Golf is officially recognized as first featuring in the Summer Olympic Games programme in 1900 and 1904, although the 1900 events were not regarded as being part of the games at the time. A golf tournament was to have been held in 1908, but it was cancelled less than two days before it was scheduled to start.[1] Two golf tournaments were also to have been held in 1920, but were cancelled due to a lack of entries.
A men's individual tournament was planned for the 1908 London Games, but a dispute amongst representatives of England and Scotland over the format led to British golfers boycotting, leaving 1904 gold medallist George Lyon of Canada as the only remaining entrant.[9] He was entitled to claim the gold medal but declined.[9]
1920
Two golf tournaments were planned at the 1920 Antwerp Games, but were cancelled due to a lack of entries.[10]
Since its reintroduction, Olympic golf competitions have consisted of men's and women's individual stroke play. There has been calls for the IGF and the IOC to consider adding a match play tournament, a team tournament, and/or to open up the Olympic tournament to more golfers, possibly by using a different qualifying system than the World Golf Ranking.[12]
^A dispute amongst representatives of England and Scotland over the format led to British golfers boycotting, leaving 1904 gold medallist George Lyon of Canada as the only remaining entrant.[1] Olympic organisers offered to award Lyon the gold medal by default, but Lyon refused it.
22 golfers competed in 1900. The 1904 tournament featured 77 golfers. Albert Lambert was the only golfer who competed both times; a total of 98 different golfers competed throughout the brief history of Olympic golf before it was brought back in 2016.[citation needed]
