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2016 Olympic Games: Golf In Rio One Year Away

By Danny Norris

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It’s kind of funny to think, but one year from now instead of looking forward to the PGA Championship, our attention will be turned to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the 2016 Olympic Games. Golf will be part of the Olympic festivities for the first time in 112 years.

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In terms of what to expect for tournament play, not too much will be different from your average Tour event. Both the men’s and women’s competitions will be individual stroke play and last 72 holes over four rounds.

The men will be teeing off August 11th and end on August 14th. The women will tee off a week later on August 17th and finish up August 20th.

However, the fields will be smaller than what we are accustomed to. The field will be condensed of only sixty players. Something we typically see deep in the FedEx Cup Playoffs or at WGC events.

With such a limited field and with a number of countries needing some sort of representation, qualifying is going to be really tough. To have a strong chance of qualifying you want to be inside the top fifteen.

For the men, inside the top fifteen of the Official World Golf Rankings. For the ladies, inside the top fifteen of the Rolex Rankings. However, if you are inside the top fifteen that doesn’t guarantee you a spot.

A country will only be able to carry a maximum of four golfers (per gender) and that is if all four are inside the top fifteen. Outside of that, a country can only have a maximum of two golfers.

For example, the United States has seven golfers inside the top fifteen. Only four of those golfers can go. That means, right now,  Jordan Spieth (#2), Bubba Watson (#3), Rickie Fowler (#5), and Jim Furyk (#6) would represent the United States.

Players such as: Dustin Johnson (#7), Zach Johnson (#12), and Jimmy Walker (#14) would be on the outside looking in.

South Korea faces that same problem for their ladies. Currently South Korea has six golfers inside the top fifteen (nine inside the top eighteen). We know Inbee Park is a lock which means only three spots are available.

So Yeon Ryu and Hyo-Joo Kim would be the second and third golfers and they have some room to work with. More than likely, they’ll qualify which means that final spot on the team will be one heck of a race to watch for the next year or so.

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Right now, Amy Yang is 10th in the Rolex World Rankings, which means U.S. Open Champion In-Gee Chun would on the outside looking in.

A lot will change between now and the deadline to qualify which will be July 11th, 2016. With such a limited field and with every country needing some sort of representation, spots are extremely limited. Just to give you an idea here is what the teams would look if they teed it up right now:

Argentina:

Emiliano Grillo (#96)

Angel Cabrera (#137)

Australia:

Jason Day (#4), Minjee Lee (#15)

Adam Scott (#11), Karrie Webb (#20)

Austria:

Bernd Wiesberger (#25), Christine Wolf (#274)

Belgium:

Nicolas Colsaerts (#194), Chloe Leurquin (#411)

Thomas Pieters (#234)

Brazil:

Lucas Lee (#291), Victoria Lovelady (#605)

Adilson da Silva (#333),

Canada:

Graham DeLaet (#91), Brooke Henderson (#32)

David Hearn (#107), Alena Sharp (#194)

Chile:

Felipe Aguilar (#238), Paz Echeverria (#328)

Mark Tullo (#334)

China:

Li Haotong (#159), Shanshan Feng (#8)

Wu Ashun (#162), Xiyu Lin (#89)

Chinese Taipai:

Chan Shih-chang (#297), Teresa Lu (#28)

Lin Wen-Tang (#563), Yani Tseng (#74)

Columbia:

Camilo Villegas (#168), Mariajo Uribe (#64)

Lisa McCloskey (#353)

Czech Republic:

Klara Spilkova (#222)

Denmark:

Soren Kjeldsen (#79), Line Vedel Hansen (#113)

Thomas Bjorn (#109), Nicole Larsen (#144)

Fiji:

Vijay Singh (#219)

Finland:

Mikko Ilonen (#106), Ursula Wikstrom (#223)

Roope Kakko (#255), Noora Tamminen (#293)

France:

Victor Dubuisson (#41), Karine Icher (#61)

Alexander Levy (#65), Gwladys Nocera (#63)

Germany:

Martin Kaymer (#19), Sandra Gal (#37)

Marcel Siem (#105), Caroline Messon (#67)

Great Britain:

Justin Rose (#8), Charley Hull (#49)

Danny Willett (#24), Catriona Matthew (#50)

India:

Anirban Lahiri (#52)

S.S.P. Chawrasia (#186)

Ireland:

Rory McIlroy (#1), Stephanie Meadow (#141)

Shane Lowry (#48), Leona Maguire (#339)

Israel:

Laetitia Beck (#423)

Italy:

Francesco Molinari (#42), Giulia Sergas (#279)

Edoardo Molinari (#214), Diana Luna (#292)

Japan:

Hideki Matsuyama (#15), Shiho Oyama (#42)

Hiroshi Iwata (#100), Mika Miyazato (#47)

Korea:

Byeong-Hun An (#58), Inbee Park (#1)

Sangmoon Bae (#111), So Yeon Ryu (#4)

Hyo-Joo Kim (#5)

Amy Yang (#10)

Malaysia:

Kelly Tan (#190)

Michelle Koh (#325)

Mexico:

Carlos Ortiz (#171), Alejandra Llaneza (#288)

Netherlands:

Joost Luiten (#55), Christel Boeljon (#72)

Dewi Claire Schreefel (#205)

New Zealand:

Danny Lee (#66), Lydia Ko (#2)

Ryan Fox (#135)

Norway:

Suzann Pettersen (#6)

Marianne Skarpnord (#131)

Paraguay:

Fabrizio Zanotti (#152), Julieta Granada (#36)

Philippines:

Angelo Que (#220), Jennifer Rosales (#349)

Antonio Lascuna (#266)

Portugal:

Ricardo Gouveia (#161)

Russia:

Maria Balikoeva (#247)

Singapore:

Mardan Marnat (#245)

Spain:

Sergio Garcia (#10), Azahara Munoz (#23)

Miguel Angel Jimenez (#56), Carlota Ciganda ( #51)

South Africa:

Louis Oosthuzien (#13), Lee-Anne Pace (#55)

Branden Grace (#28), Paula Reto (#177)

Sweden:

Henrik Stenson (#9), Anna Nordqvist (#9)

David Lingmerth (#59), Pernilla Lindberg (#78)

Switzerland:

Fabienne In-Albon (#271)

U.S.A.

Jordan Spieth (#2), Stacy Lewis (#3)

Bubba Watson (#3), Lexi Thompson (#7)

Rickie Fowler (#5), Brittany Lincicome (#12)

Jim Furyk (#6), Cristie Kerr (#13)

Thailand:

Thongchai Jaidee (#38), Pornanong Phatlum (#41)

Kiradech Aphibarnrat (#67), Ariya Jutanugarn (#53)

Zimbabwe: 

Brendon de Jonge (#116)

As you see with the teams above, there are a lot of notable golfers who are missing for both the men and women. We talked about In Gee Chun for South Korea, but also no Michelle Wie, Morgan Pressel or Paula Creamer for the United States.

For the men, it’s a shame for Great Britain that they can only carry two golfers. Paul Casey, Lee Westwood, and Ian Poulter are left in the dark.

Day and Scott are the two top dogs of Australia which is real bad luck for Marc Leishman, John Senden, and Steven Bowditch who are playing really well this year.

Who knows, though, the anchored putting ban will be in place for next year and Scott may really struggle adjusting. Someone like Leishman may just sneak in the second spot.

The South African race will be very interesting to watch. Charl Schwartzel is only 12 spots behind Grace and you just never know if Oosthuizen will stay healthy between now and then.

It’ll be interesting to see how much things change between now and next year. This is going to an exciting time as “The Race to Rio” will be another storyline to follow for the next year.

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