With the first year of the re-imagined men’s Major-championship calendar completed, and players still assessing how to plan their schedules to be best prepared for the big four tournaments, not to mention the looming FedEx Cup playoffs on the PGA Tour, they will have an additional consideration in 2020.
The Olympics.
A year from now, Tokyo will host the opening ceremonies for the 2020 Summer Games. Six days after that, the men’s Olympic golf tournament begins, the 72-hole stroke-play competition being played July 30-August 2 at Kasumigaseki Country Club’s East Course in the Tokyo suburb of Saitama. The women’s tournament starts three days after the men’s event ends, August 5-8 at Kasumigaseki, before the closing ceremonies August 9.
The men’s Olympic competition will come just 11 days after the conclusion of the Open Championship at Royal St George’s. The women’s tournament is likely to fall between the Evian Championship and the Women’s British Open (official dates for these tournaments have yet to be released).
At last week’s Open Championship at Portrush, a handful of players were asked about their interest in competing in the Olympics. Many said they hadn’t yet begun to think about it, given they are still more than a year away.
“I haven’t given it much thought,” said Brooks Koepka. “When the time comes, I’ll get there.”
However, after golf’s successful return to the Olympics three years ago in Rio, and without the health concerns of the Zika virus that caused some players (Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, among others) to skip the 2016 competition, player interest in Tokyo appears far greater, particularly among top-ranked men.
Qualifying for 2020 Olympics began in July 2018, with golfers accumulating points in an official Olympics Ranking that essentially mirrors the men’s and women’s World Rankings. The qualifying period runs through June 23, 2020 for the men and June 30, 2020 for the women.
So who will be competing in Tokyo? To get a glimpse at the possible teams for 2020, we applied the qualification criteria to the most recent Olympic rankings (July 23) and produced the full 60-player fields for the men’s and women’s tournaments.
Here a little refresher for how Olympic qualification works. These same rules apply to the men’s and women’s tournaments.
• The total field is 60 players, with at least one spot held for a golfer from the host country (Japan) if one does not otherwise qualify.
• No country can have more than four golfers competing.
• All golfers ranked in the top 15 qualify, up to the four-golfer maximum for each country.
• After the top 15 in the ranking, golfers ranked 16th and lower will qualify with no more than two players from any one country eligible to compete.
On the men’s side, only the United States has more than two golfers among the top 15 of the rankings (the Americans have nine golfers in the top 15). So the first four – Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau – would make the team, with the remaining five (Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau and Rickie Fowler) needing to improve their status if they want to be playing in Tokyo.
On the women’s side, South Korea is in a similar spot with six players among the top 15 of the women’s rankings. The US has exactly four players currently in the top 15 (Jessica Korda is barely in as she is ranked No. 15).
In the men’s tournament, 18 golfers who competed in Rio also would be eligible for Tokyo, including gold-medal winner Justin Rose and silver medallist Henrik Stenson. For the women, gold, silver and bronze medallists Inbee Park, Lydia Ko and Shanshan Feng would be among 31 golfers playing a second time.
The last player into the men’s field at the moment would be Germany’s Maxmillian Kieffer, who ranks 271st in the World Ranking. The odd person who would be out is Finland’s Kalle Samooja, who is ranked 285st.
The last player in the women’s field would be New Zealand’s Munchin Keh, ranked 422nd. The first alternate among the women would be Finland’s Noora Komulainen (448th).
Mind you, there are still 11 months to go with plenty of time for player movement.
MEN OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS
Alternates are the next highest ranked golfers from their respective countries who would be ranked high enough overall to qualify.
* – competed in the 2016 Olympics in Rio
Argentina (2)
Emiliano Grillo*
Nelson Ledesma
Australia (2)
Adam Scott
Jason Day
Replacements: Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith, Brendan Jones, Lucas Herbert, Matt Jones
Austria (2)
Bernd Wiesberger*
Sepp Straka
Alternate: Matthias Schwab
Belgium (2)
Thomas Pieters*
Thomas Detry
Alternate: Nicolas Colsaerts*
Canada (2)
Adam Hadwin
Corey Conners
Alternates: Mackenzie Hughes, Roger Sloan, Nick Taylor
Chile (1)
Joaquin Niemann
China (2)
Haotong Li*
Xinjun Zhang
Alternate: Ashun Wu*
Chinese Taipei (1)
C.T. Pan*
Colombia (1)
Sebastián Muñoz
Denmark (2)
Lucas Bjerregaard
Thorbjørn Olesen*
Alternate: Joachim B Hansen
Finland (1)
Mikko Korhonen
Replacement: Kalle Samooja
France (2)
Michael Lorenzo-Vera
Benjamin Hebert
Alternates: Romain Langasque, Victor Perez, Alexander Levy, Antoine Rozner, Robin Roussel
Germany (2)
Martin Kaymer*
Maxmillian Kieffer
Great Britain (2)
Justin Rose*
Tommy Fleetwood
Alternates: Paul Casey, Matt Wallace, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Eddie Pepperell, Tyrrell Hatton
India (2)
Shubhankar Sharma
Gaganjeet Bhullar
Ireland (2)
Rory McIlroy
Shane Lowry
Replacements: Graeme McDowell, Paul Dunne
Italy (2)
Francesco Molinari
Andrea Pavan
Alternates: Guido Migliozzi
Japan (2)*
Hideki Matsuyama
Shugo Imahira
Alternates: Satoshi Kodaira, Yuta Ikeda*, Masahiro Kawamura, Ryuko Tokimatsu, Yuki Inamori
Malaysia (1)
Gavin Kyle Green*
Mexico (2)
Abraham Ancer
Carlos Ortiz
The Netherlands (2)
Joost Luiten*
Darius Van Driel
New Zealand (2)
Ryan Fox*
Danny Lee*
Norway (2)
Kristoffer Ventura
Viktor Hovland
Paraguay (1)
Fabrizio Zanotti*
Portugal (1)
Ricardo Santos
Slovakia (1)
Rory Sabbatini
South Africa (2)
Louis Oosthuizen
Justin Harding
Alternates: Branden Grace, Erik van Rooyen, JC Ritchie, Shaun Norris, Dylan Frittelli
South Korea (2)
Byeong Hun An*
Sungjae Im
Alternates: Sung Kang, Si Woo Kim, Sanghyun Park, Jung-gon Hwang, Hyungjoon Lee
Spain (2)
Jon Rahm
Rafa Cabrera Bello*
Alternates: Sergio Garcia*, Jorge Campillo, Adrian Otaegui, Adri Arnaus, Ignacio Elvira Mijares
Sweden (2)
Henrik Stenson*
Alex Noren
Alternates: Alexander Bjork, Marcus Kinhult , Jonas Blixt, Henrik Norlander
Thailand (2)
Jazz Janewattananond
Kiradech Aphibarnrat*
Alternates: Poom Saksansin, Prom Meesawat
United States (4)
Brooks Koepka
Dustin Johnson
Tiger Woods
Bryson DeChambeau
Alternates: Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler*
Venezuela (1)
Jhonattan Vegas*
Zimbabwe (1)
Scott Vincent
WOMEN OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS
Alternates are the next highest ranked golfers from their respective countries who would be ranked high enough overall to qualify.
* – competed in the 2016 Olympics in Rio
Australia (2)
Minjee Lee*
Hannah Green
Su-Hyun Oh, Katherine Kirk, Karis Davidson, Sarah Smith, Sarah Kemp
Austria (2)
Christine Wolf*
Sarah Schober
Belgium (1)
Manon De Roey
Canada (2)
Brooke Henderson*
Alena Sharp*
Alternates: Brittany Marchand, Anne-Catherine Tanguay, Maude-Aimee Leblanc, Maddie Szeryk
China (2)
Shanshan Feng*
Yu Liu
Alternates: Jing Yan, Haruka Morita-WanyaoLu, Xiyu Lin, Weiwei Zhang, Wenbo Liu
Chinese Taipai (2)
Wei-Ling Hsu
Teresa Lu*
Alternates: Hsuan-Yu Yao, Yu-Ju Chen, Peiyun Chien, Pei-Ying Tsai, Min Lee
Colombia (1)
Mariajo Uribe*
Czech Republic (1)
Klara Spilkova*
Denmark (2)
Nanna Koerstz Madsen*
Nicole Broch Larsen*
Ecuador (1)
Daniela Darquea
Finland (1)
Ursula Wikstrom*
Alternates: Noora Komulainen*, Sanna Nuutinen
France (2)
Celine Boutier
Perrine Delacour
Alternates: Celine Herbin, Karine Icher*, Camille Chevalier, Astrid Pradenne
Germany (2)
Caroline Masson*
Sandra Gal*
Alternates: Esther Henseleit, Olivia Cowen, Karolin Lampert, Sophia Popov, Laura Fuenfstueck
Great Britain (2)
Bronte Law
Charley Hull*
Alternates: Georgia Hall, Jodi Shadoff, Melissa Reid, Charlotte Thomas, Meghan Maclaren
Hong Kong (1)
Tiffany Chan*
India (2)
Aditi Ashok*
Diksha Dagar
Ireland (2)
Leona Maguire*
Stephanie Meadow*
Israel (1)
Laetitia Beck*
Italy (1)
Giulia Molinaro*
Japan (2)*
Nasa Hataoka
Ai Suzuki
Alternates: Mamiko Higa, Hinako Shibuno, Yui Kawamoto, Momoko Ueda, Minami Katsu
Mexico (2)
Gaby Lopez*
Maria Fassi
The Netherlands (1)
Anne van Dam
New Zealand (2)
Lydia Ko*
Munchin Keh
Norway (2)
Marianne Skarpnord*
Tonje Daffinrud
Paraguay (1)
Julieta Granada*
The Philippines (2)
Dottie Ardina
Yuka Saso
Alternates: Princess Superal, Clariss Guce
Puerto Rico (1)
Maria Torres
Slovenia (1)
Katja Pogacar
South Africa (2)
Ashleigh Buhai
Lee-Anne Pace
Alternate: Stacy Bregman
South Korea (4)
Sung Hyun Park
Jin-Young Ko
Jeonguen Lee6
Inbee Park*
Alternates: Sei Young Kim, So Yeon Ryu, Amy Yang, Eun-Hee Ji, Hyo-Joo Kim
Spain (2)
Carlota Ciganda*
Azahara Munoz*
Alternates: Nuria Iturrioz, Beatriz Recari, Luna Gaimes, Noemi Jimenez, Marta Barrio
Sweden (2)
Anna Nordqvist*
Pernilla Lindberg*
Alternates: Madelene Sagstrom, Caroline Hedwell, Linnea Strom, Daniela Holmqvist, Jenny Haglund
Thailand (2)
Ariya Jutanugarn*
Moriya Jutanugarn
Alternates: Pornanong Phatlum*, Jasmine Suwannapura, Saranporn Langkulgasettrin, Patty Tavatanakit, Pajaree Anannarukarn
United States (4)
Lexi Thompson*
Nelly Korda
Danielle Kang
Jessica Korda
Alternates: Lizette Salas, Angel Yin, Marina Alex, Annie Park, Austin Ernst
