Tokyo 2020 Golf Olympics: How the teams are shaping up

We take a look at how things currently stand for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and which golfers will qualify.

Jack Seddon's picture
Wed, 23 Oct 2019
Tokyo 2020 Golf Olympics: How the teams are shaping up

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio, golf returned to the quadrennial games for the first time in 112 years. There was a host of first-class talent set to battle it out for the Gold, but due to a break out of the Zika virus and some scheduling issues, some of the biggest names in golf were forced to withdraw.

For some, the chance to represent their country was too big an opportunity to pass and we still witnessed an epic final between Team Great Britain's Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson, representing Sweden.

Rose beat the 'Iceman' to win a Gold Medal, something he believes is still the biggest highlight of his career and considering he won the US Open in 2013, it goes to show just how much it meant to the Englishman.

In 2020, the Olympic Games will be held in Tokyo, Japan, and this time there should be no issues that stop the world's elite from competing. Multiple players have already expressed how much they want to represent their country next year, including Rose, Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey and Tiger Woods.

RELATED: Tiger Woods eyes up Tokyo 2020 Olympics

McIlroy was under scrutiny three years ago in the build up to the Rio Olympics, as being from Northern Ireland, he can represent either Ireland or Great Britain. Unfortunately, McIlroy was one of the players who pulled out of the Games, but he recently confirmed he will be a part of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and will be representing Ireland.

So with Tokyo 2020 just around the corner, let's take a look at how the qualification system works and going by the current world rankings, who will qualify.

Below is the qualification system from the International Golf Federation:

The Olympic field is restricted to 60 players for each of the men’s and women’s competitions. The IGF will utilise the official world golf rankings to create the Olympic Golf Rankings as a method of determining eligibility. 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.

Players have until the 22 June 2020 to gain as many ranking points as possible, but let's take a look at the 60 players that would currently take part in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

1
USA
Brooks Koepka
2
IRL
Rory McIlroy
3
USA
Dustin Johnson
4
USA
Justin Thomas
5
ESP
Jon Rahm
6
USA
Patrick Cantlay
7
GBR
Justin Rose
8
ITA
Francesco Molinari
9
GBR
Paul Casey
10
AUS
Adam Scott
11
IRL
Shane Lowry
12
AUT
Bernd Wiesberger
13
RSA
Louis Oosthuizen
14
AUS
Marc Leishman
15
JPN
Hideki Matsuyama
16
ESP
Sergio Garcia
17
SWE
Henrik Stenson
18
MEX
Abraham Ancer
19
CAN
Adam Hadwin
20
KOR
Sungjae Im
21
KOR
Byeong Hun An
22
JPN
Shugo Imahira
23
CHI
Joaquin Niemann
24
SWE
Alex Noren
25
CHN
Haotong Li
26
RSA
Erik van Rooyen
27
TPE
C.T. Pan
28
THA
Jazz Janewattananond
29
DEN
Lucas Bjerregaard
30
ITA
Andrea Pavan
31
CAN
Corey Conners
32
SVK
Rory Sabbatini
33
FRA
Victor Perez
34
THA
Kiradech Aphibarnrat
35
DEN
Thorbjørn Olesen
36
ARG
Emiliano Grillo
37
BEL
Thomas Pieters
38
NED
Joost Luiten
39
NOR
Viktor Hovland
40
FRA
Michael Lorenzo-Vera
41
NZL
Danny Lee
42
GER
Martin Kaymer
43
COL
Sebastián Muñoz
44
FIN
Mikko Korhonen
45
CHN
Xinjun Zhang
46
AUT
Matthias Schwab
47
NZL
Ryan Fox
48
VEN
Jhonattan Vegas
49
ZIM
Scott Vincent
50
NOR
Kristoffer Ventura
51
BEL
Thomas Detry
52
NED
Darius Van Driel
53
MEX
Carlos Ortiz
54
FIN
Kalle Samooja
55
MAS
Gavin Kyle Green
56
IND
Rashid Khan
57
POL
Adrian Meronk
58
POR
Ricardo Santos
59
ARG
Fabián Gómez
60
PHI
Miguel Tabuena