Team USA collapses in the women’s golf event, no medal in the 2024 Olympics

The U.S. team failed to reach the podium in the women’s golf competition at the 2024 Olympics.

Rose Chan, Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu put in valiant efforts but fell short.

Lydia Ko shot a 1-under 71 to finish at 10-under par and win by two strokes over silver medalist Estelle Henseleit of Germany and bronze medalist Shiyu Lin of China.

Zhang was the closest of the three, shooting a 2-over 74 in the final round to finish tied for eighth at 5-under.

“Everything just went wrong,” Chang said. “I was about an inch or two out of the rough and my lie wasn’t great. You can’t expect much out of the rough. I was a half-inch or a foot away from getting in the good zone. It was unlucky. I made some pretty big mistakes, so I can’t really say much about it.”

The 21-year-old finished with a 40 after bogeys on the fourth and seventh and a double bogey on the par-five ninth. She was in a deep hole, but she never gave up on the feeling that she could do something great.

“You can’t lose belief,” Zhang said. “I think you always need some strength in yourself to keep going and see it through to the end. I felt like I did my best on the back nine, made some birdies and took advantage of my opportunities. In the end, I was a little bit out of form and there wasn’t much I could do.”

On the back nine, she had three birdies and one bogey, finishing in 34. Zhang was close, but wasn’t at her best on the day that mattered most.

Korda, the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world, saw her gold medal defense fall apart on the back nine. She finished tied for 22nd with a 3-over 75, one under par overall. Korda was 2 under after the first three holes, but bogeyed the fifth and seventh to get back to par by the eighth. She closed out the front nine with a birdie on the ninth to get some momentum.

Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

A bogey on the 13th put things starting to fall apart. Korda birdied the 14th but a double on the 15th and a bogey on the 17th put him completely out of steam.

“I played aggressive when I could and safe when I needed to,” Korda said. “I played pretty solid until the last few holes. Again, I think that was my story this week. Other than that, it was just solid golf.”

Vu was in contention early in the tournament but couldn’t maintain his momentum, shooting 2-under 70 on Wednesday before dropping scores of 73, 76 and 74 over the final 54 holes.

The world’s No. 2-ranked golfer shot a 2-over 74 on Saturday to finish the tournament at 5-over and tied for 36th place.

Although the U.S. team did not win a medal in women’s golf, they still represented their country in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The Olympics are unique in that only the top three finishers take home prize money, whereas professional tournaments allow players who qualify to win prize money.

Savannah Lee Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation Playing Through. Follow us for more golf articles. Follow You can follow us on all major social platforms. You can also follow us on Twitter Follow Her Instagram account is @golf_girl_sl.