Olympic Golf Qualifying Complete; Justin Thomas to Lead Four-Man American Contingent
Jon Rahm, the new U.S. Open champion and No. 1 player in the world, will lead Spain in the men’s Olympic golf competition July 29-August 1 at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Japan. The final qualifiers were announced Tuesday by the International Golf Federation.
The U.S. will have the maximum of four qualifiers allowed per country, the only nation to have four players in the top 15 in the Olympic golf ranking, which was tied to the Official World Golf Ranking.
The Americans are led by Justin Thomas, the No. 3 player in the world, followed by Collin Morikawa (No. 4), Xander Schauffele (No. 5) and Bryson DeChambeau (No. 6). Dustin Johnson, who is the No. 2 player in the rankings would have qualified but announced in March that he would not participate in the Olympics.
Countries were limited to four players, provided all four were in the top 15 of the OWGR. Beyond that, countries were limited to two players if both were inside the top 60. The field will consist of 60 players for the 72-hole stroke-play competition. The final Olympic qualifying list is here.
Louis Oosthuizen, the runner-up at the U.S. Open, announced after the Open that he would not play, as did Sergio Garcia. Oosthuizen was replaced by Christiaan Bezuidenhout, while Rafa Cabrera Bello will join Rahm for Spain in Garcia’s place. England’s top two players – Lee Westwood and Tyrell Hatton – also declined their spots, so Matthew Fitzpatrick and Paul Casey will represent England.
The three medalists from the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro – Justin Rose (gold), Henrik Stenson (silver) and Matt Kuchar (bronze) – failed to qualify for this year’s competition.
The women’s Olympic competition is scheduled for Aug. 4-7 at Kasumigaseki CC. The qualifying period for the women’s participants ends June 28, following the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship this week at Atlanta Athletic Club. The qualifiers will be announced the following day.