The ins and outs of men's Olympics field
National Open champ is second American alternate; Fascinating U.S. Open facts from Elias and others
France’s Matthieu Pavon (right) won’t have to deal with Bryson DeChambeau in Paris (Logan Whitton/USGA)
The men’s Olympic Golf Ranking features 60 qualifiers representing 32 different countries who will compete for the gold medal at Le Golf National in on August 1-4. The list of golfers left out of the Paris Olympic Games is as notable as the those who made it.
Bryson DeChambeau — the reigning U.S. Open champion and No. 10 golfer in the world after his exemplary play in all three majors this season — will not represent the home country in which he just won his second national championship, despite the U.S. being the only country with more than two qualifiers for the 60-player field. In fact, DeChambeau isn’t even first alternate if any of the four Americans on the squad don’t play. Patrick Cantlay holds that honor ahead of him should one of the foursome of Scottie Scheffler, 2020 gold medalist Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark or Collin Morikawa opt out.
The top 15 players in the Official World Golf Ranking were eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four from a given country. Beyond the top 15, players were eligible based on the OWGR, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that did not already have two or more players among the top 15.
DeChambeau is golf’s version of women’s basketball’s Caitlin Clark — the most talked about player in their respective games getting left out of Team USA. It’s a missed opportunity for Olympic golf to capitalize on his magnetism at its peak. But the system is the system, no matter how flawed, and here we are with DeChambeau set to disappear into the relative void of LIV Golf for nine months after the British Open at Royal Troon concludes in July. Most of the world will wait for the Masters next April to see him play again.
DeChambeau, however, is not the only prominent name left out by the International Golf Federation’s two-year qualifying system based entirely on the OWGR, which excludes LIV golfers from earning points for results in the breakaway league.
LIV’s Cameron Smith, the 2022 British Open winner at St. Andrews, is first on the alternate list for Australia’s two-man team consisting of Jason Day and Min Woo Lee. Smith was ranked No. 2 in the OWGR when he left the PGA Tour to join LIV Golf at the end of the 2022 season.