The men will be on the tee at the Kasumigaseki Country Club on Wednesday July 28, before the ladies’ four rounds starting Wednesday August 4.
In Japan, the Olympic golf event is scheduled on the Kasumigaseki Country Club course in Saitama, about 25 km northwest of Tokyo. Date of the events: July 29 to August 1 for the men’s tournament, August 4 to 7 for the women’s tournament.
The origins
Golf, which consists of putting a ball 42.67 mm in diameter in a hole 108 mm more or less distant from the starting point using a club, is one of the oldest codified sports: its rules were enacted in 1754 in St. Andrews, Scotland. But its origins go back even further since a form of this game, played in the Netherlands under the name of “colf” or “kolven”, would have arrived on the British Isles in the 15th century.
Competition formats date back to the second half of the 18th century – the first women’s tournaments were played at the end of the 19th century – and, like the rules, have changed little since. Played in the twentieth century by British officers, mainly Scottish, deployed around the world, golf has grown widely and today there are some 30,000 courses and 60 million players.
Golf was first included in the program of the 1900 Games in Paris and 1904 in St Louis (United States). He then disappeared from the Olympic program until his reinstatement at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
The format
There are two main game formats in golf: stroke play and match play. In the first (stroke play), all the strokes played by each player are counted and the player with the lowest total after four rounds on an 18-hole course wins the tournament. In the second format, two players compete in a duel and the holes won are counted, ie the number of strokes played at each hole, and not the total number of strokes played over the entire course. Depending on the advance taken, these duels do not necessarily go to the end of the 18 holes.
In Tokyo, the two tournaments, men’s and women’s, will be played in stroke play, over four laps of an 18-hole course, the classic format on professional circuits. In the event of a tie for a medal at the end of the 72 holes, the players will decide between themselves by playing a play-off of three additional holes.
The field of players
60 golfers and 60 women golfers were selected according to the world ranking on the evening of June 22 for men and June 29 for women. The 15 best in the world were selected, to which were added the next 45 players in the world ranking with a maximum of 2 players per nation, i.e. a total of 4 players maximum for the best nations.
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The Olympic site
The golf tournaments will be played at the Kasumigaseki Country Club, established in 1929 in the town of Kawagoe, in Saitama prefecture, on the outskirts of Tokyo. Its course stretches over the hills of Musashino, spread over 6,827 meters for men and 6,508 meters for women.
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