The red, white and… green? It’s time to make majors more like the Olympics

It takes a brave man to come out and admit he is wrong. 

Alas, I am not that man.  

The final couple of hours of the men’s tournament at the Olympics on Sunday was captivating. Jon Rahm leading by four then collapsing. Scottie Scheffler equalling the course record to snatch gold and then blubbing on the podium. Tommy Fleetwood taking silver for Great Britain and being an all-round bloody legend. The late battle for bronze that was eventually won by someone called “Matsuyama Hideki”. 

Brilliant. I loved it. Major-worthy material. And I’m sure the case will be the same in a few days’ time for the women.  

I wrote in this very column last week that you could make it an amateur event. My argument was flawed, I admitted as much, and people were quick to let me know. But, as good as it was, is the Olympic golf event pulling in the casual fan? Especially when there was so much else going on at the same time? The tournament proved me wrong on that. The big guns showed up. And how.   

But it still left me feeling a bit flat. Like something was missing. I still don’t like the format, for starters. 

Now, I am 100 per cent behind the idea that 72-hole stroke play is the best way to determine a champion in this sport, and there’s a reason why so many events that have tried something new no longer exist. But this is the Olympics. The grandest stage of any sporting occasion. The IOC and IGF have an opportunity to do something a bit different. All with the added benefit of having the biggest names in the world competing.

I thought about it a lot over the weekend while glued to the goings-on in Paris, and I have decided as such: The individual 72-hole stroke play events also count as a qualifier for the second event, which is a mixed team competition. That way, you can be out of medal contention but still in with a shot of making it into the team event. (I haven’t thought about the team format – maybe just straight match play knockout from 64 to one?)  

Anyway, that was yesterday’s fish and chips paper. I’m ready to unleash my next hare-brained opinion on you now.  

Scrap the purse in the four men’s majors and make them just about the prestige.

Stay with me. 

Now, this is something I’ve said before – if not in writing then almost certainly on The bunkered Podcast – so I’m well versed in dealing with the backlash, and it was actually Rory McIlroy who jogged my memory.  

He described his week in France as “amazing”, before adding that final-round playing partner Nicolai Hojgaard said it was “the best tournament he’s ever been involved in – and he’s played Ryder Cup”. 

McIlroy added: “I still think the Ryder Cup is the best tournament we have in our game – pure competition – and I think [the Olympics] has the potential to be right up there with it.” 

After another dig at the “s***show the game of golf is right now”, McIlroy continued: “You think about the two tournaments that might be the purest form of competition in our sport [and] we don’t play for money.” 

Jon Rahm, who led by four at the turn before a back-nine slump saw him miss a medal by two, is in the same boat. “Two of the most meaningful weeks in my career is two events where we make no money,” he said. “I’ve said that a million times, and I’ll say it again, because the Ryder Cup and this one are up there.”

Sure, there are flaws. There always are. Of course it’s much easier to have this kind of opinion if you’re someone like McIlroy or Rahm who have got hundreds of millions in the bank.   

But the fact that you’re playing for your honour, for your legacy, for your country, and/or your continent over a pay cheque clearly hits different with players. Scheffler took home the best part of $4 million for winning the Masters. Would he have shown up at Augusta and played the way he played if there was, quote-unquote, only a green jacket on the line? Damn straight he would. 

More importantly, though, it would also free up the best part of $100 million a year to grow the game – but, you know, actually grow the game. Not that “grow the game” that Phil Mickelson and pals talk about over on the LIV tour.

So, R&A, Augusta National, USGA, PGA of America, something to ponder…

Let Ryder Cup fever commence!

Luke Donald is really putting his stamp on the Ryder Cup.

Along with the powers that be at Ryder Cup Europe, the confusing and nonsensical duel qualifying system has been scrapped and now there is just one table from which six will head to Bethpage next September.

The points ratings do, however, heavily favour the PGA Tour over the DP World Tour. And that will, no doubt, have people looting their nearest Greggs.

But winning a Ryder Cup on American soil is really, really bloody hard. So Donald has to do what Donald has to do to make sure he has the strongest possible squad available to him.

The same people who were squawking that Adrian Meronk and Yannik Paul were robbed of a spot on the last team will be out in force again, I’m sure. But I promise you that you won’t care less when that trophy is once again draped in yellow and blue.

Rank hypocrisy

Why do we do ranking lists? Ranking anything is beyond difficult and, of course, entirely subjective. And ESPN knows that better than anyone – though the media powerhouse did once rank a racehorse 35th in its Top 100 Athletes of the 20th Century rundown.

So of course I’m getting on my high horse (lol) about its latest list, the Top 100 Professional Athletes Since 2000. Regardless of your stance in the Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo debate, having them ten places apart is at least nine places to much, while cricketer Virat Kohli being the only representative of the second most popular sport in the world – and squeezed in at 97, no less – is nothing short of absurd.

There are four golf representatives.

Phil Mickelson is 68th. Fine. But then Annika Sorenstam is a full 21 places below him at 89th. If you compare what the two have done in the game, you could make a case for them to be swapped.

And Rory McIlroy scrapes in at 93. Sure, why not?

Of course, at the top end is Tiger Woods, who is at 8th. Again, fine. I think. Simone Biles – at seven – has had a ludicrous career and has transcended an albeit niche sport. But has she done as much for golf – and sport in general – as Woods? You’d have to make one hell of a compelling case.

So I’ll bump Woods up at least one and, to be honest, you can take him and the top six – Michael Phelps, Serena Williams, Messi, LeBron James, Tom Brady and Roger Federer – and we can make a argument for that list of players being in any order we want.

OK I see why they do it now…

Are we over it, yet?

Remember when you were all desperate to know Anthony Kim’s whereabouts? How you were all dying to know how he would compete with today’s stars? How you all thought he would be so much fun on social media? You’re not laughing now, are you?

And finally…

As always, I finish by recommending some bits and bobs from my colleagues.

Ben Parsons had what can only be described as The Gary Player Experience recently, and some of the stuff he got from it was gold. There will be a full feature in an upcoming issue of the magazine, but in the meantime you can read his rather interesting thoughts on Donald Trump and LIV Golf. (But only if you want to.)

The absolute legend that is Andy Murray bid farewell to the professional game at the Olympics, and Michael McEwan has used his latest column to explain what Tiger Woods can learn from the tennis star.

Before I go, thank you to every single one of you who donated to my 100-holes-in-a-day charity challenge. We smashed through our £2,500 target with relative ease and I wrote a bit about the day. We also made a short video which will hopefully bring a smile to your face.

Have a good week and, as always, play well.

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor