Hannah Green and Minjee Lee are Australia’s best chance at gold since golf returned to the Olympics roster in Rio.

That’s according to Australian golfing legend and 2006 US Open champion Geoff Ogilvy.

Green has won two LPGA events this year, the last of which coming in the LA Championship in April.

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Lee on the other hand has battled a little in 2024. She hasn’t won since October, and hasn’t so much as had a top-five since March. In that time she’s missed four cuts, including three straight in a difficult stretch between March and April.

Ogilvy, a Stan Sport expert commentator, admitted Lee had gone off the boil, despite still being ranked 12th in the world.

“But golf is a funny game … I mean you make one small swing change and all of a sudden it feels good and you play well for the next two months,” he told Wide World of Sports ahead of the women’s draw beginning on Wednesday afternoon.

“She’s clearly capable – they’re both clearly capable – and when they get in the mix those two they usually hang around.”

Lee’s brother Min Woo finished in a tie for 22nd in the men’s competition. Ogilvy has called for a shake-up of the sport’s format at the Olympics that would potentially allow the pair to play together.

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As in Rio and Tokyo – and nearly every other professional golf tournament the world over – the gold medals in the men’s and women’s events will be decided by four-round 72-hole stroke play. The top three on the leaderboard get a medal.

Organisers of the LA Games are reportedly planning to introduce a teams element to golf, but the exact details remain unclear.

Ogilvy acknowledged 72-hole stroke was golf’s “gold standard” format, but the popularity of the two major exceptions – the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup – proves there is an appetite for teams-based golf.

“When golf got into the Olympics, there was a little bit of disappointment, and people were saying ‘this is a missed opportunity, we could have done something more interesting’,” he said.

“Team stuff really captures people’s imagination, and the Olympics is a very team-based event all around.”

One potential format switch Ogilvy floated was holding the traditional 72-hole stroke event for both men and women, with the top finishers then qualifying for a team mixed matchplay event.

“You could have Hannah (Green) and Jason (Day) playing against Nelly Korda and Scott Scheffler or something – that would be amazing.”

It would also give the Lee siblings a chance to play together.

Both the Presidents and Ryder Cup use a similar team matchplay format, with the first two days’ play made up of two-player foursomes (alternate shot) and fourballs (each player plays their own ball, lowest score of the two is recorded), and then singles on the final day.

Adding weight to the teams event argument was the success of the inaugural Grant Thornton Invitational, a mixed gender event that was won by Day and Kiwi Lydia Ko.

The Grant Thornton’s format is an ambrose on the first day, foursomes on the second, and then a modified fourball on the final day.

Both Lee siblings have expressed an interest in playing in the event together, although Minjee held reservations about the inclusion of such a format in the Olympics.

An expansion of the format would also give golfers more of a chance to win a medal. Sixty players in each field will be competing for just the single gold.

Swimming and athletics are among the numerous sports where athletes can compete for multiple golds in different disciplines or classes.

“It’s a bit like the cycling road race – you get 60 or 70 riders, they all start a road race and one gets to win a medal. You might feel a bit short changed,” he said.

“Golf is a little bit the same. You could have your individual chance, and then a little team knock out matchplay thing straight off the back of it.

“I think it’d be really cool.”

Geoff Ogilvy will appear as a golf expert on Stan Sport’s Olympics Daily and Paris Preview shows throughout the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.