Looking Ahead and Looking Back

Mixed-Team Golf at Riviera

By Meg Adkins

A high-stakes mixed-team event with the best players in the world is finally happening. Yesterday, the International Golf Federation revealed the details of a mixed-team competition that will begin in 2028 as part of the Summer Games in Los Angeles. Sixteen teams made up of a male and female player already qualified for their country will play a two-day tournament in between the men’s and women’s individual stroke play events at Riviera Country Club. Foursomes will be played in the first round, and a second round of fourballs will determine the medal winners.

The last time team golf was featured in the Olympics was in 1904. Since then, there hasn’t been much to get excited about with regard to mixed events in the professional ranks. The various exhibitions that have come and gone over the years have almost always missed the mark on either attracting top talent or playing for something meaningful. In most cases, they didn’t cross either off the list.

Olympic golf only returned in 2016, but it has quickly become one of the best events on the calendar. Players only get one crack at a medal every four years, which can be an eternity for a golfer’s career. That rarity and the grandness of the Olympics have made the tournament one of the most meaningful for the best in the world. That importance was evident last year when gold medal winners Scottie Scheffler and Lydia Ko were overcome with emotion during their medal ceremonies.

The popularity of Olympic golf made it a prime candidate for expansion as the IOC has looked to add more mixed-team events across its competitions. It’s an expansion that fans have been clamoring for since its reintroduction to the Olympic lineup. The IGF’s announcement will satisfy those fans not only with the return of team golf, but with the format the teams will be playing. Foursomes during the first round will require team strategy to play to strengths and navigate the intricacies of Riviera. Fourballs will provide plenty of birdie chances and low scores as teams make a mad dash for the podium. Individual stroke play will not be a part of the mixed-team event. We’ll get plenty of that during the individual competitions and during almost every single week of the professional golf schedule.

The potential team lineups will make you want to start prepping the popcorn right now. Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda. Rory McIlroy and Leona Maguire. Min Woo Lee and Minjee Lee. Tommy Fleetwood and Charley Hull. Hideki Matsuyama and Yuka Saso. Ludvig Aberg and Linn Grant. Jeeno Thitikul and Kiradech Aphibarnrat. Well, maybe that last one doesn’t roll off the tongue, but you get the gist. A lot can change in three years, but the field list will be full of heavyweights.

The Olympics gave us two of the best moments of 2024. In three short years and at the best venue it’s visited since its return, Olympic golf will be back and better than ever.

Finally.

Floodgates SZN

By Will Knights

Like all of you, I haven’t stopped thinking about the Masters just yet. The IV of recap content from Augusta National is still firmly implanted in my arm.

In absorbing coverage over the last 48 hours, one thing has become abundantly clear: everyone is eager to see if getting the major monkey off his back frees up Rory McIlroy. The proverbial major championship floodgates, are they open? It’s a question I hadn’t given much thought in prior years since all the focus was on McIlroy actually, you know, winning a major. And while no one actually has an answer right now, there is at least one aspect of the question on which we’re certain: McIlroy’s mind is rid of its heaviest burden. On Sunday evening, draped in a green jacket, Rory said, “My battle today was with myself. It wasn’t with anyone else.” He continued. “You know, at the end there, it was with Justin, but my battle today was with my mind and staying in the present. I’d like to say that I did a better job of it than I did. It was a struggle, but I got it over the line.”

I firmly believe that Rory’s biggest opponent has always been his own mind. And the fact that he didn’t dominate the final round of the Masters really doesn’t matter. A win is a win. The biggest challenge of his golfing career is behind him.

Whether we’ll see Rory McIlroy win another major in 2025 or beyond is not a prediction I’m about to make. What I will predict is that we won’t see the nervy shots from Rory that we saw on Sunday. He will still inevitably make occasional bad swings and poor decisions; that’s who he is, but I don’t think we’ll see the half-hearted stabs at putts like the ones at Pinehurst and Augusta National. He may very well lose to others on the golf course, but we’re not going to see Rory defeat himself any longer. And thus, the final act of Rory McIlroy’s career begins.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

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