Women's Olympic Golf Is Here: First Round This And That

They've been all in from the beginning. Player enthusiasm, a Commissioner who cleared the schedule and an intense desire from some nations to establish themselves through Olympic golf brings a potentially fun mix to the women's competition.

Olympic Broadcast Services has the action all day--glorious weather to start, so glorious the smells have even subsided--so check your local listings. In the U.S., Golf Channel will be on for nearly nine hours, starting with the opening 7:30 am (6:30 am ET) tee shot by Brazil's Miriam Nagl. According to this unbylined IGF story, she's proud to follow in the foosteps of Adilson da Silva, who gave such an inspired performance for the host country.

Not surprisingly, Lydia Ko is excited about playing for Olympic gold this week. With her ball striking and scrambling ability, she's an obvious favorite. Steve DiMeglio of USA Today on Ko's Monday media chat.

“I love my sleep and I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten up at 7 a.m. to watch someone else play,” Ko said about her alarm going off Sunday so she could go to the golf course and watch Team New Zealand’s duo of Danny Lee and Ryan Fox in the final round of the men’s tournament.

Inbee Park, the top ranked Korean and only Hall of Famer in the field, sounds more and more like her playing days are finished. Will this be her last start in a significant event? She wasn't saying, but she also made clear what her priorities are, as I file for GolfDigest.com.

The American contingent gave a great impression in their pre-Olympic press conference, and Bob Harig details the thoughts of Stacey Lewis, Lexi Thompson and Gerina Piller coming into the competition. (All three felt good about the course, Rio and the chance to go to the Closing Ceremony Sunday.)

Lexi Thompson's dad Scott is on her bag this week, Rex Hoggard reports.

Bill Plaschke notes that these games have been dominated by the American women, which would bode well for golf if golf ever made sense.

Jay Coffin on the room LPGA Tour officials made for the Olympics, with this nice zinger from Commish Mike Whan.

“I have a difficult time looking at somebody who is 25th on the money list and say ‘great job at the Olympics but now you’re 29th on the money list,’” Whan said. “That didn’t seem like it was going to play for us.”

Will there be another gold for Britain? Catriona Matthew and Charley Hull are strong medal contenders and are inspired by Justin Rose's win.

7 things you need to know about the competition from Golf Digest.

Your leaderboard watching can be done here.

Here is an IGF overview of the tee times.

And the groupings along with other info at the official Rio website.