The Tokyo Olympics in 2020, which were actually played a year later because of the Covid-19 pandemic, featured golf for the second Games in succession.
Like the 2024 Paris Olympics, men’s and women’s competitions were held, with the action taking place at Kasumigaseki Country Club.
Each competition had a field of 60, and in the men’s line-up, 14 players who would eventually sign for LIV Golf, which began a year later, competed.
Those players represented 11 nations, and three were in with a chance of the bronze medal as part of a seven-man playoff to determine the final place on the podium.
Great Britain and Ireland player Paul Casey, who would eventually join Crushers GC, along with Colombian Sebastian Munoz and Chilean Mito Pereira, who are now both with Torque GC, lined up alongside Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, CT Pan and Hideki Matsuyama, but it was Pan who eventually prevailed on the fourth extra hole.
Thanks to Cristobal del Solar’s decision not to play in Paris, Pereira is the one LIV golfer from that trio who has qualified for the Olympics.
Another future Torque GC player narrowly missed out on the bronze medal playoff. Chilean Joaquin Niemann eventually finished T10, one shot off the group above him, along with another future LIV golfer, Australian Cameron Smith, and PGA Tour pro Sepp Straka.
Like Pereira, Niemann is back for the 2024 Olympics, but there’s no place for Smith, who will be disappointed to miss out after saying earlier in the year he “desperately” wanted to qualify.
Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith misses out on Paris
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Two shots behind Smith and Niemann was Mexico’s Abraham Ancer, who joined LIV Golf less than a year later. Ancer is one of the few LIV Golf stars from the 14 who gets a second chance to shine in 2024, despite falling considerably down the world rankings.
Belgian Thomas Pieters made his second Olympics appearance at the 2020 Games after finishing fourth in 2016, but the future Range Goats GC player could only finish T16 in Tokyo, along with Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent – later to sign for Iron Heads GC – and neither is at the Paris Games.
While Xander Schauffele won the gold medal in Tokyo, future 4 Aces GC player and fellow American Patrick Reed finished comfortably adrift in T22, eight shots…
..
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Golf Monthly…