Golf medalists at the Olympic Games
Golf first became an Olympic sport during the second edition of the modern Games, Paris 1900. It returned for the 1904 Games in St. Louis, but then took a 112-year hiatus before finally returning to the Olympic program for Rio 2016, and later, Tokyo 2020. Each edition of golf at the Olympics has featured a men's and women's individual tournament, with the exception of 1904, which featured a men's individual tournament and a men's team competition.
In golf's brief history at the Olympics, the United States is by far the most successful nation, with 13 total medals including five gold.
| Year | Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1900 | Men's | Charles Sands (USA) | Walter Rutherford (GBR) | David Robertson (GBR) |
| Women's | Margaret Abbott (USA) | Pauline Whittier (USA) | Daria Pratt (USA) | |
| 1904 | Men's | George Lyon (CAN) | H. Chandler Egan (USA) | Burt McKinnie (USA) Francis Newton (USA) |
| Men's team | Western Golf Association (USA) | Trans Mississippi Golf Association (USA) | United States Golf Association (USA) | |
| 2016 | Men's | Justin Rose (GBR) | Henrik Stenson (SWE) | Matt Kuchar (USA) |
| Women's | Inbee Park (KOR) | Lydia Ko (NZL) | Shanshan Feng (CHN) | |
| 2020 | Men's | Xander Schauffele (USA) | Rory Sabbatini (SVK) | C. T. Pan (TPE) |
| Women's | Nelly Korda (USA) | Mone Inami (JPN) | Lydia Ko (NZL) |
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States | 5 | 3 | 5 | 13 |
| 2 | Great Britain | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Canada | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| South Korea | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| 5 | New Zealand | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 | Japan | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Slovakia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Sweden | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 9 | China | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Chinese Taipei | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Olympic golf results by year
Tokyo, 2020
Golf at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) took place at Kasumigaseki Country Club. American Xander Schauffele won the men's gold medal with a score of 266 (18-under par). Schauffele shot in the 60s all four rounds, including a second-round 63 which tied for the second-best round of the tournament. It was bested only by a final-round 61 from Rory Sabbatini, which vaulted the Slovakian veteran to the silver medal despite starting the final round outside the top 10.
Behind Schauffele and Sabbatini, seven players finished tied for third at -15, including major champions Rory McIlroy (IRL), Collin Morikawa (USA) and Hideki Matsuyama (JPN). However, it was Chinese Taipei's C. T. Pan who emerged from the seven-man sudden death playoff to claim bronze.
In the women's tournament, Nelly Korda mirrored the effort of her countryman Schauffele, shooting in the 60s all four rounds and posting a second-round 62, the best round of the competition. Her final-round 69 was just enough to hold off New Zealand's Lydia Ko and Japan's Mone Inami, who both finished one back of Korda's final score of -17. Though Inami bested Ko for silver in a playoff, Ko still made history as the first person to win a medal in golf at back-to-back Olympic Games.
Rio de Janeiro, 2016
Golf made its return to the Olympic Games for the first time in 112 years, taking place at the Campo Olímpico de Golfe, a new course built in Rio de Janeiro specifically for the Games.
Several of the world's top male golfers -- including Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy -- withdrew from the competition, citing the Zika virus epidemic. However, the 60-man field still included several major champions, including eventual gold medalist Justin Rose of Great Britain. After a historic hole-in-one during the opening round, Rose eventually finished the tournament with a score of 16-under par, two shots better than silver medalist Henrik Stenson of Sweden. American Matt Kuchar posted a final-round 63, tied for the best round of the tournament, to claim the bronze medal.
South Korea's Inbee Park ran away with the women's gold medal with a score of 16-under par, winning by five shots. World No. 1 at the time, Lydia Ko of New Zealand, took silver, one shot ahead of bronze medalist Shanshan Feng of China. Stacy Lewis finished as the top American in a three-way tie for fourth place.
St. Louis, 1904
Canada's George Lyon had only been practicing golf for eight years when he won the second-ever men's individual Olympic golf tournament in St. Louis. He previously competed in baseball, tennis and cricket, and swung his golf club in a manner more akin to that of a cricket athlete than a golfer. For the first (and only) time at the Olympics, the tournament concluded with a match-play format. In the final match, Lyon defeated 23-year-old American H. Chandler Egan.
The 1904 Games also featured the first (and only) team golf competition at the Olympics. However, rather than golfers teaming up by nation, the competition featured teams of 10 from various regional golf associations around the United States. The gold medal was won by the Western Golf Association, which featured Egan as its top player.
Paris, 1900
American Charles Sands won the first-ever Olympic gold medal in men's golf, winning by one stroke over Great Britain's Walter Rutherford. Sands also competed in tennis at the original Paris Games. The men's tournament also featured Albert Lambert, the primary financial supporter of Charles Lindbergh's 1927 trans-Atlantic flight. Lambert placed eighth.
In the women's tournament, Margaret Abbott became the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal. However, she died in 1955 unaware of this fact, not knowing that the competition she had won was part of the Olympics.