By Ryan Herrington
With the first year of the re-imagined men’s major-championship calendar completed, and players still assessing how to plan their schedules to be best prepared for the big four tournaments, not to mention the looming FedEx Cup playoffs on the PGA Tour, they will have additional consideration in 2020.

The Olympics.

A year from today, Tokyo will host the opening ceremonies for the 2020 Summer Games. Six days after that, the men’s Olympic golf tournament begins, the 72-hole stroke-play competition being played July 30-Aug. 2 at Kasumigaseki Country Club’s East Course in the Tokyo suburb of Saitama. The women’s tournament starts three days after the men’s event ends, Aug. 5-8 at Kasumigaseki, before the closing ceremonies Aug. 9.

The men’s Olympic competition will come just 11 days after the conclusion of the Open Championship at Royal St. George’s. The women’s tournament is likely to fall between the Evian Championship and the Women’s British Open (official dates for these tournaments have yet to be released).

At last week’s Open Championship at Portrush, a handful of players were asked about their interest in competing in the Olympics. Many said they hadn’t yet begun to think about it, given they are still more than a year away.

“I haven’t given it much thought,” said Brooks Koepka. “When the time comes, I’ll get there.”

However, after golf’s successful return to the Olympics three years ago in Rio, and without the health concerns of the Zika virus that caused some players (Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Adam Scott, among others) to skip the 2016 competition, player interest in Tokyo appears far greater, particularly among top-ranked men.

Qualifying for 2020 Olympics began in July 2018, with golfers accumulating points in an official Olympics Ranking that essentially mirrors the men’s and women’s World Rankings. The qualifying period runs through June 23, 2020 for the men and June 30, 2020 for the women.

So who will be competing in Tokyo? To get a glimpse at the possible teams for 2020, we applied the qualification criteria to the most recent Olympic rankings (July 23) and produced the full 60-player fields for the men’s and women’s tournaments.

Here a little refresher for how Olympic qualification works. These same rules apply to the men’s and women’s tournaments.

• The total field is 60 players, with at least one spot held for a golfer from the host country (Japan) if one does not otherwise qualify.
• No country can have more than four golfers competing.
• All golfers ranked in the top 15 qualify, up to the four-golfer maximum for each country.
• After the top 15 in the ranking, golfers ranked 16th and lower will qualify with no more than two players from any one country eligible to compete.

On the men’s side, only the United States has more than two golfers among the top 15 of the rankings (the Americans have nine golfers in the top 15). So the first four—Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods and Bryson DeChambeau—would make the team, with the remaining five (Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau and Rickie Fowler) needing to improve their status if they want to be playing in Tokyo.

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On the women’s side, South Korea is in a similar spot with six players among the top 15 of the women’s rankings. The U.S. has exactly four players currently in the top 15 (Jessica Korda is barely in as she is ranked No. 15).

As for the American teams, all four men’s qualifiers would be first-time players, with the entire 2016 U.S. team of Bubba Watson, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Reed and Matt Kuchar (who won the bronze medal in 2016) outside of the qualification standard. The 2020 U.S. women’s team would have one carryover from 2016—Lexi Thompson—with Nelly Korda, Danielle Kang and Jessica Korda joining her.

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In the men’s tournament, 18 golfers who competed in Rio also would be eligible for Tokyo, including gold-medal winner Justin Rose and silver medallist Henrik Stenson. For the women, gold, silver and bronze medalists Inbee Park, Lydia Ko and Shanshan Feng would be among 31 golfers playing a second time.

The last player into the men’s field at the moment would be Germany’s Maxmillian Kieffer, who ranks 271st in the World Ranking. The odd person who would be out is Finland’s Kalle Samooja, who is ranked 285th.

The last player in the women’s field would be New Zealand’s Munchin Keh, ranked 422nd. The first alternate among the women would be Finland’s Noora Komulainen (448th).

Mind you, there are still 11 months to go with plenty of time for player movement.

[divider] [/divider]

MEN – OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS
Alternates are the next highest-ranked golfers from their respective countries who would be ranked high enough overall to qualify.
*—competed in the 2016 Olympics in Rio

Argentina (2)
Emiliano Grillo*
Nelson Ledesma

Australia (2)
Adam Scott
Jason Day
Replacements: Marc Leishman, Cameron Smith, Brendan Jones, Lucas Herbert, Matt Jones

Austria (2)
Bernd Wiesberger*
Sepp Straka
Alternate: Matthias Schwab

Belgium (2)
Thomas Pieters*
Thomas Detry
Alternate: Nicolas Colsaerts*

Canada (2)
Adam Hadwin
Corey Conners
Alternates: Mackenzie Hughes, Roger Sloan, Nick Taylor

Chile (1)
Joaquin Niemann

China (2)
Haotong Li*
Xinjun Zhang
Alternate: Ashun Wu*

Chinese Taipei (1)
C.T. Pan*

Colombia (1)
Sebastián Muñoz

Denmark (2)
Lucas Bjerregaard
Thorbjørn Olesen*
Alternate: Joachim B Hansen

Finland (1)
Mikko Korhonen
Replacement: Kalle Samooja

France (2)
Michael Lorenzo-Vera
Benjamin Hebert
Alternates: Romain Langasque, Victor Perez, Alexander Levy, Antoine Rozner, Robin Roussel

Germany (2)
Martin Kaymer*
Maxmillian Kieffer

Great Britain (2)
Justin Rose*
Tommy Fleetwood
Alternates: Paul Casey, Matt Wallace, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Eddie Pepperell, Tyrrell Hatton

India (2)
Shubhankar Sharma
Gaganjeet Bhullar

Ireland (2)
Rory McIlroy
Shane Lowry
Replacements: Graeme McDowell, Paul Dunne

Italy (2)
Francesco Molinari
Andrea Pavan
Alternates: Guido Migliozzi

Japan (2)*
Hideki Matsuyama
Shugo Imahira
Alternates: Satoshi Kodaira, Yuta Ikeda*, Masahiro Kawamura, Ryuko Tokimatsu, Yuki Inamori

Malaysia (1)
Gavin Kyle Green*

Mexico (2)
Abraham Ancer
Carlos Ortiz

The Netherlands (2)
Joost Luiten*
Darius Van Driel

New Zealand (2)
Ryan Fox*
Danny Lee*

Norway (2)
Kristoffer Ventura
Viktor Hovland

Paraguay (1)
Fabrizio Zanotti*

Portugal (1)
Ricardo Santos

Slovakia (1)
Rory Sabbatini

South Africa (2)
Louis Oosthuizen
Justin Harding
Alternates: Branden Grace, Erik van Rooyen, JC Ritchie, Shaun Norris, Dylan Frittelli

South Korea (2)
Byeong Hun An*
Sungjae Im
Alternates: Sung Kang, Si Woo Kim, Sanghyun Park, Jung-gon Hwang, Hyungjoon Lee

Spain (2)
Jon Rahm
Rafa Cabrera Bello*
Alternates: Sergio Garcia*, Jorge Campillo, Adrian Otaegui, Adri Arnaus, Ignacio Elvira Mijares

Sweden (2)
Henrik Stenson*
Alex Noren
Alternates: Alexander Bjork, Marcus Kinhult , Jonas Blixt, Henrik Norlander

Thailand (2)
Jazz Janewattananond
Kiradech Aphibarnrat*
Alternates: Poom Saksansin, Prom Meesawat

United States (4)
Brooks Koepka
Dustin Johnson
Tiger Woods
Bryson DeChambeau
Alternates: Justin Thomas, Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler*

Venezuela (1)
Jhonattan Vegas*

Zimbabwe (1)
Scott Vincent

[divider] [/divider]

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

WOMEN – OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS
Alternates are the next highest-ranked golfers from their respective countries who would be ranked high enough overall to qualify.
*—competed in the 2016 Olympics in Rio

Australia (2)
Minjee Lee*
Hannah Green
Su-Hyun Oh, Katherine Kirk, Karis Davidson, Sarah Smith, Sarah Kemp

Austria (2)
Christine Wolf*
Sarah Schober

Belgium (1)
Manon De Roey

Canada (2)
Brooke Henderson*
Alena Sharp*
Alternates: Brittany Marchand, Anne-Catherine Tanguay, Maude-Aimee Leblanc, Maddie Szeryk

China (2)
Shanshan Feng*
Yu Liu
Alternates: Jing Yan, Haruka Morita-WanyaoLu, Xiyu Lin, Weiwei Zhang, Wenbo Liu

Chinese Taipai (2)
Wei-Ling Hsu
Teresa Lu*
Alternates: Hsuan-Yu Yao, Yu-Ju Chen, Peiyun Chien, Pei-Ying Tsai, Min Lee

Colombia (1)
Mariajo Uribe*

Czech Republic (1)
Klara Spilkova*

Denmark (2)
Nanna Koerstz Madsen*
Nicole Broch Larsen*

Ecuador (1)
Daniela Darquea

Finland (1)
Ursula Wikstrom*
Alternates: Noora Komulainen*, Sanna Nuutinen

France (2)
Celine Boutier
Perrine Delacour
Alternates: Celine Herbin, Karine Icher*, Camille Chevalier, Astrid Pradenne

Germany (2)
Caroline Masson*
Sandra Gal*
Alternates: Esther Henseleit, Olivia Cowen, Karolin Lampert, Sophia Popov, Laura Fuenfstueck

Great Britain (2)
Bronte Law
Charley Hull*
Alternates: Georgia Hall, Jodi Shadoff, Melissa Reid, Charlotte Thomas, Meghan Maclaren

Hong Kong (1)
Tiffany Chan*

India (2)
Aditi Ashok*
Diksha Dagar

Ireland (2)
Leona Maguire*
Stephanie Meadow*

Israel (1)
Laetitia Beck*

Italy (1)
Giulia Molinaro*

Japan (2)*
Nasa Hataoka
Ai Suzuki
Alternates: Mamiko Higa, Hinako Shibuno, Yui Kawamoto, Momoko Ueda, Minami Katsu

Mexico (2)
Gaby Lopez*
Maria Fassi

The Netherlands (1)
Anne van Dam

New Zealand (2)
Lydia Ko*
Munchin Keh

Norway (2)
Marianne Skarpnord*
Tonje Daffinrud

Paraguay (1)
Julieta Granada*

The Philippines (2)
Dottie Ardina
Yuka Saso
Alternates: Princess Superal, Clariss Guce

Puerto Rico (1)
Maria Torres

Slovenia (1)
Katja Pogacar

South Africa (2)
Ashleigh Buhai
Lee-Anne Pace
Alternate: Stacy Bregman

South Korea (4)
Sung Hyun Park
Jin-Young Ko
Jeonguen Lee6
Inbee Park*
Alternates: Sei Young Kim, So Yeon Ryu, Amy Yang, Eun-Hee Ji, Hyo-Joo Kim

Spain (2)
Carlota Ciganda*
Azahara Munoz*
Alternates: Nuria Iturrioz, Beatriz Recari, Luna Gaimes, Noemi Jimenez, Marta Barrio

Sweden (2)
Anna Nordqvist*
Pernilla Lindberg*
Alternates: Madelene Sagstrom, Caroline Hedwell, Linnea Strom, Daniela Holmqvist, Jenny Haglund

Thailand (2)
Ariya Jutanugarn*
Moriya Jutanugarn
Alternates: Pornanong Phatlum*, Jasmine Suwannapura, Saranporn Langkulgasettrin, Patty Tavatanakit, Pajaree Anannarukarn

United States (4)
Lexi Thompson*
Nelly Korda
Danielle Kang
Jessica Korda
Alternates: Lizette Salas, Angel Yin, Marina Alex, Annie Park, Austin Ernst

The post The 2020 Olympics are a year away. Here are the golfers who would be competing in Tokyo if the Games were played today appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The world No.4 and three-time defending champion sat down with Golf Digest Middle East to discuss her Rio “Rose Gold” medal, the increasing influence of social media on the women’s game, Dubai’s glam shopping and about feeling old at just 27.

You started 2016 slowly but have roared back into form on the back of your Rio Olympic Games bronze medal with back-to-back wins in Malaysia and Japan. How do you sum up the year?
“Before the Olympics my best finish on the LGPA was only fifth so going to the Olympics I didn’t set any goals. I told myself I have to smile, it doesn’t matter if I play well or not, I would just smile. And because of that I was more patient and actually learned how to be Shanshan again, to bring back my consistent ball striking and I got my bronze medal and after that I picked up my confidence again. After the Olympics I finished fourth at the Evian [major championship], fourth in China, second in Taiwan and third in Korea and then I won back to back in Malaysia and Japan. My world ranking has gone from 14^th to No.4 again and I finished top 5 on the LPGA money list so it’s been a good year.”

What do you put the slow start down to?
“I would say the first reason is this is the Olympic year so maybe it was a more stressful year. I’m going for the next Games in Tokyo but nobody knows, [Rio] might have been my last one so I really wanted to play well there. I think I was giving myself too much pressure.”

You’ve also eluded to all these big hitting teens and your efforts to keep up with them?
“Maybe [world No.1] Lydia Ko is not so long, but the others hit it really long, like 20 or 30 yards longer than me. I’m always the first one to hit, you know, like every hole and it just makes me feel old. So even though I’m more experienced, it’s kind of hard to keep up with them. So I actually lost my own game, forgot how to be Shanshan, I was trying to compare with them, belt the balls hard, so I actually started to play not very well.”

You’ve carried your Rio bronze medal to Dubai. You must be very proud of that?
“I told people, this is not a bronze medal. This is a rose gold Medal! I think all three of us, we all captured gold medals. I got the rose gold medal, Lydia got the white gold medal and Inbee [Park] got the real gold medal. I think all three of us, we were winners because it was the first time golf was back in the Olympics after over 100 years, and we were really proud that we were born in the right time and that we could represent our country and compete in the first Olympics after that long time.”

Would you rather win another major to go with your 2012 LPGA Championship or the Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020?
“We have 20 chances in four years to win a major but only one chance every four years to win a gold medal. So if I have to choose, of course I will go for the gold medal.”

“I do have my own character. I’m actually more like a silly, silly, funny girl, I do describe myself like that. It’s good to let people know that we’re not only stars on the television, but we are also real person and we’re actually very fun…” – Shanshan Feng

We hear you love Dubai and particularly it’s shopping?
“We are staying at the Jebel Ali resort which is really, really nice. In our rooms we can see the ocean, the beach and we actually have Peacocks walking just outside our doors, so that’s really neat, unique. Also I go to the shopping mall…I mean Dubai is a great place for shopping because they have all different brands from all over the world and all the latest editions. This is just a place to make people feel more laid back, relaxed. Every time I’m here, I feel like I’m on holidays but also making money for the holiday.”

It must be amazing to have a brand like Omega behind you?
“I was very surprised when Omega came to me in 2012 which was before I won the major. Of course, I was really honoured to sign the contract with Omega and straight after that I won my first major so I would say Omega really gave me good luck. After that I won four times more worldwide. Omega is one of the top brands in the world for watches but Omega always want to be better so that pushes me to try to be better also.“

The organisers of the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters have been open about the fact they have offered sponsor’s invites to players whose influence on social media is as strong, if not stronger, than their golf. As a three-time champion, are you comfortable with that?
“Of course. That is going to bring more attention into the tournament so I mean that must be a good thing. People have followers and are famous for a reason so I believe that they are famous because they have something. It might be a good chance that we can bring everything together at a tournament to let maybe her fans, those power bloggers, to bring those fans to watch a golf tournament and to bring golf fans to watch them, so I think it’s a great thing.”

How important is social media as the women’s game strives to build its audience globally?
“I know that on the social media part, I think the LPGA’s increase is like over 100 percent every year. It’s improving much faster, even compared to the [US men’s] PGA Tour, we’re actually doing a lot better. I think that’s because girls are actually more willing to reach the fans. And actually, a lot of people actually think girls are more friendly, like less distance between us and the fans. I think that’s going to bring us a lot more fans. I think it’s also a good chance to show off our personality off the course, because on the course, even me, you look at me on the course, I have a poker face.

You talk about playing with a “poker face” but you’re not afraid to let down your guard for the fans are you?
“Off the course, every player has [their] own personality, and I would say that I do have my own character. I’m actually more like a silly, silly funny girl, I do describe myself like that. It’s good to let people know that we’re not only stars on the television, but we are also real person and we’re actually very fun. We have,to let them to know a lot more about us, I think is great.”

And your own efforts to promote the game in China wouldn’t be half as successful without the online influence would they?
“I only play two to three times a year in China so most of the times when I’m overseas, how can my fans see me? They can watch me on TV playing but they can only get to know me through my social media accounts. I think it’s good I can let my fans know what I’m doing on the course and off the course so they don’t have to worry about me [laughs] and also get to know more about me It’s very important I think.”

How does the Omega Dubal Ladies Masters rate globally?
“Well, I’ve played all kinds of tournaments in my career and I think this event is one of the best in my life. Not only because I have a good record here, but because how the tournament is set up, like everything in Dubai it’s just been great. I would say this is the major of the Ladies European Tour…this is the tournament the girls that maybe don’t play on the LET regularly want to come to. That’s why I brought a Chinese amateur this time [16-year-old Muni He] because I wanted her to experience it.”

What’s your favourite Omega timepiece?
“If you were with me when I was at the Omega shops – I can actually go to the stores and pick the watches I like – and every time I’m there it is so stressful, I’m like ‘I like this one, I like that one’ but I can’t take everything’ [laughs]. So it’s always about making hard choices. Omega has watches to go with everything: some are more sporty like the one I’m wearing now with the leather strap and also they have ones with metal straps but more sparkling , more bling, bling which go well with dresses. I mean they are just so good.”

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