A men's individual tournament was planned for the 1908 London Games, but an internal dispute amongst British golfers led to them boycotting the event, leaving 1904 gold medallist George Lyon as the only competitor.[9] Offered the gold medal by default, Lyon refused to accept it.[9] Present day, the Olympic golf tournaments only consists of a men's individual stroke play and women's individual stroke play. There has been calls for the IGF and the IOC to consider adding a match play tournament or to open up the Olympic tournament to more golfers by using a different qualifying system than the World Golf Ranking.[10]
22 golfers competed in 1900. The 1904 tournament featured 77 golfers. Albert Lambert was the only golfer who competed both times; a total of 98 different golfers competed throughout the brief history of Olympic golf before it was brought back in 2016.[citation needed]