Sure, there are some things to second-guess about Olympic golf, in terms of format especially, but there is no reason to second-guess the return of golf. Personally, I’d have rather seen best-ball, match play instead of 72 holes of stroke play. I have two reasons for this. First, we see 72 holes of stroke play virtually every week on a multitude of pro tours around the world. Having something different would have been a good thing. Second, best-ball match play would increase the number of top players in the event and bring the national element into the competition. Instead of 60 players each for the men and women we could have had 64 teams for each—128 players in each competition. That means players like Rolex Women’s World Rankings No. 10 Ha Na Jang of South Korea would not have been left out simply because her country had already reached the maximum four players. Up the maximum per country to eight.

As for the national element, imagine a best-ball match with Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler, for example, against the Aussie duo of Adam Scott and Jason Day, both of whom chose to sit out this Olympics. Or Lexi Thompson and Stacy Lewis going against Inbee Park (who won the women’s gold in a fantastic, dominant performance) and Sei Young Kim of South Korea.

The men who chose not to go to Rio (nearly 20 of them) have come under a lot of criticism but I’m willing to give them all a pass—except McIlroy. I think these defections were Brazil-specific for safety reasons. If this had been London in 2012 or Tokyo in 2020 all those big names would have been there. It was bad luck: Brazil is a very different country now than it was in 2009, when it was awarded the Olympics. The political and economic collapse happened since then has made dealing with the environmental challenges virtually impossible. As for the Zika virus, no one saw that coming in 2009.

People asked why women did not defect from the Olympics in anywhere near the numbers as the men—especially since Zika is more of a threat to women of child-bearing age. My answer it this: The women’s game does not get the same exposure as the men, and so, honestly, they are not as spoiled by money and attention as the men. This was a chance for them to perform on a global stage, and they knew it, and relished the opportunity.

When Rio 2016 is even further in the rearview, the return of golf to the Olympics will be deemed a smashing success. It already feels that way.

Next year, the International Olympic Committee votes on whether to expand golf beyond 2020. I’m guessing they will.

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Ron Sirak is a senior writer at Golf Digest and frequent television guest on NBC’s Golf Channel. Follow him on Twitter @ronsirak. Sirak and Yahoo Finance’s Daniel Roberts both participated in a Golf Channel panel in March about Donald Trump’s role in golf.