Spots in the Paris 2024 Olympic golf fields were like gold dust, with fewer than 60 places up for grabs on each side after the host nation had been awarded one for both the men’s and women’s events.
For many golfers in countries with a rich pool of talent, it was tougher still as Olympic rules stated there would be a maximum of four golfers per nation from inside the world’s top-15 and just two outside of it, providing more than a couple were not already qualified.
Said qualification consisted of a two-year period where players could earn points from OWGR-recognized tour events, with the average number per person ultimately settling the final OGR table on June 17.
As a result of the LIV Golf League being unable to offer OWGR points in its tournaments, competitors in the PIF-backed circuit were struggling to not only maintain or improve their world-ranking positions but also generate a realistic run at Olympic qualification.
While Bryson DeChambeau was magnanimous in falling short for making the USA’s four-man squad at Paris 2024, fellow LIV peer Carlos Ortiz took a shot at the qualifying process for the Olympics and accused “politics” of interfering with certain golfer’s careers.
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Ortiz said: “It’s just the situation in golf right now, it’s unfair. Especially Olympic Games, you want to have the best golfers right here, but politics somehow manage things still.
“I still feel there’s golfers that should be here and couldn’t be here because of what has happened, you know.
“I think the Olympic Games definitely should be neutral. They should have not turned away ranking players accordingly, especially now that the World Ranking points don’t really work anymore.”
Just a couple of hours earlier, Rory McIlroy – who is representing Ireland at the Olympics in Paris – had argued there was no other just method of choosing who qualifies outside of the National Olympic Committee’s simply making an educated selection.
The Northern Irishman highlighted the fact that there were other ways of LIV players securing world-ranking points, though, and it was not an impossible task.
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McIlroy said: “I don’t think there’s any other way to do [Olympic qualification] because it’s hard to compare the golf that they play to the golf that we play. That’s…
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