Mixed-team golf approved for Olympics, event will debut at 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles

Ever since golf made its return to the Olympics stage at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, fans have been hoping to see some form of team golf added to the individual event for the men and women. 

Those hoping for a team element got some welcome news on Tuesday, as the International Golf Federation announced the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles will feature a mixed-team event where top men and women golfer from the same country will compete together for a gold medal. 

This should be a very cool event, and we've seen an increase in mixed-team golf of late with the Grant Thornton Invitational pairing up top stars from the men's and women's game as part of the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour's fall schedule. As the graphic announcing the introduction of the mixed-team event shows, there are some very intriguing pairings from beyond whomever makes up the U.S. team (or, one would expect, teams — plural). 

They show Sweden's Ludvig Åberg and Linn Grant, Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Leona Maguire and Great Britain's Tommy Fleetwood and Charley Hull. Other intriguing potential pairings include Australia with Jason Day and Lydia Ko, Canada with Corey Conners and Brooke Henderson and the United States squad which could send out a pairing of the world No. 1s in Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda to go after the gold medal on home soil. 

Players from around the world will be jockeying for positions on their country's Olympic golf teams over the next three years, and now there is a second event for players to compete in who make the trip to Los Angeles in 2028.