Can you play the Olympic golf courses?

Features

Matt Cooper
August 3, 2024

It’s a big week for golf.

After some mixed messages for the sport’s re-introduction to the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016 and the Covid-muted celebrations in Tokyo in 2020 (2021), the Paris Games feel like an opportunity for golf to finally fall in love with the greatest festival of sport.

But can you actually play the Olympic courses yourselves?

Simple answer: yes. It wouldn’t be straightforward in the case of Rio and Tokyo, but Paris is a real possibility.

Rio 2016

Remember how often, even during the matches themselves, there would be downbeat rumours of the future of Ryder Cup-hosting courses?

At Celtic Manor in 2010 there did not appear to be a single person on the property not in possession of some titillating story or another: the course would be sold, houses would be built on it, the resort would be closed down, etc. etc.

Much the same was said of Rio’s Olympic Golf Course which was especially built for the game’s re-introduction to the Olympics eight years ago.

But, as with Celtic Manor, the tittle-tattle was nonsense.

Good news for Brazil and good news, too, for the sport because the layout was created by Gil Hanse who has also designed Castle Stuart (some time host of the Scottish Open) and the well-respected Streamsong in Florida; he also redesigned major championship hosts Baltusrol, Oakmont, Oakland Hills, Southern Hills, Brookline and Winged Foot.

A flat course, it has links-like sweeping fairways including an Old Course inspired Valley of Sin. Inbee Park and an Olympic energy-fuelled Justin Rose won gold there.

Playing the course is not cheap – about £100 for international visitors and half that for locals – but you’d be following in the footsteps of Park, Rose and silver medallists Lydia Ko and Henrik Stenson.

https://rioogc.com.br/

Tokyo 2020

The Tokyo Olympics, of course, were delayed and took place in the summer of 2021, amid very quiet scenes because no fans were permitted on the site (or indeed any Olympic sites that year).

Unlike in Rio the host course had a long history being the 80-year-old Kasumigaseki Country Club set among the Musashino Hills in Kawagoe City.

The venue was a nod to Hideki Matsuyama who earlier in 2021 had won Japan’s first-ever men’s major championship at the Masters and had won two significant events at Kasumigaseki – the 2009 Japan Junior Championship and 2010 Asia Pacific Amateur Championship.

Alas, he missed out on a bronze medal in a seven-man play-off.

When the course hosted the 1957 Canada Cup (essentially the World Cup) bales of straw protected the greens every night but thsre days it has state of the art conditioning.

It does, however, have a gnarly grass that grows in different directions so straight hitting is required.

The famed British architect CH Alison re-designed the original layout and made a point of creating difficult bunkers.

One down point: when Tom Fazio redesigned the course for the Olympics he ended the quirky Japanese trend for two greens on each hole. This was intended to allow year-round golf but, again, modern greenkeeping can cope with variable weather and Fazio ended the tradition as a consequence.

You can play the course but it will prove tricky. The club can be contacted by email and that is the best idea unless you have a Japanese-speaking acquaintance who could help you use a tee time booking site. Expect to pay at least £150 and for the round to be an all-day experience.

https://www.kasumigasekicc.or.jp/english/index.html

Paris 2024

The championship course at Golf National has always been popular with European and DP World Tour players, being a modern venue but one with enormous playability and significant threat down the back nine.

When it hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup that reputation only rose to greater heights.

The course was still superb for the players, but the stadium elements of the layout proved superb for spectators who thronged the banks that surround tees, fairways and greens.

There is a links-like factor on the course, with bouncy turf and sweeping shaping to the fairways, but it is also very contemporary with so much danger associated with water.

The opening tee shot has to skirt a lake, the approach shot has to cross that water, as does the tee shot at the par-3 second.

The closing four holes are much the same: 15 has water on the tee shot and approach, the short 16 requires a carry over a lake with the tee shot, and, after a break from water at 17, there is more threat of a splash with the tee shot and approach at 18.

If you play, pack plenty of ammo – you might need it.

As it currently stands, you’ll be paying about £180 for the chance to follow in the footsteps of Ryder Cup and Olympic legends. But look out for special offers and packages.

https://booking.golf-national.com/