The NCAA's Format Would Work Too Well For The Olympics

Tee marker from Rio 2016 (Geoff Shackelford)

Format suggestions are always risky since the powers in golf adhere to the ABWMS system (Anything But What Media Suggests). Their devotion to this approach is how we get FedExCup leaders starting at -10 or two boring individual stroke play events at the Olympics.

The last two weeks of NCAA golf provide an obvious and brilliant way to deliver a stroke play winner and seed teams for match play. It is the rare made-for-TV event also determining a champion in fitting fashion.

An offshoot of the NCAA approach would still get players into the Games who are good enough but might come from a developing country, while including team match play to show off the most dramatic form of golf (growing the game!).

According to IGF officials who deal with the IOC, format constraints consist of Olympic Village bed availability and whether stroke play alternatives are recognized within the sport as a significant championship format.

Those two questions are now easily answered after the Rio Games: most golfers would prefer not to stay in the Olympic Village (in normal or COVID times) and the NCAA format is established to determine significant titles on the line. (The PGA Tour, LPGA Tour and European Tour should be using their “alliance” to devise similar events as sort of a mini-Ryder Cup played by nationality or corporate alliance, which would also be a handy way to push back disruptor tour proposals.)

Here is one Olympics-friendly adjustment of the NCAA format:

• Invite players for a 54-hole stroke play event based on world ranking as they do now, but expand to include players eligible for the team component, up to ten eligible five-player teams and eligible individuals (as we have with the current system). This means we’d be watching the world rankings to see which teams will get into the Games in a fun, side race for Olympic eligibility. Currently there is almost no interest in the who-makes-the-Games race.

• After the individual stroke play results are in and medals awarded, the team event will be whittled to eight and seeded by scores. Two countries will not make match play based on the medal competition.

• Team matches of five players per team are contested over two days, starting with a 36-hole day that eliminates four teams. This means a max of six competition days for the final four teams (assuming a bronze medal match, which the NCAA does not do).

The college golf format would work for both men and women, though I’d love to hear twists on how to consider it for a mixed team format. You could theoretically combine the teams into one of five men and five women, but there is something to the simplicity of the NCAA’s approach worth learning from. And we all know by now that team match play provides more drama and school pride. Throw in nationalities with Olympic medals on the line, and you have the makings of a thrilling competition. At least, in normal times.