Olympics Golf 2024 Preview:

After over a century, golf was reinstated into the Olympic Games for Rio 2016. Now it is back for its third go-around at Le Golf National, located just southwest of Paris. Unlike the 1900 games in Paris where there was a team and individual competition, there are just individual competitions here in Paris with 60 players on the men’s side and 60 players on the women’s side.

Like most tournaments, these are four-day stroke play events held over 72 holes where gold, silver, and bronze medals are awarded at the conclusion. In the event of a tie, there will be sudden-death playoffs to decide the medals. This happened at the Tokyo games when Chinese Taipei’s C.T. Pan emerged from a seven-man playoff to earn the bronze medal.

The Fields

The field of 60 players is selected as follows:

• The Top 15 world ranked players on the IGF (International Golf Federation) points list with no more than four players coming from one nation.
• The remaining spots are allocated based on said points list with no more than two players coming from one nation.
• The IGF guarantees that at least one golfer from the host nation and each geographical region (Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania) also qualifies for the field.

The men’s competition takes place on Thursday, August 1 through Sunday, August 4.

Here are the 60 players in the men’s field:

World Ranking as of June 17, 2024

USA
Scottie Scheffler – No. 1
Xander Schauffele – No. 3
Wyndham Clark – No. 5
Collin Morikawa – No. 7

Ireland
Rory McIlroy – No. 2
Shane Lowry – No. 33

Sweden
Ludvig Åberg – No. 4
Alex Noren – No. 55

Norway
Viktor Hovland – No. 6
Kristoffer Ventura – No. 281

Spain
Jon Rahm – No. 9
David Puig – No. 113

Japan
Hideki Matsuyama – No. 12
Keita Nakajima – No. 83

Great Britain
Tommy Fleetwood – No. 13
Matt Fitzpatrick – No. 18

France
Matthieu Pavon – No. 20
Victor Perez – No. 78

Austria
Sepp Straka – No. 21

Australia
Jason Day – No. 24
Min Woo Lee – No. 36

South Korea
Tom Kim – No. 26
Byeong Hun An – No. 27

Canada
Nick Taylor – Canada – No. 35
Corey Conners – Canada – No. 37

South Africa
Christiaan Bezuidenhout – No. 40
Erik van Rooyen – No. 67

Germany
Stephan Jaeger – No. 42
Matti Schmid – No. 134

Denmark
Nicolai Højgaard – No. 44
Thorbjørn Olesen – No. 85

Belgium
Thomas Detry – No. 48
Adrien Dumont de Chassart – No. 187

Argentina
Emiliano Grillo – No. 52
Alejandro Tosti – No. 98

New Zealand
Ryan Fox – No. 59
Daniel Hillier – No. 190

Poland
Adrian Meronk – No. 73

Chile
Joaquin Niemann – No. 99
Mito Pereira – No. 272

Finland
Sami Välimäki – No. 100
Tapio Pulkkanen – No. 378

Chinese Taipei
Kevin Yu – No. 108
C.T. Pan – No. 140

China
Carl Yuan – No. 155
Marty Dou – No. 338

Colombia
Camilo Villegas – No. 177
Nico Echavarria – No. 269

Italy
Matteo Manassero – No. 180
Guido Migliozzi – No. 198

India
Shubhankar Sharma – No. 219
Gaganjeet Bhullar – No. 261

Puerto Rico
Rafael Campos – No. 221

Mexico
Carlos Ortiz – No. 240
Abraham Ancer – No. 312

Thailand
Kiradech Aphibarnrat – No. 242
Phachara Kwongwatmai – No. 287

Malaysia
Gavin Green – No. 257

Paraguay
Fabrizio Zanotti – No. 343

Switzerland
Joel Girrbach – No. 366

The women’s competition takes place on Wednesday, August 7 through Saturday, August 10.

Here are the 60 players in the women’s field:

World Ranking as of June 24, 2024

USA
Nelly Korda – No. 1
Lilia Vu – No. 2
Rose Zhang – No. 9

South Korea
Jin Young Ko – No. 3
Amy Yang – No. 5
Hyo Joo Kim – No. 13

China
Ruoning Yin – No. 4
Xiyu Lin – No. 15

France
Céline Boutier – No. 6
Perrine Delacour – No. 75

Australia
Hannah Green – No. 7
Minjee Lee – No. 11

Great Britain
Charley Hull – No. 8
Georgia Hall – No. 36

Japan
Yuka Saso – No. 10
Miyū Yamashita – No. 19

Thailand
Atthaya Thitikul – No. 12
Patty Tavatanakit – No. 25

Canada
Brooke Henderson – No. 14
Alena Sharp – No. 292

New Zealand
Lydia Ko – No. 17

Sweden
Maja Stark – No. 21
Linn Grant – No. 26

Spain
Carlota Ciganda – No. 30
Azahara Muñoz – No. 109

Ireland
Leona Maguire – No. 32

Stephanie Meadow – No. 134

South Africa
Ashleigh Buhai – No. 41
Paula Reto – No. 196

India
Aditi Ashok – No. 60
Diksha Dagar – No. 167

Mexico
Gaby López – No. 62

Germany
Esther Henseleit – No. 64
Alexandra Försterling – No. 69

Switzerland
Albane Valenzuela – No. 70
Morgane Métraux – No. 127

Denmark
Emily Kristine Pedersen – No. 87
Nanna Koerstz Madsen – No. 106

Chinese Taipei
Pei-yun Chien – No. 88
Wei-ling Hsu – No. 161

Netherlands
Anne Van Dam – No. 108

Philippines
Bianca Pagdangan – No. 113
Dottie Ardina – No. 298

Belgium
Manon De Roey – No. 154

Austria
Emma Spitz – No. 178
Sarah Schober – No. 330

Singapore
Shannon Tan – No. 181

Mexico
María Fassi – No. 186

Norway
Celine Borge – No. 187
Madelene Stavnar – No. 307

Czech Republic
Klára Spilková – No. 192
Sára Kousková – No. 290

Colombia
Mariajo Uribe – No. 198

Italy
Alessandra Fanali – No. 211

Malaysia
Ashley Lau – No. 279

Finland
Ursula Wikström – No. 286
Noora Komulainen – No. 301

Slovenia
Ana Belac – No. 288
Pia Babnik – No. 336

Morocco
Ines Laklalech – No. 321

The Course

The Albatross Course at Le Golf National, located in Guyancourt, just southwest of Paris, will host the Olympic Games competitions. Golf fans and bettors alike should be familiar with this track as it hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup (won by Team Europe 17.5-10.5). It also hosts the Open de France each year on the DP World Tour.

The stock yardage here for the men should be 7,331 yards for a Par 72, which is the yardage for the DP World Tour event. As for the women, an official yardage has yet to be officially released, but it should play a little over 6,700 yards.

Ten of the Albatross’ 18 holes have water at least partially in play, including six on the back nine. The greens on the 15th, 16th and 18th holes all have water guarding the approach shots, so it should make for an exciting finish.

Olympic Golf History

2020 Tokyo

Men’s:

Gold: Xander Schauffele – USA
Silver: Rory Sabbatini – Slovakia
Bronze: C.T. Pan – Chinese Taipei*

*Won a seven-man playoff that included Paul Casey (Great Britain), Hideki Matsuyama (Japan), Rory McIlroy (Ireland), Collin Morikawa (USA), Sebastián Muñoz (Colombia), and Mito Pereira (Chile).

Women’s:

Gold: Nelly Korda – USA
Silver: Mone Inami – Japan*
Bronze: Lydia Ko – New Zealand

*Inami and Ko tied, but Inami won the sudden-death playoff for the silver medal.

2016 Rio

Men’s:

Gold: Justin Rose – Great Britain
Silver: Henrik Stenson – Sweden
Bronze: Matt Kuchar – USA

Women’s:

Gold: Inbee Park – South Korea
Silver: Lydia Ko – New Zealand
Bronze: Shanshan Feng – China

Selections

While no odds are widely available at press time, you can get a realistic gauge of how the odds board will shake out at the top with Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Xander Schauffele being the top choices on the men’s side and Nelly Korda leading the way on the women’s side.

On the men’s side, players that have had previous success here include winners of the Open de France which include Tommy Fleetwood (2017), Alex Noren (2018), and Guido Migliozzi (2022).

Fleetwood also went 4-1 in the 2018 Ryder Cup victory for Team Europe.

Other high past finishes in events held at Le Golf National include McIlroy (3rd in 2016), Jon Rahm (5th in 2017 and 10th in 2018), Thorbjørn Olesen (3rd in 2017 and 10th in 2023), David Puig (4th in 2022), Ryan Fox (6th in 2017), Tom Kim (6th in 2023), and Ludvig Åberg (7th in 2022).

On the women’s side, it is worth noting that Rose Zhang tied for 1st on this course in 2022 as the low scorer in the Espirito Santo Trophy, which is a team competition for the World Amateur Team Championship.

A full writeup of both competitions will be available at VSiN.com the week beginning Monday, July 29.