to take part in his second Olympic Games, stating the importance of the decision:
"I love sports and the Olympics is the biggest sport event in the world. Golfers understand Majors but people that don't play golf, they don't understand the Majors they understand the Olympics, and it's just something that I want to be a part of. I've been a part of it in Rio in 2016, and I wanted to be a part of it again, and then it's very painful when basically one or two people say you're not good enough when you've met the criteria. It just wasn't fair, and it was great that the judge saw that as well and that it shows that they can't do whatever they want. They still need to explain why they are making certain decisions, and I think that's the good thing about this."
That news, in early July, was univereassly approved by the golfing illuminati, but that joy was short-lived. Just days later, the International Golf Federation informed the veteran Dutchman that his place had already been offered to the 'reallocated pursuant', namely Tapio Pulkannen, ranked 250 places below him on the OWGR. Despite appeals to the IOC by the IGF to increase the field to 61, 38-year-old Willibrordus remains as a reserve.
Gavin Green speaks proudly of representing his home nation Malaysia in every one of the three Olympic golf competitions, pointing out his tattoo of the Olympic rings, whilst both champions of the modern era have demonstrated a huge amount of emotion when discussing their victories.
Justin Rose, already a major and WGC champion, said after his victory, “It feels absolutely incredible. The whole week, I’ve been so into it and up for it,” he said. “I’ve been determined to represent Team GB as best as I could and it was the most magical week,” while previous multiple winner and 2020 gold medallist Xander Schauffele delivered on a long-held dream, and paying back his father for a dream-ending car accident when an Olympic-bound decathlete.
After Rio and Tokyo, the Olympic golf tournament arrives in Europe, held at Le Golf National, beloved host of the French Open for the last 20 years.
'Bomb and find' are not usually the attributes for success around the 7200-yard par-71, but with Nicolas Colsaerts winning in 2019 and the odd smasher contending, there is still the possibility that they can beat the plotter type. To back up initial thoughts, however,
both the last two winners ranked outside the top 30 for driving distance, making their scores (14 and 16-under) via strong approach play to small greens and making the putts.
It makes no real odds but of interest that both Guido Migliozzi and Ryo Hisatsune moved to a place just outside the top-100 after the wins at the French Open (108 and 101 respectively) and of more note is their form in similar locations.
Both the Italian and Japanese players have previous in Kenya, and share similarities at Himmerland, The Belfry, Valderrama and Gary Player, all courses requiring an ability to know exactly where the ball is going, more than a few asking for patience and that oft-used description, plotters.
Coming into the event, Ryo had missed his previous two cuts but had finished 13th at Crans beforehand, a very likely correlation and second home to 2010 French Open champ Jiminez, whilst Guido's best recent effort was at Wentworth, again an excellent pointer, with Jiminez again, Molinari, Noren and McDowell winning at both the Surrey track and at Le Golf, and Chris Wood winning there and running-up around here in 2018 (behind Noren).
We have years of that genre of form with the names Jiminez, McDowell, Levet, Storm and Jaidee pointing the same way, whilst let's not forget just how much better the 2018 European Ryder Cup team were than their opponents, losing the opening four-balls before destroying them over the next day-and-a-half, winning 17.5-10.5.
Selections
Finding greens is vital, particularly in a field with some of the elite of the game. Naturally, the overall strength of the field is raised, with 10 of the world's top-15 in play including undisputed world #1 Scottie Scheffler.
His strong tee-to-green game should be ideal for this test, though it has been noticeable that the 28-year-old has been learning his way around the more tricky tracks of recent weeks. At both the US Open and at Troon, he didn't seem at his best either off the tee or on the greens, a factor that failed him miserably last time out. Whilst his incredible run of stats still shows him as the elite of ball-striking, permanently lodged inside the top three positions for approach, tee-to-green and greens-in-reg, it seemed to take him a few holes to be rid of a bad shot here and there, something he shouldn't get away with against a small, but elite, group.
It's whether or not you fancy a bit of 4/1 about a player that has never played here or at Wentworth, but has a very good record when he does appear on the DPWT.
Three appearances at the Scottish Open have resulted in a 3rd and 12th, whilst when chasing the Claret Jug, he is 8/21/23 across three different tracks before finishing in seventh place at The Open, as low a finish as he could have expected. That's probably good enough, and who in the world is going to argue against a player with 12 PGA Tour wins, including at Phoenix, Bay Hill, Augusta, Sawgrass, Harbour Town, Muirfield and latterly at River Highlands, all within the last 29 months?
Sheffler was only slightly bigger for the PGA and US Open, whilst he was 7/4 going into the third round at Troon last time, the price admittedly assisted by so many fancied players watching the event from their sofas. Either way, today's price does seem an overreaction in favour of the punter and he has to go in a saver.
As with Scottie, none of the remaining three US players were at the 2018 Ryder Cup, but they did take part last year at the Marco Simone, when all four played well below their standard, sharing just 4.5 of the 11.5 points racked up by Team USA. With Scottie tying his single against Jon Rahm, of this week's quartet, only Xander Schauffele was able to bring home a point, defeating Nicolai Hojgaard 3&2.
This column has put up Xander for both the Scottish Open and Open Championship and he is very appealing once again, on a course that should be made for him.
Once again, here is a US player without too much experience at this type of track in Europe but with plenty of runs out at the same two Opens. The 30-year-old has never missed the cut in 12 outings across the two elite events, winning the Scottish and backing that up with a 10th and 15th in four outings, whilst his comfortable victory at Troon was his fifth top-20 at Europe's only major.
The 30-year-old has become the pin-up boy for those who believe in the peak age of a golfer and he sauntered throughout the last major as if it were a weekend club event, finishing with a stunning gain of over 16 strokes tee-to-green. Those stats are hard to repeat, but his position amongst the best from peg to green is impossible to argue against, having ranked in the top-five at the Sentry, Pebble Beach, Riviera, Sawgrass, Copperhead, Memorial and at all three of the latest majors (11th at Augusta).
Whilst he isn't as bomb-proof in the tee-to-green stats, he ranks 5th in approach and 11th for greens on the PGA Tour, with similar figures for the last two events held on this side of the water. For me, both he and Scottie should be a touch shorter, with less of a gap between them to refelct current form.
Now a two-time major winner, the main selection will fear very little should he get into contention at any stage.
With Rory McIlroy struggling to demonstrate why he is disputing second spot in the world ranking the Sheffler/Shauffele combo look the absolute elite of the field by some way. If this had been held in the US, you could not argue about splitting your stake and being pretty confident of a return.
We have seen big-priced runners placed at both Olympic golf events so far, notably Rory Sabbatini and CT Pan, in silver and bronze behind Xander, but this looks a tough task.
At least half this field would struggle to be within a league of the top lot so I'm backing up the main bets with two proven PGA Tour winners with enough form on this side of the water, and at the right places.
Shane Lowry is made for team events and he links back up with countryman Rory McIlroy for the team section that, let's face it, nobody really gives two hoots about.
That said, the affable Irishman posted his third PGA Tour victory alongside McIlroy at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where at times, he looked by far the more eager to win.
Tight courses that require an element of short-game prowess are Lowry's bread-and-butter, demonstrated by his wins at tree-lined Firestone and at Wentworth, the latter proving to be very Lowry-biased, the 37-year-old having four further top-six finishes and never finishing out of the top-20 in his last seven outings.
Surprisingly, Lowry has never really got to grips with Le Golf National, with two top-20 finishes and three missed-cuts in six starts, but these figures are from 2018 and further back. Since then he's won The Open and had five further top-10 finishes in majors, including 67th at both the PGA and The Open this year.
Whilst the last-time-out sixth should have been better - he led at halfway as he did at Bay Hill and after three rounds at the Honda (yes, it's still that to me) - that was his 15th successive weekend, after missing the cut at the first event of the year.
Since May, Lowry has racked up 6th at Valhalla, 19th at Pinehurst, top-10 at Travelers and last time out, 6th at Troon - enough to think he's got plenty of advantage here this week.
Finally, Tom Kim came here for the 2023 French Open specifically to prepare for this event.
After shooting a first round 64, good enough to lead by one, the South Korean commented, "Knowing the Olympics is going to be here next year, if I can qualify then it’s definitely good prep. At least seeing the course before coming here, if I get the chance next year, just having that and knowing the course is going to help. It’s a bonus for me."
The 22-year-old former amateur star had arrived at Le Golf National having already stunned the PGA Tour with a five shot win at the Wyndham Championship and, soon after, a three-shot victory over course specialist Patrick Cantlay at the Shriners. That meant easy qualification for the International Side at the 2022 Presidents Cup, where he made his mark with entertaining play alongside earning his team two points with pairs victories over Scottie and Sam Burns in foursomes and Cantlay and Xander in fourballs.
He'll find the team element to his liking again, playing alongside the very relaxed Benny An, and whilst the latter has that very early career win at Wentworth (2015) it's Tom's more recent European form that takes the eye.
Away from that vital finish here last year, Tom can boast eight cuts from 10 starts, finishing runner-up, third and 16th at the Scottish Open, runner-up behind Brian Harman at last year's Open, 15th at the DP World Tour Championship and 18th at Wentworth. With Major championships generally being too long for him, those top-20/30 finishes over the last two years become far more appealing when transferred to a course such as this, and let's not forget he lost out in a play-off at River Highlands last month to the best player in the world.
I'm not too concerned about the missed-cut at The Open last time andf, after a week off, he arrives at a course on which he ranked 6th for putting last time. Should he have his accuracy boots back on, as he has done since Canada at the start of June, he'll be right up there come the medal presentation.
