Women’s Olympic Golf Full Preview: Korea, US Medal Hopefuls

Women’s Olympic golf gets its opportunity to seize the limelight as play gets underway on Wednesday in Rio.

Golf returned to the Olympics after a 112 year absence from the Games last week. In a week that was hailed as a major success, Justin Rose claimed the gold medal for Great Britain, but now it’s the turn of the top talent in the women’s game to take center stage.

Just a couple of weeks ago we got a tantalizing sample of women’s international play as the United States won the UL International Crown, held in Libertyville, IL.

South Korea, the nation sending the most representatives in this week’s event will look to sweep the women’s medals. They will have to overcome a few key challengers on the way though, such as current world No.1 Lydia Ko and Canada’s No.2 Brooke Henderson.

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After South Korea, the United States trio of No. 4 Lexi Thompson, No. 8 Stacy Lewis, and No. 15 Gerina Piller all look like strong medal contenders.

Thailand’s No. 6 Ariya Jutanugarn is in fine form and will hope to ride her RICOH Women’s British Open victory into the games in Rio after she became the first Thai to win a major.

There are also some Scandinavian sleepers looking to contend for the gold like Norway’s Suzann Petersen & Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist.

With all the best players in the mix, who is going to come up with gold? Let’s take a closer look to find out.

Next: South Korea