Jon-Rahm:: Olympic golf took the game to new heights at the perfect time.. full details below ⏬

After Zika in Rio and COVID in Tokyo, the Olympics in Paris have been golf’s traveling Mulligan.

With the target a veritable island green, the sport’s purposely struck ball hasn’t quite landed yet, but it’s tracking like a Scottie Scheffler 7-iron.Before contact, golf’s leaders were under plenty of pressure to show their game can find a prominent and secure place in the greatest athletic show on earth.

Critics were carping that playing the men’s and women’s tournaments at 72-hole medal play squandered a golden opportunity to give the world a more innovative and exciting format. They contended that some combination of match play, team play, or mixed play would attract more new players and improve golf’s still stodgy image.

Meanwhile, the fact that the game’s top players had become dramatically richer since the 2020 Olympics raised more doubts about how passionately the stars would compete.But as they arrived in Paris, the players’ comments revealed a higher level of enthusiasm for the surroundings and the occasion.

Then the men’s tournament satisfyingly produced three stimulating rounds of stroke play, followed by a final round that provided a Sunday finish that would rate with the most memorable major championships of recent years.