Four Australians – two women and two men – have been selected to represent their country in golf at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Overview
Hannah Green and Minjee Lee, both from Perth and ranked inside the top 15 players in the world, will join Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith, both inside the top 35, in Tokyo. It is a powerful team.
Lee, who finished seventh in the women’s competition when golf resumed its Olympic place at Rio in 2016 after more than a century’s absence, is the only one of the four who has been an Olympian previously.
Golf Team
Ones to Watch
The 24-year-old Hannah Green has been in great form in 2021 on the LPGA Tour with a string of top-10 finishes. She is also just the third Australian woman to win a major, having secured the Women’s PGA Championship in 2019.
Graduating from Perth’s Mt Lawley club, she has been on a steady upcurve since turning professional in 2016, and she shapes as perhaps the most likely of the Australians to contend in Tokyo.
The Format
Olympic golf is a four-round, 72-hole individual stroke competition, mimicking usual tournament play.
Eye on the Competition
Spain’s Jon Rahm is the world’s No. 2 player and seems to be in contention every week nowadays; he will be the favourite for the men’s competition, although most of the top 10 players will be competing.
In the women’s Inbee Park of South Korea is the defending champion and one of the greatest players in the history of the game, with seven major championships to her name. All the top female players will be in Tokyo in a white-hot field.
What’s the Story?
Hannah Green and Minjee Lee share the same coach, Perth instructor Ritchie Smith, who also coaches Lee’s younger brother Min Woo Lee, already a two-time winner on the European Tour.
Marc Leishman won the club championship at his hometown Warrnambool in south-western Victoria at 13 … beating his father Paul, who had previously won that mantle.
Leishman’s American wife, Audrey, almost died of toxic shock syndrome in 2015 in America. When she was put into an induced coma, Leishman was told that she was unlikely to survive. Fortunately Audrey Leishman pulled through, and they have three children. Together they run the Begin Again Foundation which raises awareness of the condition.
Did you know
Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith share an obsession with grass – green grass. Leishman posts photos of his manicured lawns in Virginia Beach, and Smith, who lives in Florida, has followed suit.
Competition Facts
Dates
- Men’s competition: 29 July-1 August
- Women’s competition: 4-7 August
Location
- Kasumagaseki Country Club, Saitama. The club on the outskirts of Tokyo has previously hosted a World Cup of Golf and is approaching its centenary. There are two courses, with the East course, redesigned by American architect Tom Fazio in 2016, hosting the Olympic golf.
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Golf Snapshot
Martin Blake
