SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – Rory McIlroy, who has participated in some of the game’s biggest and loudest events in his career, summed up last Thursday’s opening round at the Olympic men’s golf tournament with awe: “Unbelievable. It was surprising,” the Northern Irishman said of the crowds that flocked to Le Golf National.

McIlroy, like the other players in the men’s field, had been lulled into a sense of calm after three days of peace and quiet with fans not allowed to attend practice rounds during the Olympics. It’s what made Thursday’s capacity crowd both unexpected and unrivaled, and what awaits the women on Wednesday.

According to organizers, the third and fourth rounds — on Friday and Saturday, respectively — are sold out at roughly 30,000 fans a day. Days 1 and 2 are approaching those numbers, which likely means it will be a similar raucous scenario for Wednesday’s opening round.

“When I was on the first few holes, we had heard these chants and I was like, what are they saying, and later I heard it was Victor [Perez], which I think is really cool. Like the really cool thing about this place is it's such a big property that you don't realize there is that many people out there,” explained New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, who attended the third and fourth rounds of the men’s tournament. “Then when we stood on [No.] 1, we could see the people walking from [No.] 14 to 15 and then obviously the men's crowds around the 18th hole, there was just a lot of people there.

“I don't think the LPGA gets as big of a crowd, normally, maybe compared to the men, and to see that kind of a turnout, I'm excited for Wednesday to come and for people to, I'm sure cheer Celine [Boutier] and Perrine [Delacour] and all of us on.”

Like Perez, who ignited the home crowd with his tie for fourth last week, France’s Delacour will hit the first tee shot at 9 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET) on Wednesday. Boutier tees off at 9:55 a.m. local and is among the favorites to win a medal this week.

“I want to know what is going on Wednesday when we tee off because it's something that you only experience once in your life,” Delacour said. “I think it's good; the fact that we see the men on the first tee, how the crowd is like with them. So, it's definitely helping us to see how to manage the emotion and everything.”

Officials had planned to use a forward tee box at the first hole for the women’s tournament but instead decided to use the front edge of the same teeing area they used for the men, to produce a similar theater and energy as last week for the opening tee shots.