Daily Fantasy Golf Course Primer: The Olympics

After a longer wait than expected, we’re all set for men's and women's Olympic golf at Kasumigaseki Country Club.

But overall, the five-year wait since 2016 doesn’t really rival the delay between 1904 and 2016 when golf wasn’t an Olympic sport, so we can’t really compare the two.

What should we know about Kasumigaseki Country Club and how it might play for those representing their countries?

Kasumigaseki Country Club (East) Course Information

Par: 71
Distance: 7,466
Average Green Size: 7,800 square feet
Green Type: Bentgrass
Stimpmeter: 12

Kasumigaseki’s East course has been around for more than 100 years, and a 2016 Tom Fazio redesign added more than 400 yards to the layout.

We were initially looking at Velcro-like greens from early reports, but the Stimpmeter is up to 12, which doesn't really require any specific deviation from usual.

There are some concerns that the fairways are too wide, so we should expect the rough to be grown higher and tighter, but that generally leads to an emphasis on driving distance.

Kasumigaseki Hole-by-Hole Breakdown

There are a lot of short par 4s on this course, including four that are under 400 yards, but there are plenty of long holes to make up for it.

Seven holes in total are at least 109% longer than the median holes of the same par on the PGA Tour. That list includes two long par 3s (217 and 237 yards), three long par 4s (499, 500, and 521 yards), and two long par 5s (632 and 640 yards).

Given that and that the course overall is around 200 yards longer than the average par 71 on the PGA Tour, we can look to driving distance to some degree.

Courses Similar to Kasumigaseki Country Club

Some other courses that can be categorized as average-to-long tracks with bentgrass greens that require distance over accuracy include:

- Torrey Pines (North) (Farmers Insurance Open)
- Augusta National (The Masters)
- TPC Summerlin (Shriners Hospitals for Children Open)
- TPC Boston (THE NORTHERN TRUST)

This is a very rudimentary look at possible comparable courses, but these do have some overlapping characteristics with Kasumigaseki. Finding a true comp looks to be difficult.

Key Stats for the Olympic Men's Golf Competition at Kasumigaseki Country Club

- Strokes Gained: Approach
- Driving Distance
- Birdie or Better Rate
- Strokes Gained: Putting on Bentgrass
- Strokes Gained: Around the Green

While we don’t have a ton of information to go off of for how the course will play, we do know two things for sure: there’s no cut, and there are only 60 golfers.

While that does mean that golfers can definitely lag behind and fall way off course of the lead, birdies are more valuable than bogeys are hurtful. It’s better to chase up-and-down scorers than simply par-makers.

Also, with 60 golfers, the odds of ensuring scoring bonuses are increased, so we can easily cut off the bottom of the field and still rack up some extra points.

But the hole-by-hole overview does indicate that distance will matter on some holes, so it’s a key stat for me for sure this week.