First Click: Four storylines to follow at Olympics

The 2024 Paris Olympics have arrived, and, for just the fifth time in the event’s history, we have golf to watch. 

After making its debut at the Olympics in 1900, golf returned for one more event in 1904, with only the men competing before being put on the shelf for over 100 years. 

It wasn’t until 2016 that golf returned to arguably the world’s biggest stage. 

Justin Rose claimed gold on the men’s side, while Inbee Park won the first women’s gold medal since 1900. 

Five years later, Americans swept the week with Xander Schauffele and Nelly Korda winning gold in Tokyo. 

Schauffele and Korda will be part of the conversation once again this year and play a factor in two of my key storylines to follow over the next two weeks, so more on them later. 

Speaking of storylines, let’s get to those before ending the article with a few of my first clicks to find another longshot winner, just like we did at the PGA Championship with Schauffele first-round leader at +3100. 

First things first, let’s talk about our Canadians. 

Canadians in Paris  

While golf at the Olympics doesn’t have the deepest-rooted history, it also can’t be told without a Canadian. George Lyon won gold for Canada at the 1904 Summer Games in St. Louis. Back then, the format was different, with Lyon posting the eighth-best score in two rounds of stroke play before entering a match-play bracket. Lyon would cruise through the knockout stage and beat Chandler Egan to capture the nation's first and only medal at the Olympics in golf. 

This year, Nick Taylor and Corey Conners will represent Canada on the men’s side, and Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp will do the same on the women's side. 

Player of the Year 

It’s been the year of the ‘Sch’ on the men’s side of the sport, with Schauffele and Scottie Scheffler dominating 2024. Early in the year, it looked like Scheffler had already locked up Player of the Year by winning his second Green Jacket, his second Players Championship and four other PGA Tour events. But the second half of the year has been all Schauffele. Xander won the first major championship of his career in April by winning the PGA Championship, and he wasted no time getting his second by winning the Open Championship. With the majors in the rear-view mirror, I would still say Scheffler has had the better year and is more likely to win Player of the Year, but a gold medal from Schauffle this week might change that conversation. 

Korda defending gold 

Nobody had a better start to 2024 than Korda. The American won six of her first eight tournaments of the year, including the Evian Championship for the second major of her career. 

Korda’s winning ways came to a jarring stop at this year’s U.S. Open when she missed the cut due to an opening round 80 (+10) thanks mainly to making a 10 on a par 3. She enters this week having missed three of her last four cuts. 

However, Korda is also defending her gold medal from the 2020 Olympic Games (played in 2021) in Tokyo. 

Another gold medal would give her seven wins, one major and a gold medal in 2024 and would be, without a doubt, one of the better seasons we’ve seen from a woman in a long time. 

Le Golf National 

You can’t play a golf tournament without a course and we got a dandy of a track this year for the Olympics. 

The host of the 2018 Ryder Cup once again takes center stage this week as Le Golf National will host both the men’s and women’s events. 

Le Golf National hosts the French Open, the oldest national open in continental Europe, every year on the DP World Tour. 

Three players in this field - Tommy Fleetwood, Alex Noren and Guido Migliozzi - have won the French Open on this course. 

FIRST CLICK 

I’m not rushing to place any gold medal bets at the moment but one placement wager has caught my attention. 

I’ll take Jon Rahm -120 to finish inside the top 10 this week. 

Rahm has played at this course in two stroke play events finishing 10th in 2017 and 5th in 2018. He also was a member of that winning European Ryder Cup team in 2018 where he ended his week with a win in singles. 

The Spaniard has been a top 10 machine this year on the LIV Golf tour with 10 of them in 11 events and the lone event he didn’t was when he was forced to withdraw due to a foot injury. 

Rahm also tied for seventh at the Open Championship a few weeks ago. 

His game is in good shape, and now he gets to take on another small field at a course he’ll be comfortable at. Give me Rahm top 10 -120. 

What’s your first click this week? Let us know on X @TSN_Edge