Overview

Golf is one of the oldest existing codified sports. The competition formats and rules date from the second half of the 18th century, and have hardly changed since. At the end of the 19th century, the first women’s tournaments were established. The first golf course was constructed in England in 1864.

Golf was re-introduced to the Olympic programme at the Rio 2016 Games, after over a 100 year absence. Golf had featured in the Olympics Games just two times before that – in 1900 and 1904.

In both the men’s and women’s event, the top 15 world-ranked players are eligible for the Olympic Games, regardless of the number of players from a given country. Beyond the top 15, players are eligible based on world ranking, with a maximum of two available players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top 15 to a maximum number of 60 players in total in the competition.

Qatar has hosted the annual Commercial Bank Qatar Masters competition every year since 1998 at Doha Golf Club. It is one of three European Tour golf tournaments that are hosted in the GCC.