You’ve probably seen photos of Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark posing together as part of Team USA, but do they actually compete together on a team?
not much.
This year’s Olympic men’s and women’s golf competitions are 72 holes of individual stroke play, similar to the competition in PGA Tour signature events. As in the tournaments at Harbour Town, Cromwell and Quail Hollow, the foursome — Schauffler, Schauffele, Morikawa and Clark — will compete against each other. This week in Paris is golf at its purest: each man for himself, playing his own ball and putting on each hole.
But the Olympics should differentiate further in golf and take inspiration from LIV Golf.
In addition to the 54-hole individual competition, LIV Golf also features a team competition within the same tournament. 13 teams of four players compete against each other, and at the end of the tournament, each player’s score is tallied. The team with the lowest total score of the four players wins.
For example, at last week’s LIV Golf event in the UK, Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII team (Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Caleb Surratt and Kieran Vincent) shot a combined score of 26 under par, three strokes better than the second-place Rippers GC team. Legion XIII ultimately won the team title, and Rahm topped the individual leaderboard.
Imagine what would happen if the same format was adopted at the Olympics.
What will the 72-hole totals be for Team Ireland with Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy? What about Spain with Jon Rahm and David Puig? Sweden’s Ludvig Oberg and Alex Noren should do well, as should England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick. The Korean team with Tom Kim and Byung-hun Ahn will certainly be one to watch, as will the US team, which will be limited to two players under this format instead of the current four. But Team USA will be just fine, with Scheffler and Schauffele going into the tournament as heavy favorites, having won three of the four majors this season.
Every shot counts and players are playing for each other, their team and their country.
Discussions have already begun about introducing team play at Riviera, which should be implemented by the International Golf Federation, which oversees Olympic golf.
Perhaps they could consider a mixed team format similar to the Grant Thornton Invitational and incorporate the best women in the world from the LPGA. I think most fans around the world would welcome that and it would bring even more light to women’s golf. It would be great to see Nelly Korda team up with Scheffler. I can’t think of a better way to describe it.
But the 2028 Olympics offers a unique opportunity. What’s so appealing about golf’s biggest team competition, the Ryder Cup, held every two years, is the shared passion among participants — not for themselves, but for their country and each other — who play in a format that’s geared toward team play.
The Olympics should implement a similar system in 2028. It should be differentiated from regular PGA Tour competitions and LIV Golf should be the answer.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow For more golf articles, follow us on Twitter Jack Mirko In the same way.
