Saturday, November 2, 2024

Olympic golf teams by country: Tracking the men’s field for Paris 2024, from Scottie Scheffler to Abraham Ancer | Sporting News Australia

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The U.S. Open will draw most of the fanfare in golf during June, but the end of the event will also mark a critical moment in the Olympic golf calendar.

The 60-player field for the 2024 Olympics will be set the Monday following the U.S. Open.

The United States is expected to have four players participate in the event, as Americans dominate the top 15 of the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Wyndham Clark seem locked into positions that would guarantee them a spot with the team, but the fourth one could change hands during the U.S. Open.

Meanwhile, other countries will be hoping just to qualify two players for the Olympics to take aim at a gold medal.

Here’s a look at how qualifying works for Olympic golf and who presently comprises the 60-player men’s field.

MORE: Ranking the top 30 golfers in the U.S. Open field, from Xander Schauffele to Tiger Woods

How to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in golf

A total of 120 golfers will participate in the 2024 Olympics — 60 in the men’s competition and 60 in the women’s. That’s the same number each had during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics — and countries will be limited to a maximum of four golfers in each field.

Two spots — one in the men’s field and one in the women’s — will be set aside for France, which is hosting the Olympic Games.

The Olympics uses the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) to help select the rest of its participants.

The top 15 players in the OWGR automatically qualify for the Olympics, though a maximum of four golfers per country can be selected from that group. For example, the United States has nine golfers currently in the top 15 of the OWGR, but the country will only take the four highest-ranking members of that group.

After selecting participants from the top 15, the Olympic committee looks at the golfers outside the top 15. Up to two players per country can be selected from this group — provided the country represented does not already have two or more golfers chosen for a squad.

For example, Tommy Fleetwood is presently inside the top 15 of the OWGR, so England will only be able to take one additional player with it to Paris. That would presently be 16th-ranked Matt Fitzpatrick while 20th-ranked Tyrrell Hatton would miss out.

That process can get a bit confusing, but the easiest way to remember this is that only the countries with three-plus golfers in the top 15 will be able to take more than two participants to Paris. As a result, the United States seems likely to be the only team with four golfers competing in the 60-person fields.

MORE: Who will win the U.S. Open in 2024?

Current Olympic golf rankings

Below is what the Olympic Golf Rankings (OGR) looked like ahead of the U.S. Open. That will be the final PGA Tour event before the field of 60 participants is decided.

OGR rank OWGR Golfer Country
1 1 Scottie Scheffler United States
2 2 Xander Schauffele United States
3 3 Rory McIlroy Ireland
4 4 Wyndham Clark United States
5 5 Viktor Hovland Norway
6 6 Ludvig Åberg Sweden
7 7 Collin Morikawa United States
8 8 Jon Rahm Spain
9 13 Tommy Fleetwood England
10 14 Matsuyama Hideki Japan
11 16 Matt Fitzpatrick England
12 18 Sepp Straka Austria
13 21 Jason Day Australia
14 22 Kim Joo-hyung (Tom Kim) South Korea
15 23 An Byeonghun South Korea
16 24 Matthieu Pavon France
17 32 Nick Taylor Canada
18 33 Shane Lowry Ireland
19 35 Adam Hadwin Canada
20 36 Min Woo Lee Australia
21 40 Christiaan Bezuidenhout South Africa
22 42 Nicolai Højgaard Denmark
23 44 Stephan Jäger Germany
24 52 Alex Noren Sweden
25 55 Thomas Detry Belgium
26 56 Emiliano Grillo Argentina
27 60 Ryan Fox New Zealand
28 67 Erik van Rooyen South Africa
29 71 Adrian Meronk Poland
30 78 Victor Perez France
31 81 Thorbjørn Olesen Denmark
32 83 Nakajima Keita Japan
33 98 Joaquín Niemann Chile
34 99 Sami Valimaki Finland
35 100 Alejandro Tosti Argentina
36 110 Kevin Yu Chinese Taipei
37 116 Jorge Campillo Spain
38 131 Matti Schmid Germany
39 136 C.T. Pan Chinese Taipei
40 143 Joost Luiten Netherlands
41 153 Carl Yuan China
42 175 Camilo Villegas Colombia
43 178 Matteo Manassero Italy
44 185 Adrien Dumont de Chassart Belgium
45 189 Daniel Hillier New Zealand
46 194 Guido Migliozzi Italy
47 196 Cristóbal Del Solar Chile
48 222 Shubshankar Sharma India
49 225 Rafael Campos Puerto Rico
50 234 Darius van Driel Netherlands
51 237 Carlos Ortiz Mexico
52 240 Kiradech Aphibarnrat Thailand
53 254 Gavin Green Malaysia
54 256 Gaganjeet Bhullar India
55 279 Phachara Khongwatmai Thailand
56 290 Nico Echevarría Colombia
57 303 Abraham Ancer Mexico
58 305 Kris Ventura Norway
59 326 Dou Zecheng China
60 328 Fabrizio Zanotti Paraguay

MORE: Latest injury update on Jon Rahm as golfer misses 2024 U.S. Open

Tracking the Olympic golf teams by country

Here is a country-by-country look at the 60 participants in the men’s field for golf at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Argentina (2)

  • Emiliano Grillo
  • Alejandro Tosti

Australia (2)

Austria (1)

Belgium (2)

  • Thomas Detry
  • Adrien Dumont du Chassart

Canada (2)

Chile (2)

  • Cristobel Del Solar
  • Joaquin Niemann

China (2)

Chinese Taipei (2)

Colombia (2)

  • Nico Echevarria
  • Camillo Villegas

Denmark (2)

  • Nicolai Hojgaard
  • Thorbjorn Olesen

England (2)

  • Matt Fitzpatrick
  • Tommy Fleetwood

Finland (1)

France (2)

  • Matthieu Pavon
  • Victor Perez

Germany (2)

  • Stephan Jaeger
  • Matti Schmid

India (2)

  • Gaganjeet Bhullar
  • Shubshankar Sharma

Ireland (2)

Italy (2)

  • Matteo Manassero
  • Guide Migliozzi

Japan (2)

  • Hideki Matsuyama
  • Keita Nakajima

Malaysia (1)

Mexico (2)

  • Abraham Ancer
  • Carlos Ortiz

Netherlands (2)

  • Darius van Driel
  • Joost Luiten

New Zealand (2)

Norway (2)

  • Viktor Hovland
  • Kris Ventura

Paraguay (1)

Poland (1)

Puerto Rico (1)

South Africa (2)

  • Christiaan Bezuidenhout
  • Erik Van Rooyen

South Korea (2)

Spain (2)

Sweden (2)

Thailand (2)

  • Kiradech Aphibarnrat
  • Phachara Khongwatmai

United States (4)

  • Wyndham Clark
  • Collin Morikawa
  • Xander Schauffele
  • Scottie Scheffler

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