OLYMPIC GAMES
Who are Team USA’s golfers at the 2024 Olympics in Paris?
The men’s and women’s golf events get underway on Thursday with 60 players competing in both events. Let’s take a look at who’s qualified for the golf competition which will be held in Guyancourt.
The first of two golf medal events at Paris 2024 gets underway on Tuesday at Le Golf National in Guyancourt the capital’s south-west suburb. The men’s event begins at 3 a.m ET on Thursday 1 August, with Round 1 of the women’s event to tee off at the same time on Wednesday 7 August.
While there are a number of high-profile absences, Team USA will feel confident about their chances with some of golf’s best having qualified for the summer games. Here, we take a look at the process and of course who’s made the final cut.
A look at Team USA golf for Paris 2024
Before we get to who’s in, let’s take a look at who’s not made the trip. Indeed, having just won the 2024 US Open, the absence of Bryson DeChambeau is probably the biggest eye-opener but also understandable as it’s about rules and regulations.
DeChambeau, after all, plays on the LIV Golf circuit which does not award Official World Golf Rankings which is why he didn’t qualify despite some impressive performances at the three majors that we’ve seen so far which include a T6 at the Masters, a 2nd-place finish at the PGA Championship, and his victory at US Open. As a result, the 30-year-old now sits at No. 10 on the OWGR, however, there are five Americans who rank above him.
That of course brings us to the Olympic qualifying process itself which to be clear, is a veritable copy of the OWGR. How does it work? Firstly, only the top 15 players in the OWGR are eligible. Regarding nations themselves, each country is permitted four players. Where players outside of the top 15 are concerned, they “will be eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top 15.”
So, who’s representing Team USA? In the men’s event, we will be seeing Scottie Scheffler (No. 1 OWGR), Xander Schauffele (No. 2), Wyndham Clark (No. 5), and Collin Morikawa (No. 6) while Tokyo 2020 gold medalist and world No.1 Nelly Korda is joined by Rose Zhang (No.9) and Lilia Vu (No.2) representing the women’s team.
If you didn’t know, Schauffele is actually the reigning gold medalist from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and will be playing alongside another Olympian in Morikawa who also competed in Japan three years ago. It’s interesting to observe that other countries have not had to wait so long to see their teams finalized - for example, Ireland wrapped up their qualification some time ago.
So we know that Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry will be in Paris, in addition to Spain’s Jon Rahm and David Puig who secured their spots after making the US Open cut. Other household names to look out for include Hideki Matsuyama (Japan), Ludvig Åberg (Sweden), Tommy Fleetwood (Great Britain) and Viktor Hovland (Norway) who are all set to take the course this summer.
The golf event at Paris 2024 will follow a 72-hole individual stroke play format. Unlike other major tournaments, there is no halfway cut which means that all 60 competitors will play all four rounds.