Golf is welcomed back to the Olympic stage for the third consecutive time this summer at Le Golf National just outside of Paris. The Olympic golf competition will be contested over four rounds of stroke play on both the men's and women's sides.
If two or more players finish atop the leaderboard with the same score after four rounds, those players will play an additional "playoff" hole to break the tie.
If after the first playoff hole two or more players remain tied, a second playoff hole will be contested, and so on, until a champion is crowned.
Unique to golf at the Olympics, however, is that ties must be broken not just to determine a winner, but also - if necessary - to determine the silver and/or bronze medallists.
If player X finishes in the gold-medal position with a score of 12-under, but players Y and Z finish tied for second at 11-under, players Y and Z will compete in a playoff to determine who takes silver and who takes bronze.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Chinese Tapei's C.T. Pan snagged the bronze medal in a seven-man playoff — which included Rory McIlroy — over four holes.
For the Paris Games, the first play-off hole is the 18th and, should that not determine a winner, players then move to the 16th and then the 17th.
Should there be multiple ties for bronze, the winner of the medal would be determined by playing the 17th, then the 18th and onto the 16th.
