A total of 14 Asian Tour members are currently on track to qualify for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, with less than two months remaining in the qualifying race.
Bangladeshi Siddikur Rahman, who finished second in the tri-sanctioned AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open on Sunday, returned into the top-60 bracket in 54th position following a welcome return to form.
Malaysiaâs Gavin Green also moved back into the final and 60th position on the qualifying list to play in Rio in August following his joint runner-up finish on the Asian Development Tour on home soil last week. Players will have until July11 to jostle for tickets to Rio to celebrate golfâs return into the Olympic Games after a lapse of over 100 years.
Thailandâs Kiradech Aphibarnrat heads the list of Asian Tour members in the reckoning for Rio where he is ranked 19th on the menâs list, followed by Koreaâs K.T. Kim in 20th position.
Other Asian Tour members in the top-60 include Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand (23rd), Indiaâs Anirban Lahiri (24th), Australiaâs Marcus Fraser (31st), Filipino Miguel Tabuena (37th), S.S.P. Chawrasia of India (42nd), Chinaâs Liang Wen-chong (45th), Malaysian Danny Chia (47th), Filipino Angelo Que (52nd), Adilson da Silva of Brazil (53rd) and Lin Wen-tang of Chinese Taipei (59th).
In total, 16 Asian golfers are poised to represent their nations and continent at the worldâs greatest sporting spectacle including Japanâs Hideki Matsuyama, Byeonghun An of Korea, Chinaâs Li Hao-tong and Chinese Taipeiâs Cheng Tsu-pang.
Koreaâs Soomin Lee and Jeunghun Wang, who have won tournaments over the past few weeks and are ranked in the top-five of the Asian Tourâs Order of Merit, are amongst those pushing hard for tickets to Rio.
One man who breathed a sigh of relief was Siddikur. Despite losing to Wang in Mauritius where he led by three shots with three holes remaining, the Bangladeshi trailblazer was happy that his Olympic dream was reignited with a strong showing.
âThis is a good boost for me on my world ranking. Hopefully I can get back in the running for the Olympics. I will take the positives from here. I am looking forward to the rest of the season and hopefully I can cap a good year,â he said.
Wang, who became the youngest player at the age of 20 years and 263 days in European Tour history to win back-to-back victories on Sunday, needs to surpass Kim or An in the world ranking to have a chance of representing Korea.
âOf course I would love to make the Olympics. Itâs crazy because I wasnât even thinking about it until last weekend. It would be an honour to represent my country but I will have to play very well until then to qualify,â said Wang, who is currently second on the Asian Tourâs Order of Merit.
The top-15 world-ranked players will be eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country. Beyond the top-15, players will be eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top-15.
