Antony Scanlon: IGF executive director talks love of golf, guiding golf’s Olympic return and ‘fairy dust’ that brings it together

It was a sunny day in February and Antony Scanlon was on a beach in Mexico, celebrating his wife’s birthday, when the phone rang.

The 2010 XXI Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, had ended four days earlier. A colleague was calling to ask if Scanlon knew anyone who was interested in becoming the executive director of the International Golf Federation.

Scanlon’s wife thought her husband’s friend might have had a different motivation, though.

“She said to me, ‘Are you sure he is not asking if you are interested in the job?’” Scanlon recalled. “And I went, ‘Well, maybe.’ Then I thought about it, had another beer and then rang him back and said, ‘What if I said, me?’ He said, ‘Well, yeah, that'd be cool.’”

Scanlon had an extensive background Olympic background after serving on the organizing committees for the Games in Sydney, Salt Lake City and Athens. He had been working for the International Olympic Committee as head of coordination, operations and services since 2004.

About four months before Scanlon took that call on the beach in Mexico, the IOC had announced that golf was being reinstated as an Olympic sport. The game’s return was slated for 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, and the IGF would be the worldwide governing body.

Not surprisingly, the hunt for the executive director was exhaustive, with IGF officials interviewing around 70 candidates. When Scanlon was announced as the executive director in November of 2010, he came full circle to those days when he was a kid and used to visit his uncle, who was a club pro in New South Wales, just south of Sydney.

“Some of my fondest holidays were going down to stay with he and my aunt and help out in the pro shop,” Scanlon recalled. “We’d hit golf balls when he … wasn't giving lessons. I was never any good, but I just had that love of the game.”

That love has served him well at the IGF. Guiding golf’s return to the Olympic Games and ensuring its continued success has not been without its challenges. Scanlon is also shepherding the potential addition of a mixed team competition for 2028, when the Games are played at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.

The 2016 Games in Brazil marked the first time in 112 years that Olympic medals had been awarded in golf. A championship-caliber golf course had to be built from scratch, designed by noted architect Gil Hanse. That simply named Olympic Golf Course is now open to the public.

In addition, the 2016 Olympic Games were conducted under the specter of the Zika virus that kept several top golfers, as well as athletes in other sports, away. And the 2020 Games in Tokyo were actually delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic that necessitated stringent testing protocols while the competition was held without spectators.

Thankfully, next month’s Olympic Games feature a return to normalcy. The men’s competition will be held Aug. 1-4 at Le Golf National, which is about 15 minutes from the Palace of Versailles, while the women will play a week later. Both fields feature 60 golfers.

Le Golf National has a long history of top-caliber competition that includes being the venue for the FedEx Open de France on the DP World Tour all but two years since 1991. The Albatross course has also hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup and the 2022 World Amateur Team Championships.

“I think one of the fun parts, and this will be my 13th Games I've been involved in, so whether that's lucky or unlucky, I don’t know, but I'm confident it’s going to be lucky,” Scanlon said. “… But this one, we're at a course that we're not building. That's a great thing. We're in a culture that has strong roots to golf, and we've got a great federation in the French Golf Federation who own the course and are really supportive. That helps fulfill some of the roles that we need at the venue.

“So, it is easier, but all the complexity that comes with the multi-sports Games are still there. And we charter those waters. Some are smooth and some are choppy. And in the end, as long as it looks great on TV and the millions and billions out there that will watch it, see our best players performing well, scoring birdies, showing emotion for their country rather than just for themselves as an individual, I'll be happy.”

Scanlon works closely with officials at 22 professional organizations, including the PGA TOUR, DP World Tour, LPGA and Ladies European Tour, as well as 152 national amateur golf bodies. While he admits that’s a “lot of cats to herd,” the shared goal is important to grow the game and enables the various National Olympic Committees to get resources and funding.

“So again, it's the fairy dust – the Olympics – holding us together,” Scanlon says.

England’s Justin Rose won the first gold medal after golf’s return in Rio, while Californian Xander Schauffele won in Tokyo. The women’s gold went to South Korea’s Inbee Park in 2016, and Nelly Korda of the United States captured top honors in 2022.

One of the undisputable highlights in Tokyo was a seven-way playoff for the bronze medal, won by C.T. Pan of Chinese Taipei. Another of the participants, former world No. 1 Rory McIlroy of Team Ireland, said at the time that he had never tried so hard to finish third.

“Our medalists have been fantastic ambassadors,” Scanlon said. “They take (their medals) everywhere. … I had one of the players that competed in Tokyo just prior to Tokyo say to me, ‘I just want to play in the Games.’ I said, ‘Well, that's great. Why?’ He said, ‘Well, I played with Justin Rose a lot, and if you win a major … they just say you're the major champion for those 12 months.’ But he said at that time, it was about three years into it (and), ‘The last three years, I've just heard every time: Justin Rose, Olympic champion. I think it's pretty cool. I want that’. …

“That's the other thing. Once you're Olympian, you are always Olympian. There's no such thing as a former Olympian. So, I think so far we've had, what, about 180 (golf) Olympians? So, it's a pretty special club.”

And don’t forget the fairy dust.