3 major winners turn down Olympic consideration: Report

Bad news for golf fans hoping to see major champions Brooks Koepka and Adam Scott at this summer’s Olympics in Paris.

According to a report from the Madrid-based ElPeriodiGolf that was confirmed by Golf Digest, Koepka and Scott, along with several other stars have withdrawn their names from consideration for their respective Olympic teams for the 2024 Games.

Koepka is not the only LIV player to remove his name from Olympic contention: world No. 16 and recent LIV signee Tyrell Hatton is also out, along with 2010 Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen and Thomas Pieters. Germany’s Marcel Siem has also pulled his name from qualifying, according to ElPeriodi.

Most of the golfers faced strong headwinds for qualifying for their respective squads. The Olympics takes 60 golfers, using the Official World Golf Rankings, for a 72-hole individual stroke play competition. Each country is permitted to name two golfers to their teams, or up to four if those players are ranked in the top 15 in the world.

Koepka, despite winning last year’s PGA Championship at Oak Hill, has fallen to No. 31 in the world while continuing to predominantly play LIV events, which still do not award OWGR points. That leaves him well behind qualifying for the U.S. team, which is currently made up of world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark (No. 4), Xander Schauffele (No. 5) and Patrick Cantlay (No. 7). To earn a spot on Team USA, Koepka would have to pass 13 other Americans in the rankings, which would likely require him to win his sixth major this year.

Oosthuizen and Pieters are in similar boats with Oosthuizen now occupying the 118th place in the rankings, well behind South Africa’s current No. 2 qualifier, World No. 61 Erik van Rooyen. Pieters has fallen to No. 358 in the world, putting him well back for the Belgian team currently made up of Thomas Detry and Adrien Dumont de Chassart.

Hatton’s case is more interesting. The Englishman, who joined LIV Golf only in January, is just one spot outside of adding a third member to the English team, which will Matt Fitzpatrick and Tommy Fleetwood, at the moment.

According to projections from OWGR Twitter guru Nosferatu, five LIV Golfers are currently qualified for the respective countries: Jon Rahm (Spain), Adrian Meronk (Poland), Joaquin Niemann (Chile), David Puig (Spain) and Abraham Ancer (Mexico).

Scott’s decision should come as no surprise as he did not compete in either the last two Olympics after golf’s 112-year absence from the Games ended in 2016. When debating whether to play in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Scott told reporters in Australia, “I still question strongly why it is there. I don’t see the need.”

He’s currently ranked 52nd in the world, third among Aussies behind Jason Day (No. 22) and Min Woo Lee (No. 25).

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Siem, who plays predominantly on the DP World Tour, is well off the pace of qualifying for the German team, as Stephan Jaeger, who won the Houston Open Sunday, and Matti Schmid are both enjoying success this season on the PGA Tour.

The cutoff date for the men’s Olympic competition qualification is June 17. The women use the same qualification criteria from the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and their cutoff date is a week later. Per Golf Digest, no females have removed themselves for consideration for the 2024 Olympics.

The men’s competition will run Aug. 1-4 with the women following on Aug. 7-10. Both tournaments will be staged on the Albatros course at Le Golf National, the site of the 2018 Ryder Cup.