Golf Added to 2028 LA Olympics Mixed Team Event

Three Gold Medals Now Up for Grabs After Addition of Mixed Team Event
Foursomes and Fourballs Format Likely Over Two Days
United States and South Korea Emerge as Top Contenders for Victory

The 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles (LA) will add a mixed team event in golf.

Lydia Ko is shedding tears after winning the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Photo by Yonhap News

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) held an executive board meeting online on the 9th (local time) to finalize the detailed events for the LA Olympics. A notable change is the addition of a mixed-gender category to golf, which previously had only two individual events for men and women. As a result, the number of gold medals in golf at the LA Olympics will increase from two to three.

Golf had not been played on the Olympic stage for 112 years until it was revived at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. It has since become a popular sport, having been contested three times including the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and last year's Paris Olympics. The International Golf Federation (IGF) has been steadily persuading the IOC to introduce a team event. Since the United States, the host country of the LA Olympics, is the world's strongest golf nation, it actively pushed for the establishment of the team event, which was ultimately successful.

The mixed team event is expected to feature two male and two female players per country competing over two days using foursomes (two players alternating shots with one ball) and fourballs (two players each playing their own ball, with the better score counting) formats to determine the rankings. The United States, with its strongest lineup, and South Korea, which has a well-balanced performance between male and female players, are expected to compete for the championship.

The golf competition at the LA Olympics will be held at Riviera Country Club, where the PGA Tour's Genesis Invitational takes place. At last year's Paris Olympics, Scottie Scheffler (USA) and Lydia Ko (New Zealand) won the men's and women's titles, respectively.

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