LPGA star Lewis would advocate for team portion to Olympic golf

Stacy Lewis prepares for the women's Olympic golf tournament. (Getty Images) — Stacy Lewis prepares for the women’s Olympic golf tournament. (Getty Images)

One of the drags on golf’s return to the Olympics — at least within golf circles — was the format of the two 60-player tournaments that would unfold in Rio.

Yet another 72-hole, stroke-play, no-cut event? Don’t we have enough of those?

Many in golf wanted a match-play tournament. Others didn’t mind competing in stroke play, so long as there was some kind of team format that encouraged countrymen and women to band together for the common cause of an Olympic medal.

Count Stacy Lewis as one of those people who would like to see a team competition when golf gets it second modern crack in the Olympic program in 2020.

“I would like to see a team aspect, maybe a two-person team score, not necessarily a match play format,” Lewis said Tuesday. “It would be fun to stand on the podium by yourself, but it definitely would be fun to stand up there with someone else.”

For what it’s worth, men’s gold medalist Justin Rose and his Great Britain teammate Danny Willett would have won a hypothetical two-man combined competition by a shot over the Spanish duo of Sergio Garcia and Rafa Cabrera-Bello.

The International Golf Federation, which represents golf with the International Olympic Committee, said last week it will look into potential changes for Tokyo.

“It’s a difficult one,” IGF president Peter Dawson told Golf Channel. “Really, the IOC want the Olympic champions to be champions in a mainstream sport, not in some format that the sport otherwise never uses.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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