The men’s Olympics golf tournament will feature some of the highest-profile players in the world, with eight of the top 10 in the world rankings teeing it up for their countries at Le Golf National in Paris.
Some might argue that figure alone suggests the tournament has a world-class field, particularly when it is limited to just 60. However, others have voiced their concerns over the number of glaring omissions from the field.
The issue is largely two-fold, and each comes down to the world rankings used to determine who qualifies.
On the one hand, because available slots are so limited, it inevitably means many good players miss out. For example, the US has nine players in the current world’s top 15 – ordinarily high enough to qualify – but with a maximum of four slots available, there’s only room for the highest-ranked of those: Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa.
The other problem is the perpetually vexing issue of the scarcity of world-ranking opportunities for LIV golfers. That means that even one of the most successful players of 2024 on any circuit, US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, couldn’t climb high enough up the leaderboard by the cut-off after the Pinehurst No.2 Major to qualify.
That was a disappointment for DeChambeau, who appeared on the Pat McAfee Show to say “nothing would mean more” than to compete at the Games. He added: “Hopefully, one day, this game of golf will get figured out and come back together, and I’ll be able to play.
“I’m playing great golf. I’m excited. Am I frustrated and disappointed? Sure you could absolutely say that, but I made the choices that I made and there’s consequences to that and I respect it.
“But, hopefully, it’s sooner rather than later we figure out this great game of golf, so we can get past all of that and move forward into showing how awesome this sport actually is around the globe.”
Bryson DeChambeau won June’s US Open, but it wasn’t enough to take a Team USA place at the Games
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Several players who have made it to Paris had their say on the qualifying process in the build-up. With regards to the LIV Golf conundrum, PGA Tour star Rory McIlroy, who represents Ireland at the Games, had little sympathy for those who missed out, saying: “They were…
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