The Olympic rings sit behind the first tee at Le Golf Nationwide this week.
Sean Zak
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — There are a lot of indicators that we’re on the Olympic Video games, what with the 5 intersecting rings and “Paris 2024” emblazoned all throughout Le Golf Nationwide. However the finest signal that the Olympics golf comp is being contested this week? That got here on the sixteenth tee field Monday afternoon.
Scottie Scheffler and Wyndham Clark have been 1 all the way down to Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele, who, although rocking the purple, white and blue, have been jokingly calling themselves Group China (an ode to their ancestry) on this fourballs match. All 4 have been a bit flummoxed by the downhill par-3, too distracted by the cross-wind to understand somebody had snuck up on them. As they began down the hill towards the inexperienced, a voice referred to as out.
“Is it okay if a territory performs only one shot and strikes on to the following tee?”
The crew whipped round to see a wide-smiling Rafael Campos, there on behalf of Puerto Rico, a territory of the US, however this week a competing nation within the Olympics. Sure, the territory was allowed to play by way of.
It’s all good vibes right here in France. Individuals are arriving early and arriving late. All the things is informal, out within the Paris suburbs. Loads of shirts are untucked. A handful of feminine execs are out, too, mixing their apply rounds in among the many males. It rained a lot over the weekend however we’re monitoring for a excessive of 93 F Tuesday. Tom Kim thinks it’s going to agency up. We’ll see! Beneath are a handful of observations from the early arrivals of golf — and golfers — on the 2024 Olympics.
Groups? Sorta!
Golf on the Olympics is strictly a person sport. Rory McIlroy doesn’t obtain a lift from an excellent Shane Lowry rating. (A minimum of not actually.) And we’re speaking a few mostly-strictly particular person sport anyway. Collin Morikawa will let you know all season lengthy that he desires nothing greater than to beat Scottie Scheffler. That doesn’t change this week, however till the strokes begin to matter, the sector undoubtedly acts as groups.
Wyndham Clark and Morikawa have spent an excellent little bit of the final week collectively, vacationing on the similar place in Portugal, then boarding a ship collectively for the Opening Ceremony, posing for numerous images collectively and they’re going to even do a joint press convention Wednesday afternoon. The uncommon factor they haven’t joined forces for was their match Monday, the place Morikawa’s par on the 18th helped him and Schauffele win 1 up.
In the event you walked round Le Golf Nationwide, you’d imagine this was a crew competitors. (So possibly it ought to be?) The Swedes, Ludvig Åberg and Alex Noren, are practising collectively. There have been eight Danes on the entrance 9 and eight Aussies looping the again — Jason Day and Min Woo Lee in inexperienced, the caddies and participant help employees in yellow. Captaining these groups are golf legends: Karrie Webb and Thomas Bjorn, respectively.
Then there’s Group USA, as talked about, the one squad with 4 gamers. Scouting a golf course they’ve barely performed will get so much simpler with 4 seems to be at it. On the eleventh gap alone it was a hybrid from Schauffele, a excessive iron from Scheffler, a low stinger iron from Clark and a pale driver from Morikawa. That was kinda enjoyable.
The course is … advantageous. And that’s simply advantageous
The Olympics golf expertise nonetheless feels new, however the course is reasonably acquainted territory. We’re at Le Golf Nationwide, the annual host of the French Open and the host of the 2018 Ryder Cup. (Get used to this place, European golf followers — it’ll host the French Open in simply 9 weeks.)
Alex Noren received right here. Guido Migliozzi received right here. Tom Kim completed T6 right here a yr in the past. Tommy Fleetwood’s epic, undefeated 2018 Ryder Cup happened right here. (He additionally received on his personal ball in 2017.) There are good vibes throughout. Simply don’t search for the course to punish gamers fairly like Pinehurst, Royal Troon or Augusta Nationwide. It’s lush and inexperienced, which makes it comparatively mushy. There’s some rain within the forecast, which implies regardless of the nice and cozy temps, it shouldn’t get too agency. PGA of America interim CEO Kerry Haigh is in control of the setup this week, as he has been for earlier Olympics. All of which implies we will anticipate a ending rating within the teens-under-par.
Scottie can win again his swoosh
A part of the allure of the Olympics is that all the things feels clear from a branding perspective, even when that’s an enormous nightmare for contemporary, corporatized athletes who possess an inclination to slap a emblem on all the things. To maintain issues as regular as doable, caddies even detach the straps from the luggage they usually carry, wrap tape round any logos on the strap, after which hitch them to the brand new, one-off, nationalistic luggage they’ll carry this week. Why? As a result of TopGolf didn’t sponsor Group USA — J.Lindeberg did, paying no matter hefty payment it takes to outfit the American golfers this week.
However that sponsorship solely goes thus far. In lots of instances, manufacturers pays to outfit rivals throughout their competitors, however appearances away from the venue and on the medal stand are a very completely different entity. All of which implies, the awkwardness Scottie Scheffler feels by carrying something however the Nike Swoosh will be washed away by … a top-three end. Ralph Lauren fits up Group USA through the Opening Ceremony and J.Lindeberg swags them out through the competitors, however Nike owns the rights to attire worn throughout medal ceremonies. If Scheffler can bag a medal, he’ll make his Nike pals doubly pleased.
Put together to like the ending stretch … eventually
Le Golf Nationwide was as soon as farmland, again within the Nineteen Eighties when the thought for it was conceived. Now it has the status of being significantly penal for anybody inaccurate off the tee, partly as a result of greater than half the holes have water hazards in play. Three of these come into play on the ultimate 4 holes.
You’re forgiven for those who don’t recall these holes from the Ryder Cup, however solely a handful of matches reached LGN’s epic, ending par-4. Its inexperienced (and runoff areas) are located on an island that connects to the fifteenth inexperienced. Scheffler and Clark each pulled tee pictures into the drink on the 18th Monday, main the profitable aspect to joke of their finest (or worst?) French accent: “Le forfeit?”
The fifteenth takes on an analogous form — a shorter par-4, however with a a lot smaller inexperienced. The downhill, par-3 sixteenth performed right into a cross-wind Monday, which makes its short-iron distance a fairly tough one to guage. The ball is within the air for therefore lengthy! Then there’s the seventeenth, which is the second-longest par-4 on the property. Holding on for a spot on the rostrum will likely be a little bit of a grind. And rightfully so!
That is completely different, in any case
A part of the criticism this occasion faces — from gamers, brokers, media, and so forth. — is that it’s not completely different sufficient from the everyday golf tournaments we see week-in and week-out. At its core, it’s 72 holes of particular person stroke play. Nevertheless it ought to undoubtedly really feel a bit completely different.
Sean Zak
For starters, there’s only a lone grandstand — an admittedly huge one, tucked behind the 18th inexperienced. Beneath it are the Olympic rings, behind the inexperienced and in addition in plain view on the first tee. There’s “Paris 2024” emblazoned in all places and particular tee markers that make golf genuinely really feel like a tiny, rising nook of the Video games, even when the Video games is merely a once-every-four-years nook of the golf schedule.
It’d take greater than visible branding to make this week really feel completely different with a capital D, however that’s the place all the opposite pomp and circumstance is available in. It’s Scheffler nerding out over desk tennis. Ben An, too. It’s Jon Rahm flying in from England and going straight to the Olympic Village to hang around round different athletes. It’s male golfers practising alongside feminine golfers — and all these golfers attempting to swap pins with different Olympians.
One query I’ve obtained: which different Olympians are gonna come out and watch the golf?
