Olympic Golf Speculations

Olympic Golf Course in Rio.

As we know, for the first time since 1904, Golf will be featured on the Olympic stage in Rio de Janeiro. Although Olympics in Rio de Janeiro is still two-plus years away, I though it would be worthwhile to take a sneak peek at what the field would look like if the tournament began tomorrow. Golf fans everywhere are already discussing the possibilities of what will go down in Rio. Which golfers will represent which country? The World Cup at Royal Melbourne was this year’s last prominent golf tournament and a preview of the 2016 Olympics format. So it’s a good time now to speculate a little.

Sixty men and sixty women will compete in 4 rounds (72 holes) of individual stroke play. The Official World Golf Ranking for men and the Rolex Rankings for women will help to create the Olympic Golf Rankings, which will be used to determine eligibility.

International Golf Federation made the current proposal that the top 15 ranked players in the world will be eligible, with a limit of four players from a given country allowed to participate. Beyond that top 15 players will be eligible based on the rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top 15. However, qualifications still have not been finalized and the cut-off date has not yet been determined.

Here’s a look at what the fields would look like now – based on last week’s world rankings (in parentheses).

MEN
Argentina: Angel Cabrera (56), Andres Romero (196)
Australia: Adam Scott (2), Jason Day (20)
Austria: Bernd Wiesberger (54)
Bangladesh: Siddikur Rahman (247)
Belgium: Nicolas Colsaerts (58)
Brazil: Adilson da Silva (253), Alexandre Rocha (402)
Canada: Graham DeLaet (32), David Hearn (137)
Chile: Felipe Aguilar (156), Mark Tullo (376)
China: Wen-Chong Liang (132), Ashun Wu (223)
Colombia: Camilo Villegas (262)
Denmark: Thomas Bjorn (46), Thorbjorn Olesen (55)
Fiji: Vijay Singh (140)
Finland: Mikko Ilonen (81), Roope Kakko (214)
France: Victor Dubuisson (108), Gregory Bourdy (113)
Germany: Martin Kaymer (34), Marcel Siem (78)
India: Shiv Kapur (142), Anirban Lahiri (154)
Italy: Matteo Manassero (35), Francesco Molinari (37)
Japan: Hideki Matsuyama (29), Koumei Oda (90)
Netherlands: Joost Luiten (61), Daan Huizing (204)
New Zealand: Michael Hendry (211), Danny Lee (328)
Norway: Espen Kofstad (310)
Philippines: Juvan Pagunsan (252), Angelo Que (306)
Portugal: Ricardo Santos (206), Jose-Filipe Lima (213)
South Africa: Charl Schwartzel (21), Ernie Els (24)
South Korea: Sung-Joon Park (96), Hyung-Sung Kim (105)
Spain: Sergio Garcia (18), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (33)
Sweden: Henrik Stenson (3), Jonas Blixt (39)
Thailand: Thongchai Jaidee (49), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (65)
USA: Tiger Woods (1), Phil Mickelson (4), Steve Stricker (7), Matt Kuchar (8)
Zimbabwe: Brendon de Jonge (70)

… NOTE: If Rory McIlroy (6) and Graeme McDowell (11) play for Great Britain they would team with Justin Rose (5), leaving Shane Lowry (72) and Padraig Harrington (111) to play for Ireland. If McIlroy and McDowell play for Ireland they would be the only two to qualify, leaving Luke Donald (16) to join Rose on the Great Britain team.

WOMEN
Argentina: Victoria Tanco (543)
Australia: Karrie Webb (8), Katherine Hull-Kirk (98)
Canada: Rebecca Lee-Bentham (208), Alena Sharp (252)
Chile: Paz Echeverria (472)
China: Shanshan Feng (7), Xi Yu Lin (204)
Chinese Taipei: Yani Tseng (26), Teresa Lu (65)
Colombia: Mariajo Uribe (110), Paola Moreno (194)
Czech Republic: Klara Spilkova (263)
Denmark: Line Vedel Hansen (173), Malene Jorgensen (251)
Finland: Minea Blomqvist-Kakko (244), Ursula Wikström (353)
France: Karine Icher (23), Gwladys Nocera (79)
Germany: Sandra Gal (50), Caroline Masson (52)
Great Britain: Catriona Matthew (10), Jodi Ewart Shadoff (47)
Ireland: Alison Walshe (100), Rebecca Codd (474)
Italy: Giulia Sergas (70), Diana Luna (146)
Japan: Ai Miyazato (15), Mika Miyazato (21)
Malaysia: Jean Chua (559)
Mexico: Alejandra Llaneza (405)
Morocco: Maha Haddioui (555)
Netherlands: Dewi Claire Schreefel (118), Christel Boeljon (126)
New Zealand: Lydia Ko (5), Kim Dana (111)
Norway: Suzann Pettersen (2), Marianne Skarpnord (276)
Paraguay: Julieta Granada (96)
Philippines: Jennifer Rosales (132)
Russia: Maria Balikoeva (413)
South Africa: Lee-Anne Pace (49), Ashleigh Simon (164)
South Korea: Inbee Park (1), So Yeon Ryu (4), Na Yeon Choi (6), I.K. Kim (9)
Spain: Beatriz Recari (19), Azahara Munoz (31)
Sweden: Caroline Hedwall (22), Anna Nordqvist (24)
Switzerland: Anais Maggetti (442), Daniela Holmqvist (452)
Thailand: Ariya Jutanugarn (29), Pornanong Phatlum (59)
USA: Stacy Lewis (3), Paula Creamer (11), Cristie Kerr (12), Lexi Thompson (14)
Venezuela: Veronica Felibert (289)

Let’s get back to this topic in two years and see how dramatically the field has been changed. A lot, I assume 🙂

– Olli

@OlliLehtonen on Twitter