Golf at the Summer Olympics

Golf is officially recognized as firstly featuring in the Summer Olympic Games programme in 1900 and was also contested at the 1904 Summer Olympics. A golf tournament was to have been held in 1908, but it was cancelled less than two days before it was scheduled to start. Two golf tournaments were also to have been held in 1920, but were cancelled due to a lack of entries.

At the IOC session in Copenhagen in October 2009, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to reinstate the sport for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The International Golf Federation is the governing body for golf at the Olympic Games. Qualification is based primarily upon the Official World Golf Ranking (men) and Women's World Golf Rankings, with the top 15 of each gender automatically qualifying (with a limit of four per country), and then the highest ranked players from countries that had not yet already qualified two players.

Medal table

Sources:

Total

Men

Women

Events

1900

Men's individual
Women's individual

1904

Men's individual
Men's team

1908

A men's individual tournament was planned for the 1908 London Games, but a dispute amongst representatives of England and Scotland over the format led to British golfers boycotting, leaving 1904 gold medallist George Lyon of Canada as the only remaining entrant. He was entitled to claim the gold medal but declined.

1920

Two golf tournaments were planned at the 1920 Antwerp Games, but were cancelled due to a lack of entries.

2016

Men's individual
Women's individual

2020

Men's individual
Women's individual

2024

Men's individual
Women's individual

Since its reintroduction, Olympic golf competitions have consisted of men's and women's individual stroke play. There has been calls for the IGF and the IOC to consider adding a match play tournament, a team tournament, and/or to open up the Olympic tournament to more golfers, possibly by using a different qualifying system than the World Golf Ranking.

Courses

Medal summary

Men's individual

Women's individual

Men's team

Participating nations

22 golfers competed in 1900. The 1904 tournament featured 77 golfers. Albert Lambert was the only golfer who competed both times; a total of 98 different golfers competed throughout the brief history of Olympic golf before it was brought back in 2016.