The qualification period for the women’s golf competition at the 2024 Olympics ends June 24 following the conclusion of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, and the world’s best female golfers are working hard to clinch their spot in the 60-player field at Le Golf National.
Competition has heated up in recent weeks, and while some athletes have played their way into the field in France, others have been knocked out of the top 60 in the Olympic Golf Ranking.
One of the most notable movements this past week involved Japan, as 2022 Women’s Scottish Open champion Ayaka Furue overtook six-time LPGA Tour winner Nasa Hataoka to claim the second Japanese spot in the ranking. Fellow countrywoman Yuka Saso essentially locked up her place in the field following her victory at this year’s U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally at Lancaster Country Club. The Paris Games will mark Saso’s second Olympic appearance and first for Japan.
Another big shake-up included Finland, which now has two athletes ranked in the top 60 of the Olympic Golf Ranking. Ecuador’s Daniela Darquea was replaced by Finn Noora Komulainen in the field, while Finnish player Ursula Wikstrom took Malaysian Natasha Andrea Oon’s place at Le Golf National.
Oon, the 2023 Gaelle Truet Rookie of the Year on the Epson Tour, announced on May 13 that she hasn’t been competing this season on the LPGA Tour due to a lingering foot injury that she’s continuing to work through. The 2024 LPGA rookie would have been vying for her first Olympic had she not been dealing with health challenges. The only player from Malaysia currently eligible to play in the Olympics is Ashley Lau of the Epson Tour.
In the top 15, the United States remains the only country with three or more representatives, as Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu and Rose Zhang are currently sitting at first, second and seventh, respectively, in the ranking. Australia, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea have two players inside the top 15, with Hannah Green and Minjee Lee currently slated to represent the Aussies, Jin Young Ko and Hyo Joo Kim set to compete for Korea and Ruoning Yin and Xiyu Lin playing for China in Paris.
The final chance for the women to earn their spot in the field for Paris is next week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club. Canadian Brooke Henderson, who’s currently qualified for the Games, won the event in 2016 – the last time it was held in Sammamish, Washington. Yin will look to successfully defend her 2023 title, a major victory that marked a first for the now 21-year-old.
Adam Hadwin Overtakes Corey Conners for Olympic Positioning With One Week Remaining
Of all the players competing at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday last week, no one helped their case to make the 2024 Paris Olympics more than Canada’s Adam Hadwin. Hadwin, who has been locked in a tight race with Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith and Mackenzie Hughes to secure the second Canadian spot at the Olympics, finished third at the Memorial to skyrocket into the top 40 of the Olympic Golf Ranking (OGR).
The field for this year’s men’s Olympic competition will be finalized on Monday, June 17, following the conclusion of the U.S. Open. The top 60 in the OGR will consist of up to four participants per country within the top 15 of the ranking and up to two participants per country overall within the top 60.
Hadwin is looking to represent Canada at the Olympics for the first time after countrymen David Hearn and Graham DeLaet represented Canada at the 2016 Olympics and the same distinction was earned by Conners and Hughes in 2021. Hadwin and other Canadians vying for the second position will likely join Nick Taylor later this summer in Paris.
Elsewhere in the men’s OGR, Jorge Campillo overtook David Puig to claim the second position allocated to Spain alongside Jon Rahm. However, with Puig in the U.S. Open this week, he’ll have one last chance to surpass Campillo and reclaim the second position. Campillo currently stands at No. 116 in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR), which the OGR draws upon, just one position ahead of Puig (No. 117).
Paraguayan Fabrizio Zanotti re-entered the OGR at the coveted last spot (No. 60) and will look to hold on to that position for one more week. He is the only player in the projected field set to represent Paraguay and the seventh overall from South America (joining Argentinians Emiliano Grillo and Alejandro Tosti, Chileans Joaquin Niemann and Cristobal del Solar and Colombians Camilo Villegas and Nico Echavarria).
With one week and one major championship remaining before the qualification deadline, several players will look to make one final push to represent their nation later this summer in Paris.
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