Golf in the 2024 Paris Olympics: Teams set with Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele leading United States
Golf in the 2024 Paris Olympics: Teams set with Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele leading United States
With the 2024 Paris Olympics quickly approaching, the conclusion of the U.S. Open marked the end of qualifying period for the golf competition set to be held Aug. 1-4 at Le Golf National.
Notable among the absences will be the U.S. Open champion, Bryson DeChambeau, who will not be sporting the red, white and blue in Paris. While the Olympic Golf Rankings appear to be a unique process, they are essentially a copy of the Official World Golf Rankings.
Playing on a circuit (LIV Golf) that does not award OWGR points, DeChambeau did not qualify despite a tremendous string of performances at the year's three major championships, including a T6 at the Masters, 2nd-place finish at the PGA Championship and his victory at Pinehurst No. 2. Rising all the way to No. 10 in the OWGR, DeChambeau's name still sits behind five other Americans.
Here's how the Olympic qualification works:
- Top 15 in the OWGR are eligible
- No more than four players can be selected from a given nation
- Outside the top 15, "players 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"
As such, representing the United States at the Olympics will be
- Scottie Scheffler (No. 1 OWGR)
- Xander Schauffele (No. 3)
- Wyndham Clark (No. 5)
- Collin Morikawa (No. 7)
Schauffele, the reigning gold medalist from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will compete for Team USA alongside Morikawa for the second time. Patrick Cantlay nearly snuck into the final spot but needed a top-two finish at the U.S. Open to qualify; instead, he finished in a tie for third.
The U.S. team was not the only squad to experience some twists and turns to its roster coming out of the U.S. Open. Canada's final spot remained wide open for much of the competition as Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith and Adam Hadwin sought to join Nick Taylor. It was ultimately Conners who prevailed and will be rocking the maple leaf in Paris.
Other countries like Ireland have been locked in for a while with Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry as representatives. Spain saw some movement as well with Jon Rahm leading his nation and fellow LIV Golf member David Puig earning a spot by making the U.S. Open cut on the number and, as such, punching his ticket into the Olympics.
Other stars of the game like Hideki Matsuyama (Japan), Ludvig Åberg (Sweden) and Viktor Hovland (Norway) are set to play in the 60-man competition later this summer.
Teams for 2024 Olympic Games
| Country | Players |
|---|---|
| Malaysia | Gavin Green |
| Paraguay | Fabrizio Zanotti |