How many holes are there in Olympic golf? Explaining Aditi Ashok's Olympic event

Aditi Ashok is on the verge of creating history for India at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The Indian golfer has grabbed the headlines with her excellent performances.

Going into the final day, Aditi was tied for second place, aiming to win India's first Olympic silverware in golf. She has made an impressive start on Day 4 when the final round (Rd. 4) is being played. Aditi has been hovering in and around the podium places and, at the time of writing this article, she is tied in second place.

For many Indian Olympic fans, the concept of golf and its rules are slightly more alien than a few other sports. Here is a basic understanding of what is expected in Olympic golf and what are the rules involved.

Rules explained for golf in Olympics

For starters, a total of 72 holes are played over at the Olympics. The game lasts for 4 days, with 18 holes coming into contention each day.

Depending on the difficulty of the hole, a certain number of strokes are allotted - 3,4,5 - to find the hole. Golfers who can find holes in lesser strokes are doing better (birdie for one less, eagle for two less). On the other hand, if they take more strokes, they are doing worse (bogey for one extra, double bogey for two).

A player is on par if they manage to find the hole in the exact number of strokes assigned for it. The par has been kept at 71 for 18 holes of each round for the Tokyo Olympics.

At the time of writing, Ashok is currently at -13 (calculating all 4 rounds together). She is tied with Emily Kristine Pedersen of Denmark, Mone Inami of Japan and Lydia Ko of New Zealand.

Nelly Korda of the United States holds the lead with only a few more holes left to play in the final round.