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The United States will be heavy favorites to take home the gold medal in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The American team is loaded with talent, including four players in the top seven in the Olympic Golf Rankings. Those PGA players include top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, third-ranked Xander Schauffele , fifth-ranked Wyndham Clark and seventh-ranked Collin Morikawa.
While the team looks overpowering at this point, it does not include U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who earned his second national open title last week by outlasting Rory McIlroy. DeChambeau was hoping he would get a chance to to represent his country at Le Golf in Paris from August 1 through August 4, but his status as a golfer on the LIV Tour means he won't get that opportunity.
He expressed his disappointment in not having a chance to play in the Olympics shortly after winning the U.S. Open crown when he appeared on the Pat McAfee show.
“Hopefully one day this game of golf will get figured out and come back together and I will be able to play in the Olympics,” DeChambeau said.
“I'm playing great golf, I'm excited, but ultimately yeah, am I frustrated and disappointed? Sure, you could absolutely say that. But I made the choices that I made and there's consequences to that and I respect it.”
Representatives of the PGA and the LIV tour (Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia) have been negotiating for several months on a potential agreement that would allow the two tours to co-exist and potentially allow participation in additional big-name tournaments and other events like the Olympics. No agreement has been reached to this point.
American golfers appear poised for solid showing in Olympics
While Scheffler was not at his best in the U.S. Open, no golfer can compete with the kind of year he has had to this point.
He is the No. 1 player in the world and the leader in the FedEx Cup rankings. He has been at the top of the Official World Golf Ranking for 92 weeks.
Scheffler has won 11 PGA tournaments and is a two-time Masters winner. He has won five tournaments in 2024. Scheffler played for the U.S. in the 2021 Ryder Cup and the 2022 Presidents Cup.
Schauffele won the gold medal at the men's golf competition at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Like Scheffler, he has played consistently well on the PGA Tour.
He is an eight-time PGA TOUR winner, and he won his first major when he took the PGA Championship in May.
Schauffele has 22 top-10s since the start of the 2022-23 PGA season. The only player with more is Scheffler, who has 29 top-10 finishes. He played on the winning U.S. team in the 2019 and 2022 Presidents Cup as well as the 2021 Ryder Cup.
Clark has won three tournaments on the PGA Tour, with the highlight being his championship at the 2023 U.S. Open.
Clark continues to play consistently in 2024 with four top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour this year. He was victorious in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and he competed for the U.S. at the 2023 Ryder Cup.
Collin Morikawa is a six-time PGA Tour winner, and the highlights include a win at the Open Championship as well as another victory in the PGA Championship.
Morikawa won the 2021 DP World Tour Championship, becoming the first American to win that international event.
He played for the U.S. at the 2021 Ryder Cup and 2022 Presidents Cup.
Canadian Olympic golfers include Corey Conners and Nick Taylor
While the Americans will send four golfers to Paris, the Canadian team will include just two golfers.
Corey Conners used a closing burst at the U.S. Open to earn a spot in the Olympics for Canada. He will be joined by Nick Taylor.
Conners made a closing par at Pinehurst No. 2 on the 72nd and final hole and that allowed him to finish with an even par round of 70.
Conners finished tied for 9th in the tournament, and that allowed him to move past Adam Hadwin for Canada's final spot. He finished the tournament with an even par score of 280.
Conners didn't realize he was fighting for a spot on the Olympic team during the closing moments of his final round at the U.S. Open. He was glad that he was not thinking about it at the time.
“I guess it all worked out not knowing,” Conners said. “I felt like it would have been added pressure and another distraction. Thankfully, I had no idea all Sunday what position I was in. I just thought a par would get me a good finish.”
Each country is allowed two players, with a maximum of four if all are within the top 15.
Olympic full field and qualifiers, as well as their countries
1. Scottie Scheffler, US
2. Rory McIlroy, Ireland
3. Xander Schauffele, US
4. Ludvig Åberg, Sweden
5. Wyndham Clark, US
6. Viktor Hovland, Norway
7. Collin Morikawa, US
8. Jon Rahm, Spain
9. Hideki Matsuyama, Japan
10. Tommy Fleetwood, Great Britain
11. Matthew Fitzpatrick, Great Britain
12. Matthieu Pavon, France
13. Sepp Straka, Austria
14. Jason Day, Australia
15. Tom Kim, Korea
16. Byeong Hun An, Korea
17. Shane Lowry, Ireland
18. Nick Taylor, Canada
19. Min Woo Lee, Australia
20. Corey Conners, Canada
21. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, South Africa
22. Stephan Jaeger, Germany
23. Nicolai Højgaard, Denmark
24. Thomas Detry, Belgium
25. Emiliano Grillo, Argentina
26. Alex Noren, Sweden
27. Ryan Fox, New Zealand
28. Erik van Rooyen, South Africa
29. Adrian Meronk, Poland
30. Victor Perez, France
31. Keita Nakajima, Japan
32. Thorbjørn Olesen, Denmark
33. Alejandro Tosti, Argentina
34. Joaquin Niemann, Chile
35. Sami Valimaki, Finland
36. Kevin Yu, Chinese Taipei
37. David Puig, Spain
38. Matti Schmid, Germany
39. C.T. Pan, Chinese Taipei
40. Joost Luiten, Netherlands
41. Carl Yuan, China
42. Camilo Villegas, Colombia
43. Matteo Manassero, Italy
44. Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Belgium
45. Daniel Hillier, New Zealand
46. Cristobal Del Solar, Chile
47. Guido Migliozzi, Italy
48. Shubhankar Sharma, India
49. Rafael Campos, Puerto Rico
50. Darius Van Driel, Netherlands
51. Carlos Ortiz, Mexico
