Report: Olympics to add mixed team event in 2028

The Olympics is set to take a page out of the Grant Thornton Invitational book, according to reports.

The team event, which began last year, puts PGA Tour and LPGA Tour pros together, making it the first mixed-team event since 1999.

Hosted by Florida’s Tiburon Golf Club, major champions Jason Day and Lydia Ko teamed up to success in December.

And now, Olympic officials are moving forward in a bid to include a team event in the Games when they head to Los Angeles in 2028.

Le Golf National in Paris will play host this year before Riviera takes centre stage in four years’ time.

This summer’s Olympics is a 72-hole tournament, while an anonymous source has told the Associated Press that an announcement on 2028’s format could come as early as The Masters.

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Reports suggest that the men will start on Wednesday (instead of Thursday) and finish on Saturday, with women playing a practice round on Tuesday before starting their competition on Wednesday.

The team competition could then take place on Sunday and Monday, requiring two more days of action for the players and likely ruling them out of any tour events the following week.

On the PGA Tour, the Wyndham Championship takes place between August 8-11, as the final tournament before the FedEx Cup play-offs get underway.

There is no LPGA Tour event the week after Olympics, with the Women’s Scottish Open and AIG Women’s Open scheduled for the next two weeks.

The number of countries eligible to compete in the event is yet to be determined, but one option officials are considering is 36 holes of fourballs to decide the team medalists.

Meanwhile, golf officials are proposing the team competition should be a separate event, as The International Olympic Committee often avoids awarding two medals from one competition.

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That would be the case if individual scores were combined into a team medal.

A format The IOC could consider is to have a team format (foursomes or fourballs) on Sunday and use singles male and female scores on Monday to produce 54-hole totals.

That is the format used at the Summer Youth Olympics, where golf was inducted in 2014.

At the most recent Games, in 2018, LPGA Tour winner Atthaya Thitikul won gold as part of team Thailand. America’s Akshay Bhatia and Lucy Li won the silver medal.

John Turnbull A graduate of the University of Stirling, John joined the bunkered team in 2023 as a Content Producer, with a responsibility for covering all breaking news, tour news, grassroots content and much more besides. A keen golfer, he plays the majority of his golf at Falkirk Golf Club. Top of his 'bucket list' is a round of Pebble Beach... ideally in the company of Gareth Bale.