The sport of golf was welcomed back to the Olympics this week at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games with a few prevalent stars having hit the course in Japan. It's been an exciting competition thus far, even through the weather setbacks during the first two days, but the tournament has now nearly reached its conclusion.
As we get set for Round 4 at Kasumigaseki Country Club, a crowded leaderboard should lead to a finish to remember as we get set to hand out some medals. Xander Schauffele, representing the United States, holds the solo lead at 14 under. Right behind, though, is 2021 Masters winner Hideki Matsuyama one stroke back at 13 under followed by Carlos Ortiz and Paul Casey at 12 under.
All times Eastern
2020 Tokyo Olympics golf schedule
Round 4 -- Saturday
Round starts: 6:30 p.m.
Live TV coverage: 6:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. on Golf Channel
Live stream online: 6:30 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. on fuboTV (Try for free) and NBCOlympics.com
Olympic golf format
The format for this year's golf competition is the same as it was at the 2016 Rio Olympics when Justin Rose went on to win the gold medal. The 60 competitors will play four days of stroke play. This is a big switch from how golf looked in the Olympics 120 years ago. In the last competition before golf took a century-long hiatus, golfers had to play 36 holes of qualifying stroke play and five matches that were 36 holes each. The 1904 champion, George Lyon of Canada, played 197 holes over the course of six days.
This year won't be as much of a grind, but it will be a ton of fun to see the best in the world in a situation we don't normally see them in. The closest professional golf gets to playing for country throughout the normal rhythms of a season is the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup. Throw in some huge names who were absent in Rio, and this should be a fantastic event as a great summer of golf starts to come to a close.
Here's how you can watch and follow along for all four days. Note that though the event starts on Thursday in Japan, that's actually Wednesday evening in the United States. It will conclude extremely early on Sunday morning.
