Golf is Back in Olympics After 112 Years

Golf will be returning to the Olympics for the first time since 1904, when the United States and Canada were the only two competing countries. The sport has gone global in the last century, but clearly the Olympics and golf have a little re-acquainting to do. Until the post was recently removed, Rio’s official site describes the sport as: “The athletes compete individually on grass fields that have different configurations. There are varied golf courses leading to holes with orange-size diameter. The goal is to roll the ball into the hole with the fewer number of strikes as possible.”
The biggest headache in golf's return to the Olympics was getting the golf course built. American Golf Architect Gil Hanse was selected to design Olympic Golf Course in Barra da Tijuca, and it was delayed because of politics and environmental lawsuits.
The men and women will compete in medal play over 72 holes. The International Golf Federation has been criticized for not having a team format, which might have given some players motivation to attend.
None of the top four in men's golf will be there. The men will have only eight of the top 20 in the world, including Masters Champion Danny Willett of England and British Open Champion Henrik Stenson of Sweden. The women will have nine of 10, only because South Korea has five players in the top 10 and countries only are allowed to send four. The men's competition is August 11 to 14, followed by the women on August 17 to 20.

Source: http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Golf-is-back-but-without-its-stars-27072016030079