Golf’s Shambolic History in the Olympics

The women’s first (and last) golf event was held over nine holes the following day, with 10 participants. The winner was another American, the tall (5’11”) art student Margaret “Peggy” Abbott, who scored 47 to become the first American woman to win an Olympic gold in any sport. Her mother Mary, who had brought her to Paris to study, came eighth. Abbott led an American 1-2-3 with Pauline Whittier and Daria Platt filling the minor places. Unfortunately, record keeping was shambolic and Peggy died in 1955 unaware that the golf contest she had entered for a lark had been an Olympic event, or indeed of her own place in Olympic history.
It is little known that the following day there was a third event, a men’s handicap. This was won by Albert Lambert, but it wasn’t deemed to be of Olympic standard. What makes it more interesting is that the very wealthy Lambert was from St Louis, and was responsible for getting the Olympics to his home city and for arranging golf’s second (and so far final) Olympic appearance four years later.
Not that the 1904 Games was especially memorable. That year, St Louis was also hosting the World’s Fair and the Olympics – by far the biggest showcase in world sports today – was treated as a mere sideshow. In the golf events, which were played at the newly-built Glen Echo Golf Club, the women’s tournament was scrapped altogether and replaced by a men’s team event, while the format for the individual competition was re-jigged and consisted of two rounds of stroke play followed by match play knockout.