What happens if there is a tie in Paris?

The 2024 Men’s Olympic golf event has reached its final day, with three medals to be awarded on Sunday evening at Le Golf National. But what are the rules of Olympic golf when it comes to competition? It’s more difficult than professional golf events, but we can help with the details. Here’s what you need to know about the potential Olympic golf games in Paris.

Olympic Golf playoff format

The leaderboard for the final round at the 2024 Olympics is stacked, with a number of top players within a few shots of the lead, including Xander Schauffele, Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and more. Based on that, a playoff is entirely possible.

First, any golf qualifier for the 2024 Olympics will be contested over three holes at Le Golf National: the 168-yard, par-3 16th; 480 yards, section 4 17; and a 471-yard, par-4 18.

Unlike the PGA Tour tournament where only one winner needs to be determined in a playoff, the Olympics need to identify three winners for the gold, silver and bronze medals.

So several different situations may arise. If two players are tied for first place at the end of regulation, they will compete in a playoff with the winner receiving the gold medal and the loser receiving the silver.

If there are three tied players, medals will be awarded according to their finish in the playoffs, with third place getting bronze.

But there are more complicated situations. For example, there may be a clear winner at the end of the day with a few players tied for second. In that event, the winner takes the gold and the runners-up will fight for silver and bronze.

How will the Olympic playoff breaker work?

If any potential tie-ins are still decided at the end of the first three playoff holes (16, 17, 18), the remaining players will continue to play those holes in order until all medal winners have been determined.

Past Olympic golf games

Despite the fact that golf only rejoined the Olympic Games in 2016, there is already an Olympic golf game.

It happened at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. At the end of regulation Schauffele was alone at the top of the leaderboard as the gold medalist, and Rory Sabbatini was alone in second place, earning him silver without a playoff. But there were seven players tied for third place.

Those seven players – McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and Hideki Matsuyama among them – competed in a seven-way tie, with CT Pan emerging victorious as the bronze medalist.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As executive producer of GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletter, which reaches more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A two-time alumni, he also helps keep GOLF.com buzzing with breaking news and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the technology team to develop new products and new ways to deliver engagement. site to our audience.