Golf debuted in the Pan Am Games last week. The women’s and men’s individual competitions of the 2015 Toronto Games were anticipated to be a test-run for golf’s re-entry into the Olympic orbit in Brazil next year. Amateur and professional golfers from across the Americas gathered at Angus Glen in Markham, north of Toronto. Angus Glen had hosted the PGA Tour’s Canadian Open on two occasions, making it a viable venue for prime-time competition.

The Format

Thirty-one women from 17 countries and commonwealths were joined by 32 men from 19 countries and commonwealths in stroke-play competition. In addition to the 72-hole individual events, a unique, mixed-team event was held. The low female and male scores from each day were tallied, recognizing overall team medalists.

Governing organizations, as with next year’s Olympic Games, were allowed to send either amateur or professional players to the competition. The USA, recognizing an opportunity for development, offered up four of its top amateur golfers, whose four combined ages added up to 74 years! In contrast, countries like Argentina, Brasil, Colombia and Paraguay sent representative who ply their trade on the LPGA, European and PGA Latinoamerica tours.

The Major Players

A glance at the entry sheet would have suggested the following women as favorites in individual competition:

• Julieta Granada of Paraguay, a winner on the LPGA Tour
• Mariajo Uribe of Colombia, 2011 HSBC Brasil Cup champion
• Paola Moreno of Colombia, top 100 LPGA Tour player
• Kristen Gilman of USA, 2014 USGA Amateur champion

And the favorites on the men’s side:

• Felipe Aguilar of Chile, two-time winner, European Tour
• Adilson da Silva of Brasil, 12-time winner, South African PGA Tour
• Tommy Cocha of Argentina, three-time winner, PGA Tour Latinoamerica
• Marcelo Rozo of Colombia, two-time winner, PGA Tour Latinoamerica

The Major Intrigue

 

The most conspicuous entrant was missing. Brooke Henderson of the host country withdrew two weeks before the start of the competition. Henderson’s ultimate goal is to gain entry to the LPGA Tour as a full-fledged member. This is about as likely as me typing the next sentence. There, I did it. Henderson accepted a spot in the Symetra Tour’s Danielle Downey Classic in Rochester, N.Y., where a final-round charge brought her from 34th to sixth place. Curiously, Henderson attempted to Monday-Qualify for the LPGA Tour’s Marathon Classic this week. Despite her fifth-place finish at last week’s U.S. Open, she was not granted an exemption into this week’s tour event. Henderson missed qualifying for the Marathon by a stroke. Had she succeeded, Henderson would have had the ignominious distinction of jilting two suitors in the same week.

Henderson’s appearance at the Pan Am Games would have certainly resulted in a run at a medal. She is a long hitter and those were in rare demand last week at Angus Glen. The journey from her home town of Smiths Falls, Ontario, was about 10 minutes and one international crossing shorter than the one she made to Rochester for the Symetra Tour event. Henderson would have also relieved the burden of the mixed team event from Lorie Kane, who was forced to shoulder the responsibility of having her score count every day in the mixed team event.

Henderson was helped along the way in her amateur career by the national team of Golf Canada. No doubt she will play in Brazil next year at the Olympics, but what might she have meant to the attendance figures, the national pride, and the further legitimacy of the debut of golf at the Pan Am Games?

The Competition: Men

Alejandro Tosti of Argentina, a rising sophomore at the University of Florida, burst out from the gate with a seven-under 65, throwing down a golf-glove challenge to the field. Tosti wasn’t able to preserve his high level of play, as a seven-over 79 on Friday brought him back to earth. Tosti rebounded with rounds of 69 and 72 on the weekend to place seventh.

Throughout the week, European Tour veteran Felipe Aguilar demonstrated the greatest balance. Aguilar assumed the lead on Day 2 with a splendid 67, then preserved his spot at the top with a three-under 69 on Day 3. And yet, when push came to shove on Day 4, Aguilar was bumped from gold to bronze.

Argentine Tommy Cocha came on strong on Day 4. The platense posted five birdies against no bogies for the low round of the day, a 67. His effort brought him first to a playoff with Aguilar, then to the medal platform, where a silver amulet was draped around his neck.

Marcelo Rozo of Colombia was not the happiest of golfers after his second-round 76 on Friday. His elixir was to shave a mere 13 strokes off that tally, tying the competitive course record in the process. That 63 brought Rozo into the medal picture and the Colombian sealed the deal on Sunday with a four-under 68, good for a one-stroke victory over Cocha and Aguilar.

The Competition: Women

Similar, low-round fireworks were not seen from the ladies. Through the first three rounds, only four scores in the 60s were recorded, compared with 15 for the men.

Julieta Granada jumped out to a one-stroke lead on Thursday with a stellar 68. On her heels were 17-year old Andrea Lee of USA and Mariajo Uribe of Colombia, both one stroke in arrears. That threesome would control the attention the remainder of the week, although Marijosse Navarro of Mexico made a gallant effort to find a spot on the medal podium.

Lee had demonstrated the same unflappable equilibrium in the women’s competition as Aguilar had shown in the men’s. She was doomed to a similar Sunday fate, as she bogeyed two of the first three holes and never quite recovered to challenge Uribe. Lee was 4-over par on the day and in danger of tumbling to bronze, before a 16th-hole eagle sent her two strokes clear of Granada in the chase for the runner-up spot.

Granada birdied the first hole on Sunday, then posted 16 consecutive pars before a final-hole bogey dropped her to even on the day. To say that the Paraguayan’s putter wasn’t working would be an understatement. After her first-round 68, Granada was never able to capture the magic needed to make birdie runs and shoot up the leader board. Her bronze medal was well-earned, but no doubt came with a bit of frustration.

And then came Mariajo Uribe. Like Julieta Granada, she birdied the opening hole. Unlike her continental companion, however, Uribe made two more birdies on the outward nine and stood four-under on the day through 15 holes. Uribe traded a bogey on 16 for a birdie on 17, closed with a par and ascended the top step of the podium by a pair of shots over Andrea Lee.

The Takeaway

Golf’s return to the Olympic stage was made official in 2009, when it and Rugby were voted in for 2016 over five other sports: baseball, karate, roller sports, softball and squash. The vote wasn’t exactly transparent, according to International Olympic Committee member Richard Pound, and not all of golf’s major talent is supportive, but the vote was accepted and golf was back. For Rio 2016, the mixed team competition will be eliminated, and the women and men will compete over 72 holes of stroke play for gold, silver and bronze medals. All ties for medals will be resolved via playoff.

The faces of the competitors will likely be very different in Rio in 2016. The USA will doubtless send its best female and male professional pairs, as will Canada and many other countries. Still, the notion of the amateur element from the Pan Am Games will be alive and well on the Olympic fairways.