The extended three-year qualification process for the men’s golf competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has been completed with today’s publication of the Final Olympic Golf Rankings.
With his U.S. Open victory on Sunday, Jon Rahm of Spain became world number one and jumped Justin Thomas of the United States into the No. 1 position of the Olympic Rankings. Americans finished Nos. 2-5 with Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau, respectively. The United States is the only country with more than two qualifiers for the 60-player field, which will compete at Kasumigaseki Country Club from July 29-August 1.
The men’s rankings underline the diversity of the field with 36 countries represented, including the following players from Asia Pacific: Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Sungjae Im (Kor), Si Woo Kim (Kor), Jazz Janewattananond (Tha), Gunn Charoenkul (Tha), C.T. Pan (Tpe), Juvic Pagunsan (Phi), Gavin Green (Mas), Carl Yuan (Chn), Cameron Smith (Aus), Marc Leishman (Aus) and Ryan Fox (Nzl).
The men’s qualification system for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games commenced on July 1, 2018 and originally was to have concluded on June 22, 2020, while the women’s was to have run from July 8, 2018 through to June 29, 2020. However, following the postponement of the Olympics to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IGF and International Olympic Committee announced in April 2020 an adjustment to the qualifying system where athletes would accumulate Olympic Ranking points through June 2021.
The top-15 world-ranked players are eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country. Beyond the top-15, players are 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. The host country is guaranteed a spot, as is each of the five continents of the Olympics.
The women’s rankings will be finalized after this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. The 60-player women’s competition will be held at Kasumigaseki CC August 4-7.
Once the women’s Olympic Golf Rankings are finalized, the International Golf Federation (IGF) will send confirmation of the men’s and women’s quota places to the National Olympic Committees. The NOCs will then confirm use of allocated quota places to the IGF by July 1 and the IGF, in turn, will reallocate all unused quota places before the Tokyo 2020 Sport Entries Deadline on July 5.
The IGF will publish a final entries list of 60 names for both the men’s and women’s events on Tuesday, July 6, which will ratify all the competitors for the respective fields at the Olympic Games.
