The 2020 golf program was identical to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro program, when golf had returned to the Olympics after an absence of 112 years. There were 72-hole stroke play tournaments in Tokyo for both men and women, with 60 competitors in each tournament. Countries were allowed up to 4 players per NOC, as long as all 4 were in the top 15 in the World Rankings, although only the United States, for both men and women, and the Korean women, were able to qualify 4. Other nations could have up to 2 competitors per NOC, with wildcard entries allowed for continental participation.
The tournament was played at the East Course of the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan, a part of the Greater Tokyo area. Probably the best known course in Japan, Kasumigaseki had hosted multiple national championship events, but was most famed as the host of the 1957 Canada Cup (now the World Cup), the event contested by 2-man national professional teams. The event sparked interest in golf in Japan when it was won by the home nation twosome of Torakichi Nakamura and Koichi Ono, who defeated the American favorites, Jimmy Demaret and Sam Snead.