The two-year qualification process for golf’s return to the Olympic Games for the first time in 112 years has been completed with today’s publication of the final Olympic golf rankings.
Forty countries are included in the final rankings across the men’s and women’s competitions, which will be played at Reserva de Marapendi Golf Course between August 11 and 20.
The Olympic golf competitions, beginning with the men from August 11-14, followed by the women from August 17-20. A potential global audience of around 3.6 billion could watch golf’s return to the Games, representing the ultimate shop-window for the sport and having the capacity to reach a brand new audience, especially among the younger generation across all continents.
“After eight years of intense planning and preparation for golf’s historic return to the Olympic Games, the IGF is extremely excited finally to have reached this important milestone of identifying those players who are eligible to compete in Rio de Janeiro,” said Peter Dawson, president of the IGF. “We are particularly gratified to see how many countries are represented among the men and women and anticipate compelling competitions for both on the outstanding golf course that Gil Hanse and Amy Alcott have created. It has taken a tremendous amount of work by a number of people to get to this stage, and we at the IGF are extremely grateful for the role each and every one of them has played in making this possible.”
Qualification began July 14, 2014 and concluded Sunday, July 10. The full list of qualifiers confirms the names of the 120 players – 60 male and 60 female – who are now eligible to be entered by their respective National Olympic Committees (NOCs) in accordance with the qualification criteria.
For Canada, those golfers are David Hearn and Graham Delaet on the men’s side and Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp on the women’s side.
The IGF will send confirmation of the quota places to the National Olympic Committees (NOC) no later than 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, July 12. The NOCs will then confirm use of allocated quota places to the IGF who, in turn, will reallocate all unused quota places before the Rio 2016 sport entries deadline of July 18.
The IGF will publish a further list of 60 names for both the men’s and women’s events on Monday, July 18, which will provide ratification of all the competitors who will comprise the respective fields at the Olympic Games.
The final rankings underline the diversity of the fields who will tee off in Olympic competition next month for the first time in over a century, with a total of 40 countries being represented across both the men’s and women’s events.
Additionally, every continent is represented in the rankings, affording golf a unique opportunity to grow the game in unexposed territories and to achieve greater visibility with the potential television audience during the Games in Rio.
Across the two individual competitions, Africa has eight eligible players; Asia 29; Australasia & Oceania eight; Europe 52; North America 11; South America 12.
Full information on the Qualifying System for the 2016 Olympic Games can be found here.
Click here to view the final Olympic men’s ranking
Click here to view the Final Olympic women’s ranking