A History of Olympic Golf
Posted on January 17, 2020
The first modern Olympics took place in Athens, Greece in 1896. There were 280 participants from 13 nations competing in 43 events. Golf was not included in the 1st Olympics because at the time there were no golf courses in Greece. The second Olympics were held in Paris, France in 1900 and golf was included as an event with competitions between both men and women. There were 24 nations with 997 participants competing in 19 different sports. Four nations took part in the golf competition, Greece, Great Britain, France and the United States.
The Paris Olympics were held in conjunction with the 1900 World’s Fair, also known as the Exposition Universelle. There was disorganization in the Olympics because the initial Olympic Committee had to seize control to a newer formed committee after political drama. The change caused for a new event schedule which saw many athletes who had initially planned in participating withdrawing.
The Olympic golf tournaments were divided into 3 events; a 36-hole men’s championship, an 18-hole men’s net handicap championship and a 9-hole women’s championship. The tournaments took place from October 2-4 at the Compiegne Golf Club, which was built in 1896. In actuality due to the disarray of the events organization many of the participants were unaware they were competing in the Olympics.
Charles Sands
Despite only 3 United States golfers participating in the men’s tournaments, Charles Sands of the U.S. won the 1st Olympic golf gold medal. Sands won the two round 36-hole men’s championship with rounds of 82 and 85. Walter Rutherford of Great Britain earned the silver medal with fellow Brit David Robertson placing 3rd for bronze.
The 9-hole women’s championship was known as the Paris Championships, after going through name changes from the ‘Golfing Games of the 1900 Olympics’ then ‘The 1900 International Championships of Paris’. There were 10 participants with 4 coming from the United States. A mother, Mary Ives Abbot, and daughter, Margaret Abbot, were in Paris so Margaret could study art. Margaret heard about an “International Golf Tournament” and being an avid golfer convinced her mother to participate. They’re the only mother and daughter combination to ever compete in the same Olympics and same event.
Margaret Abbot
Margaret’s choice to compete ended up in her favor as she shot a 47 for the 9-hole tournament to win gold. Margaret’s mother Mary Ives ended up placing seventh. Margaret Abbot became the first American female Olympic gold medalist, but due to the disorganized nature of the event she was unaware she’d won an Olympic event because she wasn’t awarded a medal but a bowl instead. Unfortunately, Margaret died never knowing she’d made history, but her children were later informed of her accomplishment by University of Florida professor Paula Welch.
The final 1900 Olympic golf tournament was an 18-hole net handicap event. United States own Albert Lambert from St. Louis earned the gold with a net score of 73. M.P. Deschamps from France won the silver medal. Lambert was visiting Paris on business and participated in the 36-hole event as well in which he placed 8th. Lambert was so enthusiastic about his experience that upon his return to St. Louis, with the help of his father-in-law Colonel George McGrew, he began plans to include golf in the 1904 St. Louis Olympics.
Albert Lambert
The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the III Olympiad, were held in St. Louis, Missouri in conjunction with the World’s Fair. There were 651 participants from 12 competing nations. For the Golf competition there were 2 nations represented, the United States with 74 golfers and Canada with 3 golfers. The golfing events included driving contests, putting contests, handicap events, team Nassau competition and a match play tournament for the Olympic medals.
The golfing competitions took place from September 17 – 19 at the new Glen Echo Country Club. Albert Lambert participated in the golf tournament, making him the only player to compete in both the 1900 and 1904 Olympic golfing games. The honors to start the games with the inaugural tee shot was given to Raymond Havemeyer, donor of the Havemeyer Trophy which is presented to the U.S. Amateur Golfing Champion each year.
Teams from the United States won all the medals in the team event. The favorite to win the singles event was U.S. Amateur champion H. Chandler Egan of the USA. Egan won the long drive event and made it to the semifinals of the match play event along with 2 other Americans, Burt McKinnie and Frank Newton and a Canadian, George Lyon. Burt McKinnie won the putting contest, which took place at night under lights on a specially built 9-hole putting course. Egan and Lyon won their matches and moved on to face each other in the finals to determine who’d take gold.
George Lyon
The weather played a role as the final day was wet, cold and gloomy. Egan began to lose distance from the rain-soaked fairways, while Lyon’s flat swing style allowed him to start to out-drive Egan. In an upset Lyon defeated the favored Egan and won the match 3 up with 2 to go, taking the Gold Medal home with him to Canada. It’s interesting to note that Lyon actually took up golf later in life, at the age of 38 after he’d grown too old for his former sports cricket, rugby, baseball and tennis. Lyon also went on to win golf’s Canadian Amateur Championship a total of 8-times, he’d arrived at the 1904 Olympics already having won three times.
Four years later in 1908, Lyon was ready to defend his Olympic gold at the London Olympics. Lyon sailed to Britain only to discover that the golfing games of the 1908 Olympics were cancelled due to lack of entries. During the planning stages there arose a dispute between the Olympic golf committee and the Royal & Ancients, the ultimate authority in golf, about player eligibility. Lacking the support of the R&A resulted in all British golfers withdrawing from the tournament and the golf event being cancelled. Lyon was offered a symbolic gold medal but declined and returned to Canada.
The next Olympic Games were held in Stockholm in 1912, where there wasn’t much golf played so it didn’t get included. Golf was going to be part of the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, but due to lack of entries it wasn’t played. The next year, in 1921, the International Olympic Committee revised the conditions for a sports participation in the Olympics, creating the provisions that a sport must have an international governing body and be played in 40 countries.
Tommy Thirsk and Arnold Bentley
Due to the new stipulations golf wasn’t eligible to officially be a part of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. However, Germany held an international golf tournament ‘The Great Golf Prize of Nations’ played in Baden-Baden in conjunction with the games and planned a medal award ceremony, making the event closely resemble an Olympic event. There were 7 countries that participated in the tournament. The winner of the four round 2-man team stroke play event would be presented with a trophy donated by Hitler. Hitler had even promised to present the trophy himself should the winners be German.
The German team was leading an English team going into the final day. German’s Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop sent for Hitler to come as he assumed Germany was inevitably going to win. The English team of Tommy Thirsk and Arnold Bentley however shot superbly, and Thirsk set a course-record round of 65 to vault the English team into the lead. The Germans shot a disappointing round and actually fell to third place with a French team taking second. Von Ribbentrop had to break the news to Hitler, who was furious and promptly ordered his chauffeur to return him to Berlin. Dr. Karl Henkell was left to present the trophy to Thirsk and Bentley.
Golf finally returned as an official Olympic event for the first time in over a century at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The tournament was held at the newly constructed Olympic Golf Course in Rio de Janeiro, designed specifically for the event by Hanse Golf Course Design. The field consisted of 120 qualified men and women competing in a 72-hole individual stroke play event. Player qualification for the event was based upon their place within the Official World Golf Rankings. Some that qualified withdrew for concerns over the Zika virus, some notable names which didn’t play include Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, and Rory McIlroy.
The men took the stage first and provided plenty of excitement. Henrick Stenson and Justin Rose were paired together on the final day and battled all day for the gold medal. The pair were tied at 15-under par going into the 18th hole. After Stenson three-putted, Justin Rose tapped in a birdie to capture the gold medal for Great Britain. Stenson secured the silver medal for Sweden. Matt Kuchar played superbly on the final day to claim the bronze medal for the United States.
Next Inbee Park put on a putting demonstration during the women’s event. Park pulled ahead of the field during the second round and finished at 16-under par to secure the gold medal for South Korea. The third day became a battle for silver and bronze between Stacy Lewis of the U.S., Shanshan Feng of China, Lydia Ko of New Zealand, and Harukyo Nomura of Japan. Lydia Ko sank an eight-foot birdie putt on 18 the final day to capture the silver medal over Shanshan Feng. Feng earned the bronze medal.
Golf will be part of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan at the Kasumigaseki Country Club.
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