There can be pride in association. In sports, venues are part of the dream. It’s not only who you want to compete against its also where. Elite golfers know how much of an affinity elite athletes have for the game of golf. Babe Ruth went to the 1929 U.S. Open at Winged Foot to watch Bobby Jones. Michael Jordan started attending Ryder Cups in 1997 in Spain when he was still the best basketball player in the world, and he’s been to every one of them since. When you live in the golf silo it’s not uncommon to get whisked away in the moment of golf’s big events and they are big relatively speaking. Pro golf is niche but so are most of the disciplines and sports showcased on the Olympic stage. The difference is that Olympic achievement in table tennis, judo, and volleyball are inarguably the zenith of accomplishment in those pursuits and in golf it’s not. It doesn’t mean the weightiness of Olympic medals in golf is modest, it simply means that time collaborates the gravity of the achievement.
Weirdly, as the proliferation of sports globally has created enormous wealth for athletes and valuations of sports franchises have exponentially increased the prism with which too many fans view achievements has shrunk. Winning division titles in college and professional football, basketball and baseball has been marginalized. Individual sports value most wins less, like tennis and golf and quantify the merits of athletes more and more on the most elusive titles. Majors and grand slams titles, not to mention Super Bowls and World Series titles separate the best into the most pristine category of athletic achievement but it shouldn’t be at the cost of so many important benchmarks. Golf’s modern grand slam was a quasi-marketing tool spontaneously ignited after Arnold Palmer won the U.S. Open in 1960 at Cherry Hills. The tired debate about whether the Players is the 5th major falls flat with that very narrative. It’s either a major or it isn’t. It’s not slotted as 3rd or 5th and its neither. It’s not a major, it’s the Players and it’s a huge notch.
It was a very different time when Gene Sarazen won the 1935 Masters, which wasn’t even called the Masters in 1935. Brandel Chamblee quipped years ago on his podcast with Jaime Diaz that Sarazen won what was akin to the Hero World Challenge. It wasn’t to diminish the win. It was an accurate opinion on the modesty of the accomplishment at that time. Like the Hero World Challenge conducted by Tiger Woods, the 1935 Augusta National Invitation Tournament was a gathering of Bob Jones’ friends. Time has been very kind to Sarazen because the Masters has become the most famous golf tournament in the world. He had no idea he had completed the career grand slam because there was no such thing, but retroactively, he joined that elusive club, and it doesn’t make the accomplishment less significant. It’s simply context of the achievement. Time is on the side of Olympic golf primarily because of the players. While they will not extoll the premise that a gold medal is equivalent to a major championship victory, they are all amplifying the enormity of the experience and its impact on them as athletes. So, while they can’t proclaim that winning a gold medal is the biggest thing in their sport like wrestlers, pole vaulters and equestrian riders do, they now are sharing what all Olympic athletes convey about getting to the Olympics. It’s the biggest sporting stage in the world, and for golfers, who are athletes, it’s an authentic validation of that fact.
Seeing table tennis players on the USA boat during the opening ceremony interfacing with Steph Curry was a sweet moment for those young female athletes who live an athletic life of relative anonymity, but it was also an illuminating moment for Steph in his first Olympics. Steph Curry knows the road to greatness can take many different paths and he’s aware of the razor thin margins that separate athletes in moments and over time so shaking the hand of fellow Americans competing in table tennis was also a sign of immense appreciation. Appreciation for the pursuit. Golfers are Olympic athletes and the crowds in Paris gave them a thorough and exhilarating appreciation of the Olympic stage. The refrain for a team component will grow louder and it should but golfers are experiencing what all Olympic athletes do, they are beaming with the pride of association. Olympic golfers are proclaiming the grandiosity of being a part of it. Scottie Scheffler’s tears were not over a FedEx Cup bonus, it was from the human condition of wearing a gold medal and hearing his national anthem. People who love professional golf know how damn hard it is just to make a living at it but too many of those same people pass over the various benchmarks in the sport to look almost exclusively at major totals. Yes, they separate players from awfully good to great but there is other bold type that players can put on their resumes of achievement. Olympic gold is one of them and keeping the company of the greatest athletes from all over the globe, some of whom came to watch the golf competition, is great for the game now and the weightiness of winning a medal is only going to grow.