The connection between golf and the Olympics is growing as the sport prepares to be part of a third straight Summer Games next year in Paris.
One year from today, the first round of the 72-hole men’s competition gets underway at the Albatros course at Le Golf National (August 1-4), site of the 2018 Ryder Cup. The women’s tournament starts three days after the men’s event ends, from August 7-10, before the closing ceremony August 11.
Player interest in participating in the Olympics increased after the sport’s return to the competition took place in 2016 in Rio. Similarly, after the conclusion of the COVID-delayed Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, several high-profile players suggested the experience exceeded their expectations. Among them was Rory McIlroy
“I made some [earlier] comments before that were probably uneducated and impulsive,” McIlroy said. “But coming here experiencing it, seeing, feeling everything that goes on, not just Olympic golf but just the Olympics in general, that sort of Olympic spirit’s definitely bitten me and I’m excited how this week’s turned out and excited for the future.”
McIlroy was part of a seven-way playoff for the bronze medal, won by Taiwan’s CT Pan. “It makes me even more determined to go to Paris and try to pick one up,” McIlroy said. “It’s disappointing going away from here without any hardware, I’ve been saying all day I never tried so hard in my life to finish third.”
The trickiest part now is for the top men and women to figure out a way to fit preparation into their already packed tour schedules. The men’s Olympic competition will come less than two weeks after the conclusion of the Open Championship at Royal Troon. The women’s tournament will likely fall shortly after the Amundi Evian Championship, also in France, in July (officials dates have yet to be released), and the AIG Women’s Open at St. Andrews scheduled for late August.
Qualifying for the 2024 Olympics began in July 2022, with golfers accumulating points in an official Olympics Ranking that essentially mirrors the men’s and women’s World Rankings. That provides another wrinkle on the men’s side: With golfers competing in the LIV Golf League not accumulating OWGR points, they also aren’t earning Olympic Ranking points either, making it more challenging for them to qualify for their country’s teams. (The qualifying period runs through June 17, 2024 for the men and June 24, 2024 for the women.)
So who will be competing in Paris? To get a glimpse at the possible teams for 2024, we applied the qualification criteria to the most recent Olympic rankings (July 23) and produced the full 60-player fields for the men’s and women’s tournaments.
Here a little refresher for how Olympic qualification works. These same rules apply to the men’s and women’s tournaments.
• The total field is 60 players, with at least one spot held for a golfer from the host country (France) if one does not otherwise qualify.
• No country can have more than four golfers competing.
• All golfers ranked in the top 15 qualify, up to the four-golfer maximum for each country.
• After the top 15 in the ranking, golfers ranked 16th and lower will qualify with no more than two players from any one country eligible to compete.
On the men’s side, only the United States has more than two golfers among the top 15 of the rankings (the Americans have nine as of July 24). So the first four—Scottie Scheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele and Max Homa—would make the team, with the remaining players, Brian Harman, Wyndham Clark, Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Young, needing to improve their status if they want to be playing in Paris. Again the tricky part here for Koepka is that LIV golfers don’t receive OWGR points.
USA’s Xander Schauffele celebrates after winning the gold medal at Japan’s Kasumigaseki Country Club in August 2021. YOSHI IWAMOTO
On the women’s side, the US is in a similar spot with three players among the top 15 of the women’s rankings: Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu and Allisen Corpuz.
In the men’s tournament, 31 golfers who competed in Tokyo also would be eligible for Paris, including Schauffele, the gold-medal winner, and Pan. For the women, Korda would be defending her gold and Lydia Ko would be eligible to try to claim a third medal after winning silver in 2016 and bronze in 2021. Thirty-one women also would be playing in a second straight Olympics.
The last player into the men’s field at the moment would be Colombia’s Nico Echavarria, who ranks 330th in the World Ranking. The odd person who would be out is Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger, who is ranked 344th.
The last player in the women’s field would be Italy’s Alessandra Fanali, ranked 359th. The first alternate among the women would be Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines (373rd).
Mind you, there are still 12 months to go with plenty of time for player movement.
MEN OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS
Alternates are the next highest ranked golfers from their respective countries who would be ranked high enough overall to qualify. *—competed in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo
Argentina Emiliano Grillo Alejandro Tosti
Australia Cameron Smith* Jason Day Alternates: Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee, Cam Davis, Lucas Herbert
Austria Sepp Straka*
Belgium Thomas Pieters* Thomas Detry*
Canada Corey Conners* Nick Taylor Alternates: Adam Hadwin, Adam Svensson, Mackenzie Hughes
Chile Joaquin Niemann* Mito Pereira*
China Carl Yuan* Zecheng Dou
Chinese Taipei C.T. Pan* Kevin Yu
Colombia Sebastian Munoz* Nico Echavarria
Denmark Rasmus Hojgaard* Thorbjorn Olesen Alternate: Nicolai Hojgaard
Finland Sami Valimaki* Kalle Samooja*
France Victor Perez Romain Langasque* Alternate: Antoine Rozner, Julien Guerrier
Germany Yannik Paul Stephan Jaeger Alternate: Maximillian Kieffer
Great Britain Matt Fitzpatrick Tyrrell Hatton Alternates: Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Robert MacIntyre
India Anirban Lahiri* Shubhankar Sharma
Ireland Rory McIlroy* Shane Lowry* Alternate: Seamus Power
Italy Francesco Molinari Guido Migliozzi*
Japan Hideki Matsuyama* Takumi Kanaya Alternates: Kazuki Higa, Rikuya Hoshino
Malaysia Gavin Green*
Mexico Abraham Ancer*
Netherlands Joost Luiten
New Zealand Ryan Fox* Daniel Hiller
Norway Viktor Hovland* Kristian Johannessen*
Paraguay Fabrizio Zanotti*
Poland Adrian Meronk*
South Africa Thriston Lawrence Christiaan Bezuidenhout* Alternate: Dean Burmester
South Korea Tom Kim Sungjae Im* Alternates: Si Woo Kim, K.H. Lee, Byeong Hun An
Spain Jon Rahm Pablo Larrazabal Alternate: Adrian Otaegui
Sweden Alex Noren* Alexander Bjork Alternate: David Lingmerth
Thailand Sadom Kawekanjana Phachara Khongwatmai Alternate: Jazz Janewattananond
U.S. Scottie Scheffler Patrick Cantlay Xander Schauffele* Max Homa Alternates: Brian Harman, Wyndham Clark, Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka
Venezuela Jhonattan Vegas*
Zimbabwe Scott Vincent*
WOMEN OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS
Alternates are the next highest ranked golfers from their respective countries who would be ranked high enough overall to qualify. *—competed in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo
Argentina Magdalena Simmermacher*
Australia Minjee Lee* Hannah Green* Alternate: Grace Kim
Austria Christine Wolf* Sarah Schober Alternate: Emma Spitz
Belgium Manon De Roey*
Canada Brooke Henderson* Maude-Aimee Leblanc Alternate: Maddie Szeryk
China Ruoning Yin Xiyu Lin*
Chinese Taipai Wei-Ling Hsu Chia Yen Wu Alternate: Peiyun Chien
Czech Republic Klara Davidson Spilkova* Kristyna Napoleaova Alternate: Sara Kouskova
Denmark Nanna Koerstz Madsen* Emily Kristine Pedersen*
Ecuador Daniela Darquea*
Finland Matilda Castren* Ursula Wikstrom Alternate: Noora Komulainen
France Celine Boutier* Perrine Delacour* Alternate: Pauline Roussin
Germany Chiara Noja Caroline Masson* Alternate: Esther Henseleit
Great Britain Georgia Hall Charley Hull Alternates: Jodi Ewart Shadoff, Gemma Dryburgh
India Aditi Ashok* Diksha Dagar*
Ireland Leona Maguire* Stephanie Meadow
Italy Virginia Elena Carta Alessandra Fanali
Japan Ayaka Furue Nasa Hataoka* Alternates: Miyu Yamashita, Yuka Saso, Chisato Iwai, Akie Iwai
Malaysia Natasha Oon Kelly Tan*
Mexico Gaby Lopez* Maria Fassi*
Morocco Ines Laklalech
The Netherlands Anne van Dam* Dewi Weber
New Zealand Lydia Ko* Momoka Kobori
Norway Celine Borge
The Philippines Dottie Ardina
Slovenia Pia Babnik*
South Africa Ashleigh Buhai Paula Reto
South Korea Jin Young Ko* Hyo-Hoo Kim* Alternates: In Gee Chun, Ji Yai Shin, Min Ji Park, Hye Jin Choi
Spain Carlota Ciganda* Ana Pelaez
Sweden Linn Grant Anna Nordqvist Alternates: Madelene Sagstrom, Maja Stark
Switzerland Albane Valenzuela* Morgane Metraux
Thailand Atthaya Thitkil Ariya Jutanugarn* Alternates: Pajaree Anannarukarn, Patty Tavatanakit, Vongtaveelap Natthakritta, Moriya Jutanugarn
United States Nelly Korda* Lilia Vu Allisen Corpuz Alternates: Lexi Thompson, Danielle Kang, Jennifer Kupcho, Megan Khang
