Olympic golf began as a doubtful proposition. It’s in no danger of missing the cut

Minjee Lee’s opening round at Golf National on Wednesday was a metaphor for golf at the Olympics, a doubtful proposition to begin with that could be anything now. Put it this way: Lee can’t miss the cut because there isn’t one. Nor is Olympic golf at risk being cut anytime soon.

After 13 holes, Lee’s day was going the way of compatriot and friend Hannah Green’s two hours previously. Green had dumped three balls in the water and otherwise could not buy a putt even with Australian dollars on her way to a 77.

Australian Minjee Lee in the opening round of the Olympic women’s golf tournament.Credit: AP

Lee, too, was three over until a “not ugly, but hard-fought” birdie at the 14th – her description – turned into four birdies in the last five holes and a one-under round of 71, six from the lead but only one from the medals. It might have been better still; a long-range putt for eagle at the 18th missed by the width of a champagne flute.

“I just gave myself a bit of a nudge and thought I had to make a few birdies coming in,” she said. “I just didn’t want to be over par.”

Lowly-ranked South Ashleigh Buhai used up everyone’s luck this day. She made improbable successive birdies on the back nine, the first when a water-bound ball struck a tree branch and rebounded to tap-in distance, the second when the ball sat on the lip of the cup for so long that Buhai was about to mark it before suddenly toppling in. Buhai’s good fortune landed her in second place.

The leader by three was France’s Celine Boutier, who made eight birdies, including three in a row on the back nine, offset by one bogey.

Minjee Lee (left) and Hannah Green.Credit: Getty Images

Boutier is built like a two-iron and answers to the nickname ‘The Machine’, taking it as a compliment. Country folk sang the national anthem to her on the first tee, but her face remained still and severe. Not until her final putt sank did that face widen into a smile.

“It was nice,” she said. “Definitely a little bit much for me sometimes. But it’s just nice to have that many people excited about golf and about where my round is going.”

If there is still an argument that golf is an interloper at the Olympics, this was not the place or day to make it. It might already be moot.

This is especially apposite about the women’s game. When golf returned to the Olympic program at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the women played before negligible crowds and at Tokyo in 2021 none.

Hannah Green on the first tee.Credit: Getty Images

Fast-forward to Golf National on Wednesday. The day was pleasant but not hot. The wind blew, but not madly. The crowds were bigger than most on the women’s tour, but there was room for all.

Golf National is a brilliantly designed course anyway, fashioned into overlapping bowls and open like a links course, meaning that everyone gets a view. It’s a stadium course without the artifice of stadiums. Waves of applause rolled across the undulations all day; you could chart Boutier’s place on the course and the scoreboard by them.

“It really feels like what I imagined the Olympic experience to be,” said Lee.

World No.1 Nelly Korda was just as taken. “I wasn’t sure what to expect walking on to that first tee,” she said. “Obviously, my first view was the tee. Then I looked out to the green and I just saw like people four deep. I said to my caddy, oh my gosh, this is absolutely amazing.”

But Korda took a long time to get her game up and running, giving up three bogeys on the front nine, then reclaiming them on the back. So did an old Antipodean favourite, Kiwi Lydia Ko, who wrestled with the course all day before settling beside Korda on level par.

Green, ranked No.6 in the world and a major winner, missed the party. Thinned iron shots at water holes cost her dearly, and she could not recover the lost ground. It was a nice day for a dip, but not this way.

The topography of the course is innocent to look at, but tests subtly; Green said she struggled to get a read on the greens all day. She’d only played the course one day previously, so now she’s a day wiser.

“I’ve got to be not so down on myself,” she said. “I do believe I can win a gold medal, so I think I’m putting a bit more pressure on myself, just because it’s the Olympics.”

In Tokyo, Green and teammates avoided the athletes’ village to obviate the risk of COVID. Here, she’s communed with the other Australians and watched them perform. “Team dinners have been really fun, too, all us getting together and giving each other a little bit of crap,” she said. “There was the humour that we don’t always get while we’re on the LPGA over in America.”

One other element sets Olympic golf apart. There are only 60 golfers in the draw, but they represent 30 nations. Golf rarely looks as cosmopolitan as this, nor feels as joyous. Vive la difference.

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