Several top golf stars, including the reigning PGA champion Brooks Koepka, are taking their name out of the hat to compete in the 2024 men's Olympic golf tournament in Paris this summer.
Koepka, Adam Scott and Tyrrell Hatton are among several notable players to have pulled out of consideration for the event. El Periodi Golf was first to report the news.
The Olympic golf tournaments will be played this summer at Le Golf National near Paris, France, home to the 2018 Ryder Cup and a number of French Opens on the DP World Tour. There's a men's and women's competition, and each features a 60-player field.
Olympic golf qualifying is determined by the Olympic Golf Ranking, which is largely based on the Official World Golf Ranking for the men and the Rolex Women's World Golf Ranking for the women. The top 60 available and qualified players get into each field. If a country has four or more players in the top 15 in the Olympic Golf Ranking, they are able to send the top four available players (the United States is the only country which currently qualifies). Otherwise, a country can only send their two highest-ranked players until the field of 60 is filled.
On the men's side, the top four Americans are Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay. Koepka, ranked 31st in the world because LIV Golf tournaments do not earn Official World Golf Ranking points, knows he won't make the team, so he withdrew his name from consideration.
Adam Scott has not been a fan of the Olympic golf concept from the get-go back before the 2016 re-debut of golf in the Olympic program. It's not a surprise he would not want to compete in the Paris event if he qualified.
Hatton pulled out his name knowing he wouldn't earn further OWGR points through LIV Golf events, though he could in the majors. However, Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick are ranked ahead of him in the OWGR.
Among others to withdraw their names from consideration are Louis Oosthuizen, Thomas Pieters and Marcel Siem.
