Golf fans who watched Bryson DeChambeau triumph at the U.S. Open over the weekend were once again made aware of his golfing brilliance. They were also made well aware that this is an Olympics year, with the NBC broadcast promoting the global athletics competition the network will also distribute to the world next month.
Coincidentally, DeChambeau’s conquest of Pinehurst No. 2 pushed him right up to the edge of qualifying for the Olympics, which will be held in Paris. But with the qualifying period wrapping up once DeChambeau tapped in for a winning par Sunday night, the American who won the United States Open will not be representing Team USA in the 33rd Olympiad. The reason: he hasn’t played enough 72-hole tournaments.
The United States will send four male golfers to France at the end of July — Scottie Scheffler (the best player in the world), Xander Schauffele (the defending Gold medal winner), Wyndham Clark (a first-time Olympian) and Collin Morikawa (who lost in a playoff for the Bronze medal in the 2020 Olympics). On the women’s side, there is one more week of qualifying, but Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu and Rose Zhang are already locked in to represent Team USA.
The qualification system for the Olympics directly mimics the Official World Golf Ranking, which is a reflection of the last two years of professional golf tournaments held around the globe. Countries are allowed a maximum of two golfers in the field, unless players are ranked in the top 15. For a golf-rich country like America, a maximum of four golfers can qualify, so long as they’re ranked in the top 15 of the OWGR. At the end of the U.S. Open, a stunning NINE Americans were ranked in the top 15, DeChambeau among them.
But ultimately he ranks sixth out of that group, narrowly falling behind Patrick Cantlay and the last man in, Morikawa. That’s where an ounce of controversy reigns.
DeChambeau plays the majority of his tournaments on LIV Golf, which hosts 54-hole events that do not qualify for OWGR points. Why LIV events don’t merit OWGR points has been an ongoing saga for the last two years, since the breakaway golf league launched. But essentially, every week DeChambeau tees it up on LIV Golf (this week included!) is an empty week in his OWGR ranking resume, whether he wins or finishes dead last. So despite DataGolf (which includes LIV tournaments) ranking him No. 6 in the world — and the fourth-best American — the OWGR ranks him 10th, behind five fellow Americans and outside the Olympics cut.
DeChambeau’s most loyal followers, enlivened by his recent form — which also included a solo 2nd-place finish at the PGA and a personal-best T6 at the Masters — want him in the Olympics. And DeChambeau wants in, too. But even he knows that rules are rules and his decision to join LIV put Olympic qualification in jeopardy.
“Hopefully one day this game of golf will get figured out and come back together and I will be able to play [in the Olympics],” DeChambeau said Monday on The Pat McAfee Show.
“I’m playing great golf, I’m excited, but ultimately yeah, am I frustrated and disappointed? Sure, you could absolutely say that. But I made the choices that I made and there’s consequences to that and I respect it.”
As for the rest of the Olympics field, there was some jockeying over the weekend for Team Canada and Team Spain. Corey Conners’ one-over-par weekend pushed him hundredths of a point above Adam Hadwin in the final qualifying ranking, which means he’ll join Nick Taylor representing Canada. Youngster David Puig shot 68 in the second round at Pinehurst to narrowly beat out Jorge Campillo to represent Spain, joining Jon Rahm. The entire field of qualifiers and their countries is listed below.
1. Scottie Scheffler — United States of America
2. Rory McIlroy — Ireland
3. Xander Schauffele — United States of America
4. Ludvig Åberg — Sweden
5. Wyndham Clark — United States of America
6. Viktor Hovland — Norway
7. Collin Morikawa — United States of America
8. Jon Rahm — Spain
9. Hideki Matsuyama — Japan
10. Tommy Fleetwood — Great Britain
11. Matthew Fitzpatrick — Great Britain
12. Matthieu Pavon — France
13. Sepp Straka — Austria
14. Jason Day — Australia
15. Tom Kim — Korea
16. Byeong Hun An — Korea
17. Shane Lowry — Ireland
18. Nick Taylor — Canada
19. Min Woo Lee — Australia
20. Corey Conners — Canada
21. Christiaan Bezuidenhout — South Africa
22. Stephan Jaeger — Germany
23. Nicolai Højgaard — Denmark
24. Thomas Detry — Belgium
25. Emiliano Grillo — Argentina
26. Alex Noren — Sweden
27. Ryan Fox — New Zealand
28. Erik van Rooyen — South Africa
29. Adrian Meronk — Poland
30. Victor Perez — France
31. Keita Nakajima — Japan
32. Thorbjørn Olesen — Denmark
33. Alejandro Tosti — Argentina
34. Joaquin Niemann — Chile
35. Sami Valimaki — Finland
36. Kevin Yu — Chinese Taipei
37. David Puig — Spain
38. Matti Schmid — Germany
39. C.T. Pan — Chinese Taipei
40. Joost Luiten — Netherlands
41. Carl Yuan — China
42. Camilo Villegas — Colombia
43. Matteo Manassero — Italy
44. Adrien Dumont de Chassart — Belgium
45. Daniel Hillier — New Zealand
46. Cristobal Del Solar — Chile
47. Guido Migliozzi — Italy
48. Shubhankar Sharma — India
49. Rafael Campos — Puerto Rico
50. Darius Van Driel — Netherlands
51. Carlos Ortiz — Mexico
52. Kiradech Aphibarnrat — Thailand
53. Gavin Green — Malaysia
54. Gaganjeet Bhullar — India
55. Nico Echavarria — Colombia
56. Kris Ventura — Norway
57. Phachara Khongwatmai — Thailand
58. Abraham Ancer — Mexico
59. Zecheng Dou — China
60. Fabrizio Zanotti — Paraguay