Scheffler, Schauffele, Clark, Morikawa to Represent US in Paris Olympics

The U.S. has eight players in the top 15 in the world rankings, and as a result, will be able to send four players to the Olympic games. Great Britain is the only other country with even two players in the top 15.    

Scottie Scheffler (No. 1), Xander Schauffele (No. 3), Wyndham Clark (No. 5) and Collin Morikawa (No. 7) will comprise the U.S. team. 

In an interesting development, as a result of his U.S. Open victory, Bryson DeChambeau ended up 10th in the rankings. Patrick Cantlay was ahead of him in 8th place. If Clark and Morikawa had not qualified, Cantlay and DeChambeau would have been next on the selection list.

Schauffele, who won gold in the Olympics in Toyko, and Morikawa will represent the US for the second time. Scheffler and Clark will make their first appearances.

Other players of interest include Rory McIlroy, representing Ireland, along with Shane Lowry. Both played in the Tokyo games. Newcomer Ludvig Aberg will represent Sweden, along with veteran Alex Noren.

Viktor Hovland will appear in his second Olympics.

He is the only golf participant from Norway in the men’s competition.

Tommy Fleetwood and Matthew Fitzpatrick will be the golf team for Great Britain. It’s no surprise that Nick Taylor and Corey Connors will represent Canada. Matthieu Pavon and Victor Perez are the team from France. Min Woo Lee and Jason Day won out over all others for Australia.

Spain’s Jon Rahm will be on the team for Spain along with David Puig. Rahm was supposed to play for Spain in Toyko, but tested positive for COVID and had to sit the games out.

In the system chosen for selecting competitors for the golf competition, if a country has four players in the top 15, all four may participate.  If it does not, then going down the rankings, two from any country may go, until there are 60 players. For instance, Hideki Matsuyama is ranked No. 12 in the world, and No. 9 in the Olympic rankings, and his teammate is Keita Nakajima who is 83rd in the Official World Golf Rankings and 31st in Olympic Rankings. The highest-ranked player qualifies for his country, but the second-ranked player may be significantly lower in the rankings and still participate. 

For example, Abraham Ancer of Mexico is the second player for that country and his world rank is now 312. Zecheng Dou of China has a world rank of 338. Fabrizio Zanotti from Paraguay is ranked 343rd in the world. They are the three lowest-ranked players participating.

According to the International Golf Federation, only four men have qualified for all three Olympic golf events since the sport returned to the Olympics.

They are Ryan Fox from New Zealand, Gavin Green from Malaysia, C.T. Pan from Chinese Taipei, and Fabrizio Zanotti from Paraguay.

In a quirk of marketing that can only be looked at with a question mark, both the men’s and women’s teams will be wearing custom J.Lindeberg “Red, White, Blue for Gold.” J. Lindeberg was chosen as the Official Apparel Provider for USA GOLF for the next two Olympic Games.

The men's Olympic Golf event will be contested at Le Golf National, Thursday, August 1- Sunday, August 4, 2024. Le Golf National was the site of the 2018 Ryder Cup matches where Europe defeated the U.S.