EThe men’s golf tournament Paris Olympic Games closed its qualification period after the US Open held last week and, in fact, the big surprise is that its winnerStrangely enough, it is not classified for the Olympic event. The field that will compete for the medals in Le Golf National from August 1 to 4 it’s made of 60 players that we already know. Golf, since its return in 2016, continues to consolidate itself in the Olympic Program and is becoming an event that the best long to compete in, although the capacity is quite limited and a limitation is imposed by country.
First of all, it is worth remembering how these 60 players are classified. From the outset, The 15 best in the world ranking are eligible, with a maximum of four per country. In this privileged position there is only USAwhich has among the top 15 Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Whyndam Clark, Collin MorikawaPatrick Cantlay, Bryson DeChambeau, Brian Harman, Sahith Theegala y Max Homa.
This country will respect the classification and the first four will attend, so DeChambeau, who has been sixth in the Masters this year, second in the PGA Championship and first in the US Open, is left without a place. The ‘Scientist’ commented on this disappointment to ESPN after winning his success last Sunday: “I hope that one day this is resolved and I can be in the Games. I’m playing great golf, I’m excited, but Deep down, am I frustrated and disappointed? Yes, for sure, but I made the decisions I made and that has consequences and I respect that. Bryson refers to the fact that LIV Golf tournaments, the circuit in which he plays, do not count towards the world ranking.
Returning to the classification criteria, after the top 15 in the world, the so-called Olympic Golf Rankingand from here the two best eligible players per country enter, as long as that country does not already have at least two players among the 15 best.
In the case of Spain, Jon Rahm enters world rankings and our country puts another player through the Olympic qualification, in this case David Puig who, although also belongs to LIV Golf, has scored thanks to his magnificent results on the Asian Circuit. The Catalan opted to go for a place in Paris through the only way he could, which involved getting tired of traveling around Asia and trying to compete in the majors.
The United States is by far the most outstanding team, but there are also pairings along with the Spanish that are very interesting and that we highlight here: Rory McIlroy – Shane Lowry (Ireland) / Tommy Fleetwood – Matt Fitzpatrick (UK) / Ludbig Averg – Alex Noren (Sweden) / Hideki Matsuyama – Keita Nakajima (Japan) / Jason Day – Min Woo Lee (Australia) / Tom Kim – Byeong Hun An (Corea del Sur) / Nick Taylor – Corey Conners (Canad�).
