For the first time since 1904, golf will be featured at the Olympics this year in Rio de Janeiro. The tournament for both the men and women will be held at the Reserva de Marapendi.
Get yourself ready for betting on the Summer Olympics today! We'll have all of the great Olympics odds at BookMaker.eu.
THE FORMAT
Both the men and women will compete in a 72-hole stroke play tournament, and the medals will be handed out to the top three finishers on each side. The men will be on the course in Rio first from August 11-14, while the women will play in the second week of the Olympiad from August 17-20.
HISTORY OF GOLF IN THE SUMMER OLYMPICS
Golf has only been featured in the Summer Olympics twice before in 1900 and 1904, and it'll end up being a part of the competition both in 2016 and 2020.
On the men's side, the United States has one gold, one silver and two bronze medals (co-bronze winners in 1904). England has a silver and a bronze, while Canada picked up a gold medal in 1904.
The women swept the podium in 1900 in Paris. Women's golf wasn't amongst the competitions in the Olympics in 1904.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Just qualifying for this tournament is really tough. The top 15 players in the world will get to the Olympics with a max of four per country, and after that, there will be a max of two players per country. A total of 60 men and women will come to the course in the Olympics.
As of the publication of this article, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy are the top men's qualifiers, though popular names like Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler and Dustin Johnson are all going to reach the field. The big problem comes with filling the rest of the field out. The bottom 30 players or so likely won't have much of a chance.
South Koreans are dominating women's golf right now and will have a tough time only placing four players in the Olympics. Lydia Ko, Inbee Park, Lexi Thompson and Stacy Lewis are the top four players right now, though all of this could change between now and when the rankings are locked in July.
AND THE GOLD MEDALS GO TO…
For the women, it's really tough to argue with Ko at the moment. She's played in six tournaments so far this year, and she's finished first, first, second, 15th, second and third in them. She's carded just two rounds above par, and she hasn't finished worse than 15th in 13 straight tournaments.
The men's tournament is going to be a little trickier to handicap. The odds aren't going to be fantastic on any of the top 15 players, knowing that they'll all be expected to be in the discussion at the end of the day. You'll have to judge how the players are playing into July through the pivotal summer months.
However, since we're in the market for making predictions right now, we'll go with Spieth. Keep in mind that Spieth has a lot of work to do just to make sure he qualifies for the Olympics since only four Americans can qualify. He's right at the top now, and though his quadruple bogey on Sunday at the Masters will be fresh in the minds of bettors, let's not forget that, in spite of that one disaster of a hole, he still finished second.
Olympics odds at BookMaker.eu
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