By Ryan Herrington
Gaby Lopez, one of just two Mexican golfers ever to win on the LPGA Tour, has been thinking about the Tokyo Olympics for some time now.

“That’s my ultimate goal, being able to peak at that week,” Lopez told Golf Channel earlier this year. “That’s what my schedule is going to be played around, being rested, being prepared, in time to play well that week.”

Even if Lopez doesn’t claim a medal when the women’s tournament is contested in two weeks, she’ll have memories of the Tokyo Games that will last a lifetime. On Friday, Lopez, 27, had the honor of carrying her country’s flag during the Opening Ceremony along with diver Rommel Pacheco.

While Japan National Stadium, where the festivities took place, had no spectators for the occasion due to COVID-19 restrictions, the moment was still a big one for Lopez.

“It’s a huge honour to be able to represent my country in women’s golf in Mexico, which isn’t a huge sport,” Lopez said earlier this year. “To just inspire little girls and [for them to] see what a golfer and little girl can do to achieve their dreams, that’s going to be why I play golf and that’s what it means to me and my life and my career.”

This isn’t Lopez first Olympic experience; she competed in the Rio Games in 2016, finishing T-31.

Apparently, Lopez has been considered a likely flagbearer for Mexico for some time now. After her victory at the LPGA’s Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in January 2020, she said she was approached by the president of the Mexican Olympic Committee about the possibility of serving in the role that summer. Of course, the Games were postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lopez wasn’t the only golfer who served as a flag bearer during the Opening Ceremony. Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti, a two-time European Tour, carried his country’s flag along with tennis player Veronica Cepede. Zanotti competed in the Olympics in 2016, finishing T-15 at the Rio Games. In 2016, LPGA Tour pro Julieta Granada carried the flag for Paraguay.

Matthias Hangst
Flag bearers Veronica Cepede and Fabrizio Zanotti (left) of Team Paraguay during the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

The post Mexico’s Gaby Lopez, Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti carry country’s flags during Olympic Opening Ceremony appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Illustrations by Nigel Buchanan

By Matthew Rudy
You tune into the Olympic coverage to see champions win medals, sure. But it’s more than that. A part of the fan experience is being introduced to obscure characters in each sport—athletes you want to root for because of their charisma, perseverance, origin story and chance to conquer the odds. Golf in Tokyo is no different. Jon Rahm, Inbee Park, Justin Thomas and Nelly Korda will be among the favorites to win medals, but here we profile five prospective Olympians for whom the Games are more than just a two-week interruption of summertime major championship preparation. For some, like Morocco’s Maha Haddioui, just making it to the first tee at Tokyo’s Kasumigaseki Country Club will bring exponentially more attention to a part of the world not known for golf. For others, like Chile’s Mito Pereira, it could be the first time we see a future star on the international stage. The men’s tournament runs July 29-Aug. 1, and the women’s Aug. 4-7.

Maria Fernanda Torres

Age 26 • San Juan, Puerto Rico

The Puerto Rican flag implies a relationship with the United States, with its stars and stripes and red-white-and-blue colourway. However, even though the island a thousand miles southeast of Florida is technically an American territory, it is considered a country by the International Olympic Committee.

Puerto Rico is a sports-mad place—with a rich history in baseball, basketball, boxing and tennis. (Monica Puig won Puerto Rico’s first gold medal, in women’s singles, at the Rio Games in 2016.)

When golf was voted back into the Games in 2009, Maria Fernanda Torres was a freshman equestrienne-turned-golfer at the Cupeyville School in San Juan. “I used to ride horses, and one day on the way back from practice, there was a range, and my dad asked me if I wanted to take classes,” Torres says. “When I tried it, I had a passion that made me want to continue.”

Continue she did, practicing relentlessly and making trips to the mainland for American Junior Golf Association tournaments across the Southeast. Torres earned a scholarship to the University of Florida, where she won five times and was the 2016 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year. She also represented Puerto Rico in the 2014 and 2016 World Amateur Team Championships—which in 2014 were played in Japan. Torres turned professional in 2017 and won a playoff for the final fully exempt spot through LPGA Tour qualifying school for the 2018 season.

That status set her up to earn enough world-ranking points to join the PGA Tour’s Rafael Campos as the two professionals who will represent Puerto Rico in Tokyo. “My dream was to play college golf and to win on the professional tour, but the Olympics is another thing. That’s a bigger dream,” says Torres, who had her best LPGA season in 2019 when she finished 73rd on the money list. “Everybody knows when the Olympics are, and the people at home are feeling the vibe. It’s amazing— another level.”

The postponement of the Tokyo Games to 2021 upset golf’s collective schedule, but it might actually have been a blessing for Torres. Puerto Rico was pounded by a series of earthquakes in early 2020, followed by rolling blackouts. She and her family were safe, but those issues—plus COVID lockdowns that made it almost impossible for her to practice— would have been difficult to overcome ahead of a July 2020 tournament assignment.

“Thankfully, my family was fine through that, and we didn’t suffer serious damage, but it has been one thing after another,” she says. “It’s made for an irregular year, but I’ve been able to get back to work on the things I need to do for my game to be ready.”

Torres’ game has always been long on explosiveness. She averages more than 260 yards off the tee, and she is among the LPGA’s leaders in eagles. Now she’s working on her short irons and simplifying her pre-round routine to help channel her attention. “I’m going to try to take it like any other tournament and enjoy the ride. It’s a smaller field, and it’s a lot of the same players you play with every week,” Torres says. “I wish we would be able to see some of the other athletes and how they get ready to play, but it doesn’t look like that will be possible because of the restrictions. It would have been incredible to learn something from what they do. But if I saw LeBron James, I might die.”

Mito Pereira

Age 26 • Santiago, Chile

Scroll the Korn Ferry Tour results from any given week, and it’s a track meet of scores in the mid- and low 60s. You have to go low, a lot, to survive. The line between survival and eventually making it to the PGA Tour? As thin as you can imagine.

Just ask Mito Pereira.

Pereira missed earning full status on the Korn Ferry Tour for 2020-’21 by one shot. Conditionally exempt, he would have to make enough money in his spot starts to move up in the reshuffle to have any hope of playing a full season.

As the early schedule swung into familiar Central American turf, Pereira got his shot—and he didn’t miss. After a third place finish in Panama earned him a spot the next week in Bogota, Pereira won to lock up full privileges for the Korn Ferry season. In June, he won back-to-back events—shooting a career-low 62 in Raleigh to win the REX Hospital Open and shooting 66-64 on the weekend to win the BMW Charity Pro-Am by four—which gave him an instant battlefield promotion to the PGA Tour and a fully exempt season for 2021-’22.

For now, he’s sleeping in countryman Joaquín Niemann’s Florida guest room while he plots an American relocation strategy, and the two are preparing to represent their country in the Olympics. “Chile is a small country, and not everybody even knows what the PGA Tour is,” says Pereira, who won a bronze medal for Chile at the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru. “It was a way bigger deal that I got into the Olympics than it was that I won a tournament. If we can win a medal, Chile is going to blow up.”

Pereira’s qualification odyssey wasn’t even his first potential diversion from tour golf as a career. He was an elementary school golf prodigy in Pirque, a suburb of Santiago, and traveled the international junior circuit recording two World Championship wins. “I went to an academy in the States, and I just got tired of the game,” Pereira says. “I wanted to go to a regular school and do the normal things a kid needs to do.”

After two golf-free years— and a broken collarbone from a foray into dirt bikes and motocross—Pereira got an invitation from a friend to come back and play a recreational round. “I thought, Why not? and I went out and shot five-under,” he says. “I got back into it, and there was still time to get some interest from colleges.”

Pereira played one season at Texas Tech, where he rose to fifth in the world-amateur rankings, then turned professional and started on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica. Seeing players like Niemann and fellow All-Big 12 players Scottie Scheffler and Beau Hossler up close verified for Pereira that he had the game to make it to the PGA Tour. “You realize it’s not impossible. They’re great, but they make mistakes, too. They just play smart,” he says. “Working with a mental coach [Eugenio Lisana] has really helped. You have to feel like you always want to keep getting better. I’m ready to play with the best players in the world.”

Maha Haddioui

Age 33 • Agadir, Morrocco

Picture the ultimate golf destination and you probably visualise one of the usual photogenic suspects—Pebble Beach, Bandon Dunes, St. Andrews or maybe Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand.

Morocco’s golf landscape has all of those features—linksland, oceanside cliffs, mature forests and even snowcapped mountain ranges—all within a few hours drive. The North African country is the Shangri-La you didn’t know existed, and for the second-consecutive Olympics, the country will send one of its players to compete. “Close your eyes and you don’t know if you’re in Arizona or Morocco,” says Maha Haddioui, who played for Morocco in Rio and qualified again for Tokyo. “One of the royal courses in Dar Essalam, you could be in a forest in Georgia. My course in Agadir, Taghazout Bay, is a links course. You could be in Ireland.”

But even with all that natural landscape, the game in Morocco has traditionally been one played by the wealthy—or the royal. Claude Harmon (Butch’s father) gained some notoriety in the 1970s for spending his off-seasons coaching King Hassan II in Rabat, and Butch was the head professional at Dar Essalam golf club in the 1980s. When Haddioui was growing up in Agadir, a coastal city at the base of the Anti-Atlas Mountains, the golf course near her home was the curiosity where the tourists came to play. “I thought it was something boring, for the old people,” Haddioui says. “But my mom said I should give it a try. I loved it, and my sister and I started.”

It wasn’t long before Haddioui outgrew the sparse competition at home—“It was kids’ tournaments and social golf, and I was playing with the boys by the time I turned 15,” Haddioui says—so her parents sent her to Marseilles, in the south of France, to compete in European junior amateur events. From there, she traveled to the United States and played at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., where she was the top-ranked golfer in Division II.

“I loved it. It was the best thing I ever did,” says Haddioui, who became fluent in her fourth language, earned a degree in international business and was offered a job in the school’s statistics department after graduation. “My choices were to take that job or to go back home to Morocco and take a risk and turn pro. When I came back, it was a controversial decision. My family loves sports, but they wondered when I was going to get a real job.”

Ten years later, Haddioui has developed into an established professional athlete who not only won the 2012 Moroccan Ladies Professional Championship but finished third in the men’s version of the same tournament that year. She has been a regular on the Ladies European Tour since 2013 and remains the only Arab woman with status on a major professional golf tour.

Haddioui’s trailblazing status at home made her first Olympic experience an overwhelming one.

“To represent your country, it’s a different feeling, and you have to be prepared for it,” she says. “I played in a lot of tournaments, but I had never represented Morocco. Players in other parts of the world can do Junior Ryder Cup or Junior Solheim Cup. I didn’t have that chance. You know all the eyes are on you, and I wasn’t prepared for that.”

Haddioui spent two weeks in Rio almost shell-shocked, keeping mostly to her room except for one foray to watch eventual bronze medalist Mohammed Rabii box. Haddioui finished last but resolved to come back in four years a different player.

“I swore to myself, next time I come, I’ll come as an athlete—not a spectator or a golfer,” says Haddioui, who regularly posts her Olympic-caliber workouts on Instagram. “I didn’t work out much before. I went to the gym, but I didn’t know what to do. Now I’m stronger in the swing, and I can be stable through the shot. I’m ready this time.”

Rasmus Højgaard

Age 20 • Billund, Denmark

One of the staples of Olympic programming is the identification of (and investment in) a Cinderella story—the longshot you never knew you wanted to know so much about.

Golf has some of those charming narratives at these Games, but Denmark’s Rasmus Højgaard is not one of them. Instead, he’s a representative of European golf’s future—a star in waiting you just might not have heard of yet because of the COVID-era stop-and-start scheduling around the world.

The 6-foot-2 Dane won twice in his rookie 2020 season and averaged 320 yards off the tee, proving courses like The Belfry (where he went 67-65 on the weekend to win in a playoff) are more likely to get overwhelmed than he is. The Olympic Games could well be his first opportunity to occupy the world golf stage—and to expand that stage in Denmark. “I don’t know what the experience will be yet, but I’m looking forward to the mystery,”Højgaard says. “It’s like you’re giving something back to the country.”

In a year, Højgaard went from the European Challenge Tour to the top 100 in the world rankings. The speed of the ascent might be a surprise, but given Højgaard ’s competitive pedigree, the destination is not. Højgaard and his identical twin brother, Nicolai, were introduced to the game by their parents at 4 as a way for the family to do something together during summers in Billund, Denmark (which is the birthplace of LEGO toys), and between them, they overwhelmed the family trophy room with amateur hardware. In 2018, they joined with John Axelsen to win the Eisenhower Trophy at the World Amateur Team Championship in Ireland for Denmark (beating the American team of Collin Morikawa, Cole Hammer and Justin Suh by a shot). Nicolai won the European Amateur, and Rasmus won the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup by four—over Nicolai.

Andrew Redington

The brothers turned professional in early 2019, and both found success right away. Nicolai finished second to Sergio Garcia at the KLM Open, and Rasmus missed automatic promotion to the European Tour through moneylist performance by one shot before grabbing a card in the final stage of qualifying school. That became academic when Rasmus won his fifth European Tour start, in Mauritius, just after Q school, and followed it with that win at The Belfry last August. He’s playing in Tokyo with fellow Danish qualifier (and 2020 European Tour winner) Joachim Hansen, and Nicolai is a good bet to make it hard to tell the Højgaards apart during the 2024 Games in Paris.

Rasmus says during the Tokyo Games most of Denmark’s eyes will be on the men’s national handball team, which is the defending gold medalist and two-time defending world champion in the team sport that plays like a cross between dodgeball and soccer. He’s been watching, too—as a fan and to crib training notes from his mates on the team. “The explosiveness you need in handball is good for a golf swing, and that’s something I’m working on,” says Højgaard, who played club handball until 15. “Golf is nowhere near the level of popularity of handball or soccer in Denmark, but it’s growing. If we could bring back a medal? That would be big. Everyone will be watching.”

Aditi Ashok

Age 23 • Bangalore, India

It would be an exaggeration to say that Aditi Ashok came from nowhere to establish a promising career as a tour player. After all, she grew up in Bangalore, India—a city of almost nine million people. But in golf vernacular, India really is out-of-bounds. It has just 200 courses for 150,000 golfers, out of a total population of 1.4 billion. Even though Ashok represented India in women’s golf at the Rio Games as a newly minted 18-year-old professional, more than half of Indian sports fans surveyed ahead of the Games didn’t even know golf had returned as an Olympic sport.

Ashok aims to change that, in Tokyo and on the LPGA and LET tours. “I read that after the Olympics, Google searches for golf in India were huge,” says Ashok, who started playing at age 5 when she and her parents began taking lessons at Bangalore Golf Club—one of the oldest clubs in the world outside the British Isles (established in 1876). “Just seeing the impact it had and the exposure it got at the time was a big deal for me.”

The Rio Olympics were just the next step in a progression that saw Ashok become one of the most decorated young players in the game. After thrashing the limited amateur competition in India—she won the National Women’s Amateur as a 13-year-old in 2011 and was a three-time national junior champion—Ashok validated those credentials by winning the Ladies British Amateur Open Stroke Play in 2015. She turned pro in 2016 and had one of the best seasons for an 18-year-old this side of Tiger Woods. Flashing a deadly short game that offsets below-average length, Ashok briefly led in Rio during the second round before fading to 41st. After the Games, she made a successful trip through LPGA qualifying school and followed it with her first two professional wins back-to-back weeks at the Hero Women’s Indian Open and Qatar Ladies Open.

Since then, Ashok has been trying to juggle playing the American and European professional tours while navigating the severe COVID challenges facing Bangalore and all of India. For months, she was restricted to hitting balls into a sheet on the terrace of her parents’ home in Bangalore, and travel restrictions limited her to just a handful of LPGA events in the first half of 2021—and none in Europe—before she got back to work in mid-June.

“I’m the kind of golfer who thrives on momentum,” she says. “There’s no right time for things you can’t control, but the world is dealing with bigger things right now.”

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By Joel Beall
The Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to begin in late July following a one-year postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, the global event will be closed off to the rest of the world.

After weeks of rumours and reports, organisers officially announced the Summer Games will not allow international spectators.

“Currently, the COVID-19 situation in Japan and many other countries around the world is still very challenging and a number of variant strains have emerged, whilst international travel remains severely restricted globally,” the International Olympic Committee said in a statement Saturday. “Based on the present situation of the pandemic, it is highly unlikely that entry into Japan will be guaranteed this summer for people from overseas. In order to give clarity to ticket holders living overseas and to enable them to adjust their travel plans at this stage, the parties on the Japanese side have come to the conclusion that they will not be able to enter into Japan at the time of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“This conclusion will further contribute to ensure safe and secure games for all participants and the Japanese public.”

It was a joint decision made by the Tokyo local government, the Tokyo Organizing Committee and the government of Japan, and reflected the overall sentiment of the Japanese public. Close to 80 percent of the country’s population opposed hosting fans from overseas due to COVID-19 risks, with a similar percentage wanting the games to be cancelled or delayed further.

“The fact that spectators are not able to attend the games from abroad—that is very disappointing and it’s regrettable. It was an unavoidable decision,” said Seiko Hashimoto, a former Olympian and president of the Tokyo Olympic committee. “However, the essentials of the Games will remain unchanged, as athletes give their utmost and inspire the world with transcendent performances. We are currently working on specific plans to share support remotely from around the world and help bring people together in ways suited to our current times. Even if you are no longer able to come to Japan this summer, we hope very much that you will continue to support the Tokyo 2020 Games.”

Golf will make its second appearance at the Summer Olympics following a 112-year absence from the Games. However, World No. 1 Dustin Johnson has already withdrawn from consideration and former U.S. Open champ Webb Simpson has also signalled he may not participate. This has sparked worry the 2021 games will suffer the same fate as the 2016 competition, which was passed on by most of the sport’s best players.

The men’s competition at the 2021 Summer Olympics begins July 29 at Kasumigaseki C.C., just outside Tokyo, Japan. Justin Rose is the defending gold medal winner. The women’s competition begins Aug. 4, with Inbee Park as the defending champion.

The post 2021 Olympics bans international spectators appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
Justin Rose is starting a new year outside the top 30 in the World Ranking for the first time since 2009.

As things stand, the reigning gold medalist in golf from the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will not be defending his title when sport’s quadrennial spectacular reconvenes (hopefully) in Japan this summer. As things stand, Justin Rose will be doing something other than playing competitive golf when the 60 eligible players compete at the Kasumigaseki Country Club just outside Tokyo July 29–Aug. 1.

Currently ranked the 38th best player on the planet, Rose has a lot of work to do if he is to change any of the above and halt a slide down the World Rankings. In 2020, the 40-year-old ended a calendar outside the top 30 for the first time since 2009. In terms of Olympic qualification, the two men currently in position to represent Great Britain & Northern Ireland are Tyrrell Hatton (fifth in the world) and Matt Fitzpatrick (18th).

Perhaps just as daunting from Rose’s point of view is the fact that he would also have to pass Lee Westwood (37th), Paul Casey (27th) and Tommy Fleetwood (19th), or haul himself into the top 15 (in that category, as many as four players from the same nation can qualify). No easy task. Other than for the top-heavy band of Americans, who currently boast 13 players in the world top-20, competition for places in the GB&NI side is most intense. As many as eight players (Matt Wallace and Robert MacIntyre the others) are inside the top 60 and within realistic range of making the side.

While it would be clearly disappointing if he weren’t in the field in Tokyo, for now Rose at least is adopting a typically stoic attitude to that deflating prospect. Speaking from the Middle East, where he will compete at this week’s Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour, the former U.S. Open champion insisted he would not be “chasing” a second Olympic dream through drastic scheduling changes.

“I’ve got to play what suits me, and the rhythm of golf that suits me,” he said. “I like to play three in a row, take a week or two off, then build another run of events. I don’t want it to be too stop-start. There is a little more travel involved this year as well, so I need to be smart with how I can put the schedule together. Three weeks in the Middle East, two weeks off and the Florida swing to get my teeth in to, with the Masters and the run-up to Augusta in mind. That’s the first building block I’m working towards. Then my focus shifts to the next major.”

And the Olympics?

“I have concerns, both about the Olympics taking place and my position in the standings,” Rose said. “But it’s not a concern if you’re not in the team. For the sake of golf, even if I’m not there, I’d love it to go ahead [and be played]. It was a great spectacle last time and I think golf came out pretty well. Japan being an established golfing nation, I think hosting the golf would be fantastic. I’ve heard conflicting reports on how things are over in Japan and how they are preparing for it. But I’ve got bigger problems than that. I’ve got to focus on my own position, clearly the [British] lads are playing really well. There are quite a few guys to get past, but my goal is to be in the top-15 in the world. That would be a pretty strong position to make the team.”

To meet that challenge, Rose has made some key changes over the last few months. Last year saw his much-publicized spilt from a lucrative contract with Honma and a return to the TaylorMade clubs that served him well in the past. He also has a new caddie. David Clark is working with Rose, replacing Gareth Lord, who was on the bag at the end of 2020 after he replaced Rose’s long-serving Mark Fulcher.

Ross Kinnaird
Justin Rose and his new caddie, David Clark, during the first round of last week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

“Winning major championships is what really concerns me,” Rose said. “I still feel like that’s ahead of me and I have that opportunity. I still believe and wake up every day and believe that my best is ahead of me. That motivates me. If I felt I was on that slippery slope out then it’s hard to put one foot in front of the other. I’m not concerned about playing the game for the sake of playing the game. I only play because I feel like I can improve and I’ve dedicated my whole career to leaving no stone unturned and enjoying the process of getting better as a player. That is still, ultimately, what gets me out of bed, and that in turn creates results. I’ve definitely made some mistakes the last couple of years, but they are only really mistakes in hindsight.”

Not surprisingly, the caddie and equipment issue topped that ignominious list.

“Some stuff was out of my control,” Rose said. “Some were my decisions. After I got to the top of the World Ranking, some things didn’t fall into place. You make the best decision you can at the time thinking it’s the right decision. But hindsight is a wonderful thing. I’ve pivoted as quickly as I can in those scenarios. Sometimes there’s water that’s gone under the bridge and you need to work your way back a little bit. It’s what my career has been about, I’ve had my ups and downs. When I’m on the slide it makes me want to come out swinging and with my back against the wall a little bit. I like it that way. It keeps me motivated and it keeps me hungry.”

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By Joel Beall
The Olympics in Tokyo have been rescheduled for 2021.

The International Olympic Committee, which postponed the Summer Games last week, announced Monday the contests in Japan will be held July 23 to August 8. This year marks the first time an Olympics has been postponed; the games were suspended three times due to World War I and World War II.

“With this announcement, I am confident that, working together with the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Japanese Government and all our stakeholders, we can master this unprecedented challenge,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “Humankind currently finds itself in a dark tunnel. These Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 can be a light at the end of this tunnel.”

For the golf world, that means another tight summer schedule. The Open Championship will be celebrating its 150th anniversary at St. Andrews beginning on July 15-18, and the PGA Tour is expected to finish its FedEx Cup Playoffs at East Lake on Aug. 29.

The International Golf Federation will utilise the Official World Golf Rankings to create the Olympic Golf Rankings as a method of determining eligibility. The top-15 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.

Golf remains a trial sport in the Summer Games with a likely appearance in 2024, but the IOC has not committed further. The men’s competition will be played at Japan’s Kasumigaseki Country Club. Justin Rose is the defending gold medallist.

The post Summer Olympics rescheduled for 2021 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Dustin Johnson is withdrawing himself from consideration for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Johnson’s manager David Winkle confirmed the decision, which was first reported by Golfweek.

Johnson, currently the No. 5 player in the Official World Golf Ranking, had previously expressed apprehension about playing the Summer Games earlier this year at the Saudi International.

“Schedule is always a big part of your season. You sit down at the beginning of the year just to kind of see, what events fall where,” Johnson said. “Representing the United States in the Olympics is something that I definitely would be proud to do, but is it going to fit in the schedule properly? I’m not really sure about that.

“There are so many events that are right there and leading up to it. So, you know, I’m still working with my team to figure out what’s the best thing for me to do.”

According to Winkle, Johnson is skipping Japan to focus on the FedEx Cup Playoffs. Johnson also passed on golf’s return to the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, citing zika concerns.

The International Golf Federation uses the Official World Golf Rankings to create the Olympic Golf Rankings to determine eligibility. The top-15 players will be eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country. Johnson is ranked fifth in the world, and the third highest-ranked American, so he would currently be on the U.S. team.

Beyond the top 15, players will be eligible based on the Olympic rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top 15. The qualification period ends June 22, the Monday after the U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

Golf remains a trial sport in the Summer Games, with a guaranteed spot in 2020 and a likely appearance in 2024, but the International Olympic Committee has not committed further. The men’s competition begins on July 30 at Japan’s Kasumigaseki Country Club. Justin Rose is the defending gold medallist.

The post Dustin Johnson to skip 2020 Tokyo Olympics appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Making a memorable return to the Olympics in 2016 after an 112-year absence, golf will be part of the Summer Games again this July in Tokyo. Both the men’s and women’s Olympic competitions will be 72-hole stroke-play tournaments held at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kasahata, Saitama, Japan, about 35 miles northwest of downtown Tokyo. As was the case four years ago in Rio, the field in both events will consist of 60 players representing their respective home countries.

But how will those Olympic fields be determined? Or more to the point for some people, will Tiger Woods be playing for the United States this summer? The answer is … maybe. It all depends on where Woods ranks in the Olympic Golf Rankings on the final date of qualifying in June—or more specifically where he ranks in relations to the other eligible American golfers.

To help understand the Olympic qualification process, we’ve outlined the rules below as well as listed what the field would look like as of the most recently publication of the Olympic Golf Rankings (Jan. 27). We’ll update this list periodically to keep you up to speed on who is in and who is out of the Tokyo Olympics ahead of the actual final deadline for eligibility. (Spoiler: Woods WOULD BE eligible to play if qualifying ended this week.)

So here goes: The same qualification rules apply for both the men’s and women’s Olympics fields. The top 15 players in the Olympic Golf Rankings (which essentially mirror the Official World Golf Ranking for men and the Rolex Rankings for women) will be eligible for the Olympics up to a maximum of four golfers per country. The four-player max is perhaps the biggest hurdle for Woods’ effort to qualify for the Olympics as he has to make sure he’s not only in the top 15 overall in the rankings, but also that he’s one of the top four ranked Americans to secure a spot.

After the top 15, the field will be filled until getting to 60 golfers by going down the Olympic Golf Ranking, with the top two ranked players qualifying from any country that does not have two or more players from the top 15. The host country, Japan, is also guaranteed at least two golfers in the field.

Here then is a country by country breakdown of the players that would be in the Olympics if the cut off were this week (men’s qualifying ends on June 22, the day after the U.S. Open; women’s qualifying ends June 29). The men’s competition will be held July 30-Aug. 2; the women’s Aug. 5-8.

MEN (World Ranking in parenthesis)

Argentina
Emiliano Grillo (119)
Fabian Gomez (245)

Australia
Adam Scott (15)
Marc Leishman (20)
Next in line: Cameron Smith (34), Jason Day (44), Lucas Herbert (79)

Austria
Bernd Wiesberger (22)
Matthias Schwab (78)
Next in line: Sepp Straka (170)

Belgium
Thomas Pieters (83)
Thomas Detry (117)
Next in line: Nicolas Colsaerts (183)

Canada
Adam Hadwin (52)
Corey Conners (61)
Next in line: Nick Taylor (236)

Chile
Joaquin Niemann (62)

China
Haotong Li (75)
Xinjun Zhang (138)

Chinese Taipei
C.T. Pan (77)

Colombia|
Sebastian Munoz (103)

Denmark
Lucas Bjerregaard (91)
Thorbjorn Olesen (114)
Next in line: Joachim B. Hansen (166)

Finland
Mikko Korhonen (144)
Kalle Samooja (187)

France
Victor Perez (41)
Michael Lorenzo-Vera (64)
Next in line: Benjamin Hebert (93), Romain Langasque (109)

Germany
Martin Kaymer (113)
Sebastian Heisele (202)

Great Britain
Justin Rose (8)
Tommy Fleetwood (10)
Next in line: Paul Casey (19), Matthew Fitzpatrick (25), Lee Westwood (29), Danny Willett (31), Tyrrell Hatton (33)

India
Rashid Khan (176)

Ireland
Rory McIlroy (2)
Shane Lowry (18)
Next in line: Graeme McDowell (104)

Italy
Francesco Molinari (23)
Andrea Pavan (81)
Next in line: Guido Migliozzi (123), Francesco Laporta (124)

Japan
Hideki Matsuyama (24)
Shugo Imahira (36)
Next in line: Ryo Ishikawa (80)

Malaysia
Gavin Kyle Green (197)

Mexico
Abraham Ancer (30)
Carlos Ortiz (150)

Netherlands
Joost Luiten (90)
Darius Van Driel (193)

New Zealand
Danny Lee (97)
Ryan Fox (154)

Norway
Viktor Hovland (94)
Kristoffer Ventura (182)

The Philippines
Miguel Tabuena (232)

Poland
Adrian Meronk (234)

Slovakia
Rory Sabbatini (88)

South Africa
Louis Oosthuizen (14)
Erik van Rooyen (46)
Next in line: Shaun Norris (57), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (60), Branden Grace (74), Justin Harding (82)

South Korea
Sungjae Im (35)
Byeong Hun An (49)
Next in line: Sung Kang (85)

Spain
Jon Rahm (3)
Sergio Garcia (42)
Next in line: Rafa Cabrere-Bello (45)

Sweden
Henrik Stenson (27)
Alex Noren (84)
Next in line: Marcus Kinhult (87)

Thailand
Jazz Janewattananond (38)
Kiradech Aphibarnrat (120)
Next in line: Gunn Chareonkul (126)

United States
Brooks Koepka (1)
Justin Thomas (4)
Dustin Johnson (5)
Tiger Woods (6)
Next in line: Patrick Cantlay (7), Xander Schauffele (9), Webb Simpson (11), Patrick Reed (12), Tony Finau (13)

Venezuela
Jhonattan Vegas (156)

Zimbabwe
Scott Vincent (134)

Scott Halleran
Silver medalist Lydia Ko of New Zealand, gold medalist Inbee Park of Korea and bronze medalist Shanshan Feng of China pose after Women’s Golf competition at the 2016 Rio games.

WOMEN (Rolex Rankings in parenthesis)

Australia
Minjee Lee (9)
Hannah Green (22)
Next in line: Su-Hyun Oh (58), Katherine Kirk (113)

Austria
Christine Wolf (213)

Belgium
Manon De Roey (285)

Canada
Brooke Henderson (7)
Alena Sharp (111)
Next in line: Anne-Catherine Tanguay (327)

China
Shanshan Feng (23)
Yu Liu (35)
Next in line: Jing Yan (76)

Chinese Taipei
Teresa Lu (85)
Wei-Ling Hsu (98)

Colombia
Mariajo Uribe (168)

Czech Republic
Klara Spilkova (253)

Denmark
Nanna Koerstz Madsen (66)
Nicole Broch Larsen (74)

Ecuador
Daniela Darquea (186)

Finland
Sanna Nuutinen (296)
Ursula Wikstrom (303)

France
Celine Boutier (53)
Perrine Dela Cour (262)
Next in line: Celine Herbin (334), Karine Icher (407)

Germany
Caroline Masson (37)
Esther Henseleit (128)
Next in line: Olivia Cowan (163), Sandra Gal (173)

Great Britain
Charley Hull (26)
Bronte Law (32)
Next in line: Georgia Hall (40), Jodi Shadoff (87)

Hong Kong
Tiffany Chan (206)

India
Aditi Ashok (147)
Diksha Dagar (358)

Ireland
Stephanie Meadow (228)
Leona Maguire (259)

Israel
Laetitia Beck (379)

Italy
Giulia Molinaro (234)

Japan
Nasa Hataoka (4)
Hinako Shibuno (11)
Ai Suzuki (14)
Next in line: Mone Inami (57), Yui Kawamoto (59), Momoko Ueda (62)

Mexico
Gaby Lopez (43)
Maria Fassi (298)

The Netherlands
Anne van Dam (97)

New Zealand
Lydia Ko (42)

Norway
Marianna Skarpnord (153)
Tonje Daffinrud (318)

Paraguay
Julieta Granada (324)

The Philippines
Yuka Saso (287)
Clariss Guce (295)

Puerto Rico
Maria Fernanda Torres (135)

Slovenia
Katja Pogacar (399)

South Africa
Ashleigh Buhai (106)
Lee-Anne Pace (310)

South Korea
Jin Young Ko (1)
Sung Hyun Park (2)
Sei Young Kim (6)
Jeongeun Lee6 (8)
Next in line: Hyo-Joo Kim (12), Inbee Park (16), So Yeon Ryu (18), Amy Yang (20), Mi Hur (21)

Spain
Carlota Ciganda (15)
Azahara Munoz (44)
Next in line: Nuira Iturrioz (223)

Sweden
Madelene Sagstrom (55)
Anna Nordqvist (95)
Next in line: Caroline Hedwall (129)

Switzerland
Albane Valenzuela (403)

Thailand
Ariya Jutanugarn (13)
Moriya Jutanugarn (38)
Next in line: Pornanong Phatlum (86)

United States
Nelly Korda (3)
Danielle Kang (5)
Lexi Thompson (10)
Next in line: Jessica Korda (17), Lizette Salas (19), Brittany Altomare (28), Marina Alex (33), Angel Yin (41)

The post Olympic Golf 2020: How players qualify to compete in Tokyo (and the latest rankings) appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
If qualifying for the 2020 Olympics ended today, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson would be part of the four-man contingent representing the United States. Judging by the comments of the American stars on Tuesday, neither sounds thrilled at the prospect.

Speaking at the European Tour’s Saudi International, both Koepka and Johnson downplayed the importance of the golf competition in the Summer Games, which returned after a 112-year absence in 2016.

For Koepka, the weight of the majors far outweighs the enticement of a golf medal.

“Because it’s so new, I don’t, no,” Koepka said. “I think it’s an incredible honour for most athletes that are running 100 meters, gymnastics, anything like that, they wait four years for that. But we have four majors a year. For track, you’ve got indoors and outdoor championships and different things like that, but the Olympics is their big event and it only comes around every four years.”

The world No. 1 even suggested—due to his sport’s hectic summer schedule—he wasn’t sure he would play in the games, held in Tokyo.

“In golf, we’ve got four majors every year, and now we’re going to add the Olympics and you’ve got the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup, plus the FedExCup for us, and that’s a lot of weeks travelling back and forth, a lot of time zones,” Koepka said. “To me, the four majors are definitely more important, and the FedExCup, too, is a goal of mine. We’ll see where everything else falls.”

Johnson was more direct about his noncommittal.

“Schedule is always a big part of your season. You sit down at the beginning of the year just to kind of see, what events fall where,” Johnson said. “Representing the United States in the Olympics is something that I definitely would be proud to do, but is it going to fit in the schedule properly? I’m not really sure about that.

“There are so many events that are right there and leading up to it. So, you know, I’m still working with my team to figure out what’s the best thing for me to do.”

Many of the game’s stars skipped the 2016 games in Rio, citing safety and health concerns, but Johnson and Koepka are the first big names to publicly state a lack of enthusiasm for 2020. For their parts, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have voiced ambitions for the Tokyo Games.

Along with Koepka and Johnson, the U.S. team would be rounded out by Woods and Justin Thomas. The International Golf Federation will utilize the Official World Golf Rankings to create the Olympic Golf Rankings as a method of determining eligibility. The top-15 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. The qualification period to earn points runs from July 1, 2018, to June 22, 2020 (the U.S. Open).

Golf remains a trial sport in the Summer Games, with a guaranteed spot in 2020 and a likely appearance in 2024, but the International Olympic Committee has not committed further. The men’s competition begins on July 30 at Japan’s Kasumigaseki Country Club. Justin Rose is the defending gold medalist.

The post Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson downplay importance of Olympics appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.