LAUSANNE (PGA TOUR) – The names of the 60 men and 60 women who will be representing their respective countries in the Tokyo Olympics golf competition have been ratified with the publication of final quota places for the tournaments at Kasumigaseki Country Club.
The men will compete from July 29-Aug 1 and the women from Aug 4-7.
Once the final Olympic golf rankings were established with the completion of the recent men’s US Open and KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) were required to confirm the athlete places they would use, as each NOC has its own criteria for final nominations. The IGF, in turn, reallocated all unused quota places before Tuesday’s (July 6) Tokyo 2020 sport entries deadline.
“We are extremely pleased with the strength and diversity of both the men’s and women’s fields, which reflect the continued growth and popularity of golf,” said Annika Sorenstam, president of the International Golf Federation (IGF), which oversees the Olympic golf competition.
“We have such wonderful storylines to share, be it Jon Rahm and Nelly Korda both winning Major championships in the final week of qualifying to become the No. 1 players in the world, or the variety of lesser known but equally inspiring stories of Olympic athletes representing their respective countries.”
With 36 countries included in the women’s competition and 35 in the men’s, the composition of the Olympic fields highlights the broad global interest in golf and the opportunity to reach new audiences across all the continents through the expansive coverage of the Olympic Games. Across the two competitions, Europe has 53 qualified players, Asia 30, the Americas 26, Oceania six and Africa five.
Golf is looking to build upon the success of its return as an Olympic sport at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games after an absence of more than 100 years, when it achieved significant numbers internationally and was watched by a younger, more gender-neutral audience than that generally achieved for professional golf events.
In fact, golf finished as the seventh-most popular sport in Rio in terms of fan engagements around the world.
