The Olympic Women’s Golf Competition at Le Golf National course just outside Paris concluded on Saturday with victory for Lydia Ko of New Zealand. And therein lies a quite remarkable tale. The 27-year-old won the last of her two major championships in 2016. Since then she has won an Olympic silver medal in Rio, a bronze in Tokyo and now gold in the French capital. Three goes, three medals. A birdie at the last saw her home by two shots from Esther Henseleit of Germany, who finished a shot clear of China’s Xiyu Lin.
Ko said afterwards that she had been inspired by watching the documentary Rising, about the career of Simone Biles, the world’s greatest female gymnast. She wrote a line from it in her yardage book – “I get to write my own ending.” And this was hers. She confirmed this would be her last Olympics. Well she certainly has nothing left to prove on that stage.
Outside of the medallists, perhaps the performance of the week came from GB’s Charley Hull. Professing to be somewhat discombobulated by not being allowed to smoke on the course (cigarettes were prohibited at all Olympic venues), she was also suffering from a freak shoulder injury sustained when she was getting out of the shower last month. But after opening with an 81 her subsequent rounds were 71-69-68, which might put her in good mood for the Women’s Open which starts at St Andrews on Thursday week.
The previous weekend had seen Scottie Scheffler provide himself with yet another title, his seventh in all, in this stupendous season. A closing round of 62 earned him the men’s gold medal by a stroke from Tommy Fleetwood, who thus took the silver with a shot in hand over Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama. Scheffler’s gold was one of the 40 earned by the United States in Paris. On this occasion, Fleetwood declared himself pleased enough with second. “I honestly never had this dream as a kid but it definitely became one in recent years,” he tweeted. “I couldn’t be prouder to contribute to Team GB’s medal count and represent the nation this week. Being on that podium with Scottie and Hideki will be a memory etched in my heart forever.”
Rory McIlroy, who finished tied fifth while representing Ireland, said: “I think the Ryder Cup is the best tournament that we have in our game. Pure competition. And I think this has to the potential to be right up there with it. I think every single player this week has had an amazing experience.” Looking ahead, he said: “From what I’ve read, 2028 in LA is going to be much more [difficult] than this one was.” He’s not wrong. The 2028 Olympics will be held between July 14-July 30. I’m sure it thrilled the R&A to discover that a major international sporting occasion, including a men’s golf tournament, was going to perfectly overlap the dates when it would customarily stage the Open Championship.
That’s for the future. As McIlroy added, presumably having in mind whatever the PGA Tour and LIV Golf get up to: “Maybe the world of golf [will] look a little different then.” Well, one might hope the PGA Tour bigwigs would find the time to schedule a meeting between now and then?
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