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Paris Olympic Games, 2024 — The Tournament After the "Nazi Olympics", 1936

Albatros Course, Le Golf National, Guyancourt, France

Dear Subscriber:

Could the men’s competition at the Paris Olympic Games have been more compelling? One stroke separating each medal winner from the one below or above him, all decided on the final green, and three countries from three continents represented on the podium. It was satisfying to watch the intensity of the professional players’ efforts for the simple reward of the medals — the most unique awards in golf competition.

Tommy Fleetwood, Scottie Scheffler, Hideki Matsuyama

For 56 holes Xander Schauffele held or shared the lead; Jon Rahm lead for the next five (having played the final out nine in 31 blows) before imploding with 39 on the way home.

Scottie Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood played steadily until tying for the lead (-19) at the 71st and 70th respectively. Mr. Fleetwood’s bogey at his 71st gave Mr. Scheffler the solo lead, and pars for both men at the last completed the competition. Mr. Scheffler posted 62 (9 birdies and 9 pars) on Sunday; Mr. Fleetwood 66.

Hideki Matsuyama led the first round, tied for 2nd after the second, and slipped to 4th place after the third. His steady 65 in the final round put him one shot behind Mr. Fleetwood to win the bronze medal (-17).

The 112-year suspension of golf as an Olympic sport (from 1904 until 2016) was clearly refuted by the competition at Le Golf National.

Eighty-eight years before the resumption of golf in the Olympics, the Third Reich hosted a little known post-Olympic golf tournament in an attempt to establish the dominance of German players. The following is an account of those two remarkable tournament days.

Ten days following the close of the 1936 Olympic Games

in Berlin—the Nazi Olympics as they are often referred to—and three years before the declaration of war between Great Britain and Germany, the Third Reich hosted an international golf tournament in Baden-Baden the results of which were exhilarating for the British and notably mortifying for Adolf Hitler.

Some years ago, a particularly knowledgeable English subscriber wrote to inform us, at The Golf Letter, that golf was also a quasi part of the 1936 Olympics. Golf had officially been dropped from the Olympic events so Mr. Hitler & Co. organized a tournament in Germany close enough to the playing of the Olympic Games that it might