Golf at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's individual

The men's individual golf event at the 2020 Summer Olympics was held from 29 July to 1 August 2021 at the Kasumigaseki Country Club.[1] 60 golfers from 35 nations competed in the event, which was won by Xander Schauffele of the United States.[2]

Men's golf
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Golf course at Kasumigaseki Country Club
VenueKasumigaseki Country Club
Dates29 July – 1 August 2021
Competitors60 from 35 nations
Winning score266 (−18)
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s)Xander Schauffele United States
2nd place, silver medalist(s)Rory Sabbatini Slovakia
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)Pan Cheng-tsung Chinese Taipei
← 2016
2024 →

Background

The first Olympic golf tournaments took place at the second modern Games in Paris 1900. Men's and women's events were held. Golf was featured again at the next Games, St. Louis 1904 with men's events (an individual tournament as well as a team event). The 1908 Games in London were also supposed to have a golf competition, but a dispute led to a boycott by all of the host nation's golfers, leaving only a single international competitor and resulting in the cancellation of the event. Golf would disappear from the Olympic programme from then until returning to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.[3]

Qualification

Each country could qualify from one to four golfers based on the World Rankings of 21 June 2021. The top 60 golfers, subject to limits per nation and guarantees for the host and continental representation, were selected. A nation could have three or four golfers if they are all in the top 15 of the rankings; otherwise, each nation was limited to two golfers. One spot was guaranteed for the host nation Japan and five spots were guaranteed to ensure that each Olympic continent has at least one representative.

Competition format

Following the format used when golf was returned to the Olympic programme in 2016, the tournament is a four-round stroke play tournament, with the lowest score over the total 72 holes winning.

Schedule

As with most major stroke play tournaments, the event is held over four days (Thursday through Sunday) with each golfer playing one round (18 holes) per day.[1]

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

DateTimeRound
Thursday, 29 July 20217:30First round
Friday, 30 July 20217:30Second round
Saturday, 31 July 20219:30Third round
Sunday, 1 August 20217:30Final round

Results

First round

Thursday, 29 July 2021

Austria's Sepp Straka birdied three consecutive holes on his back-nine and finished with a bogey-free round of 63 (−8) to take the first-round lead. A shot behind was Jazz Janewattananond of Thailand, who also did not make a bogey in a seven-under round of 64. Belgium's Thomas Pieters holed out from the fairway for eagle on the par-four 11th hole and shot 65, tied with Carlos Ortiz in third place and two shots behind.[4][5]

Reigning Open champion Collin Morikawa, at World No. 3 the highest-ranked player in the field, opened with 69 (−2). Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama was four-under on his round through eight holes but made two bogeys to fall back to two-under.[6][7]

RankPlayerNationScoreTo par
1Sepp Straka  Austria63−8
2Jazz Janewattananond  Thailand64−7
T3Carlos Ortiz  Mexico65−6
Thomas Pieters  Belgium
T5Joachim B. Hansen  Denmark66−5
Juvic Pagunsan  Philippines
Jhonattan Vegas  Venezuela
T8Paul Casey  Great Britain67−4
Anirban Lahiri  India
Sebastián Muñoz  Colombia
Alex Norén  Sweden

Second round

Friday, 30 July 2021
Saturday, 31 July 2021

Thunderstorms caused delays in play and 16 players did not complete the second round on Friday. American Xander Schauffele was the overnight leader after shooting an 8-under-par 63. He held a one stroke lead over Carlos Ortiz of Mexico.[8]

RankPlayerNationScoreTo par
1Xander Schauffele  United States68-63=131−11
2Carlos Ortiz  Mexico65-67=132−10
3Hideki Matsuyama  Japan69-64=133−9
T4Alex Norén  Sweden67-67=134−8
Mito Pereira  Chile69-65=134
Sepp Straka  Austria63-71=134
T7Paul Casey  Great Britain67-68=135−7
Jazz Janewattananond  Thailand64-71=135
Shane Lowry  Ireland70-65=135
Rory McIlroy  Ireland69-66=135

Third round

Saturday, 31 July 2021

RankPlayerNationScoreTo par
1Xander Schauffele  United States68-63-68=199−14
2Hideki Matsuyama  Japan69-64-67=200−13
T3Paul Casey  Great Britain67-68-66=201−12
Carlos Ortiz  Mexico65-67-69=201
T5Rory McIlroy  Ireland69-66-67=202−11
Sebastián Muñoz  Colombia67-69-66=202
Mito Pereira  Chile69-65-68=202
Sepp Straka  Austria63-71-68=202
T9Tommy Fleetwood  Great Britain70-69-64=203−10
Shane Lowry  Ireland70-65-68=203

Final round

Sunday, 1 August 2021

Pan Cheng-tsung won the bronze medal after a seven-man sudden death playoff after Collin Morikawa was eliminated by par on the fourth extra hole. Rory McIlroy, Sebastián Muñoz, and Mito Pereira were all eliminated by birdie on the third extra hole, and Paul Casey and Hideki Matsuyama were both eliminated by par on the first extra hole.[9][10]

RankPlayerNationRd 1Rd 2Rd 3Rd 4TotalTo par
Xander Schauffele  United States68636867266−18
Rory Sabbatini  Slovakia69677061267−17
Pan Cheng-tsung  Chinese Taipei74666663269−15
T4Paul Casey  Great Britain67686668
Hideki Matsuyama  Japan69646769
Rory McIlroy  Ireland69666767
Collin Morikawa  United States69706763
Sebastián Muñoz  Colombia67696667
Mito Pereira  Chile69656867
T10Joaquín Niemann  Chile70696665270−14
Cameron Smith  Australia71676666
Sepp Straka  Austria63716868
13Corey Conners  Canada69716665271−13
T14Abraham Ancer  Mexico69696668272−12
Viktor Hovland  Norway68697164
T16Christiaan Bezuidenhout  South Africa68706867273−11
Tommy Fleetwood  Great Britain70696470
Alex Norén  Sweden67677267
Thomas Pieters  Belgium65766468
Jhonattan Vegas  Venezuela66707067
Scott Vincent  Zimbabwe73676667
T22Thomas Detry  Belgium70676869274−10
Im Sung-jae  South Korea70736368
Shane Lowry  Ireland70656871
Patrick Reed  United States68717065
Justin Thomas  United States71706865
T27Joachim B. Hansen  Denmark66736769275−9
Jazz Janewattananond  Thailand64717268
Renato Paratore  Italy71706767
Matthias Schwab  Austria69697067
Sami Välimäki  Finland70706867
T32Kim Si-woo  South Korea68717067276−8
Guido Migliozzi  Italy71656872
Wu Ashun  China72716766
T35Romain Langasque  France69706969277−7
Hurly Long  Germany70707067
Fabrizio Zanotti  Paraguay73676869
T38Adri Arnaus  Spain68697467278−6
Rasmus Højgaard  Denmark73686671
Rikuya Hoshino  Japan71687366
Yuan Yechun  China69687071
T42Ryan Fox  New Zealand70727364279−5
Anirban Lahiri  India67726872
Carlos Ortiz  Mexico65676978
T45Gunn Charoenkul  Thailand71717167280−4
Maximilian Kieffer  Germany73696771
Henrik Norlander  Sweden68737267
Antoine Rozner  France68697370
Kalle Samooja  Finland75687067
50Mackenzie Hughes  Canada69726575281−3
T51Marc Leishman  Australia70717269282−2
Adrian Meronk  Poland72716970
T53Garrick Higgo  South Africa71717072284E
Kristian Krogh Johannessen  Norway72707171
55Juvic Pagunsan  Philippines66737670285+1
56Udayan Mane  India76697072287+3
T57Rafael Campos  Puerto Rico73737072288+4
Gavin Green  Malaysia74727072
59Jorge Campillo  Spain70756975289+5
60Ondřej Lieser  Czech Republic72777372294+10

The medals for the competition were presented by Sir Craig Reedie, United Kingdom; IOC Member, and the medalists' bouquets were presented by Jay Monahan, United States; IGF Chairman.[citation needed]

References