The following two weeks will characteristic a sport inside the sport as PGA Tour gamers compete with their associates for a uncommon alternative.
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We’re within the thick of championship season on the annual golf calendar, with two males’s majors full and one other only one week away. That calendar is additional juicy this 12 months, with the Olympics competitors squeezed into the schedule simply a few weeks after the Open Championship. However qualifying for that particular, every-four-years comp isn’t so easy. Actually, it’s a bit cutthroat.
The following two weeks we’ll see the sector finalized for the lads’s Olympic Golf competitors, however solely after a large occasion this week (the Memorial) and a good greater one subsequent week (the U.S. Open at Pinehurst). And one week after the lads’s discipline is full, the ladies’s will take closing form. So if August is Olympic Golf Season, then June is Olympic Golf Qualifying Season. Look no additional than the battles waging out under.
An American shootout
The one nation that may discipline 4 golfers within the Olympics is the USA. Most nations will get two, and others will get just one, however the immense depth of expertise has 9 People within the high 15 of the World Rating. Scottie Scheffler is locked in. So is Xander Schauffele, the defending Gold-medal winner. Wyndham Clark is nearly a shoe-in at this level, barring a number of nice weeks from a number of gamers chasing him. Within the fourth slot, although, is absolute chaos.
Collin Morikawa moved up into that closing qualifying spot Monday, bumping Patrick Cantlay all the way down to ninth on this planet. Ranked tenth on this planet is Max Homa, one other American. Eleventh is Brian Harman, one other American. Thirteenth and 14th are Sahith Theegala and Keegan Bradley, each barely out of the hunt, however a win both of the following two weeks would make issues actually fascinating for these two. Fractions of a degree separate all these gents, so one thing so simple as consecutive high 10s might e-book considered one of their tickets to Paris.
France is now LOCKED
Talking of booked tickets to Paris, Victor Perez already did it. You will have tuned in for his chase of Robert MacIntyre Sunday night time in Canada, the place Perez fist-pumped his ending birdie for a solo third. Was he merely thrilled to be a clubhouse chief? Maybe. However all of the qualifying factors on supply in that solo third place elevated him to No. 84 on this planet, an additional 30 spots larger than France’s subsequent professional, Romain Langasque. He’ll be part of Matthieu Pavon on Workforce France of their house nation.
Canada’s pleasant hearth
If the People are set for a shootout, we now have to qualify the Canadian crew chase a bit extra like pleasant hearth. If solely as a result of the 5 males competing for 2 spots are actually shut associates. Nick Taylor, Corey Conners, Adam Hadwin, Taylor Pendrith and Mackenzie Hughes all spend a very good little bit of time collectively. They repeatedly play follow rounds collectively and a few of them even attended school collectively. (Hughes, Pendrith and Conners all performed collectively at Kent State.) However this 12 months they’re all competing for Olympics spots and placement within the President Cup, held later this 12 months in Montreal.
Taylor is locked in for the Olympics — no Canadian has performed in addition to him the final 18 months. However Conners (45), Hadwin (59), Pendrith (64) and Hughes (65) are all vying for the second Canadian spot. Conners did himself an enormous service with a Sunday 65 final weekend to complete solo sixth. Can somebody take it from him?
LIV teammates’ goals dashed
Again in 2021, all of it needed to really feel easy. Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira, longtime junior golf opponents and friends from Chile — each competed within the Tokyo Olympics. They had been nonetheless up-and-comers on the PGA Tour, however needed to determine they’d characteristic in future Olympics Video games on behalf of their house nation. Niemann quickly received the Genesis Invitational, and Pereira almost received the 2022 PGA Championship. It needed to really feel much more sure then.
However each gamers left the PGA Tour for LIV Golf, which doesn’t obtain World Rating factors. Thus, each gamers would wrestle to obtain Olympic qualification. Niemann was in a position to punch his ticket by way of nice kind in a couple of DP World Tour occasions, however Pereira hasn’t made a lot of something occur. He trails Cristobal Del Photo voltaic by simply 14 spots within the World Rating, however received’t have an opportunity to make it up as LIV Golf performs this week in Houston and Pereira will not be certified for subsequent week’s U.S. Open. Even when Del Photo voltaic misses the minimize at this week’s BMW Charity Professional-Am, his rating received’t undergo sufficient for Pereira to slip by him.
Spain’s second man
Everyone knows Jon Rahm can be competing for Spain in Paris, an occasion that may depend towards the minimal 4 he must play in 2024 to take care of his DPWT standing for subsequent 12 months’s Ryder Cup. However who will be part of him? David Puig is subsequent in line, ranked 113th on this planet. Hundredths of a degree behind him is Adrian Otaegui, ranked a hundred and fifteenth on this planet. Hundredths of a degree behind Otaegui is Jorge Campillo, ranked 117th. The latter two will play within the Scandinavian Blended occasion on the DPWT this weekend, however none of them can be competing within the U.S. Open (barring a late push by Puig at closing qualifying). That is simply the tightest chase amongst non-People for a spot within the Olympics.
Sungjae’s final probability
It feels becoming that Ben An has a spot within the Olympics in the mean time. He performed some unimaginable golf in the beginning of 2024, pushing forward of Sungjae Im within the World Rating. His mother and father are additionally each Olympians, having competed for South Korea and China in desk tennis. An is ranked twenty sixth on this planet proper now, however has to carry on tight as Im is simply six spots behind. A pair top-20 finishes could possibly be sufficient to flip that round. Each had been battling with Tom Kim, proper up till Kim completed T4 over the weekend in Canada, nearly guaranteeing himself a tee time in Paris.
Household affair Thunder Bear
The No. 1 enemy within the Hojgaard family, at the very least proper now, is Thorbjorn Olesen, aka Thunder Bear. Olesen received the Uncooked Al Khadijah Championship in January, which gave him simply sufficient factors to carry on to that second qualification spot on behalf of Denmark, pipping Rasmus Hojgaard on the prospect to compete alongside his brother, Nicolai, who has already locked up his spot within the Olympics.
Olesen is ranked eightieth and Rasmus Hojgaard 96th, so there’s room for some magic to occur for the twins, however it’ll take a victory from Rasmus within the Scandinavian Blended occasion this weekend. Neither participant is certified for the U.S. Open.
Becoming a member of Hideki Matsuyama from Japan…
The ultimate race for the lads’s aspect of the Olympics got here all the way down to Japan, however it was simply as shut as any of the races above. Hideki Matsuyama is locked in, ranked fifteenth on this planet. He fought exhausting in the course of the 2020 Olympics in his house nation, battling Xander Schauffele to the ultimate gap, however walked away with no spot on the rostrum.
Chasing the ultimate Japanese spot is Keita Nakajima, ranked 86th, and Ryo Hisatsune, ranked 91st. The latter was competing in closing qualifying Monday, however did not advance, so it might seem his Olympics bid has come to an in depth and the ultimate spot can be Nakajima’s if he’d prefer it.
