Qualification for Golf at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was determined not by any form of qualifying tournament, but by the rankings maintained by the International Golf Federation.
Qualification was based on world ranking (Official World Golf Ranking for men, Women's World Golf Rankings for women) as of 11 July 2016, with a total of 60 players qualifying in each of the men's and women's events. The top 15 players of each gender qualified, with a limit of four golfers per country that could qualify this way. The remaining spots went to the highest-ranked players from countries that did not already have two golfers qualified, with a limit of two per country. The IGF guaranteed that at least one golfer would qualify from the host nation and also at least one from each continent (Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania). The IGF posted weekly lists of qualifiers based on current rankings for men and women.
Qualified players Men Rank Name Country WorldRanking1 Bubba Watson 52 Henrik Stenson 63 Rickie Fowler 74 Danny Willett 95 Justin Rose 116 Sergio García 127 Patrick Reed 138 Matt Kuchar 159 Rafa Cabrera-Bello 2810 An Byeong-hun 3111 Thongchai Jaidee 3812 Danny Lee 4013 Emiliano Grillo 4414 David Lingmerth 4815 Søren Kjeldsen 5016 Bernd Wiesberger 5117 Martin Kaymer 5218 Kiradech Aphibarnrat 5319 Anirban Lahiri 6220 Thorbjørn Olesen 6421 Joost Luiten 6522 Thomas Pieters 6623 Jaco van Zyl 6724 Fabián Gómez 7325 Wang Jeung-hun 7626 Scott Hend 8127 Marcus Fraser 8628 Brandon Stone 9229 Yuta Ikeda 9330 Shingo Katayama 10731 Grégory Bourdy 11232 Julien Quesne 12333 Nicolas Colsaerts 12434 Ricardo Gouveia 12535 David Hearn 12736 Wu Ashun 12937 Miguel Tabuena 14038 Li Haotong 14139 Alex Čejka 14340 Graham DeLaet 14641 Fabrizio Zanotti 14742 Pádraig Harrington 14843 Ryan Fox 18444 Shiv Chawrasia 20745 Danny Chia 23046 Mikko Ilonen 23547 Jhonattan Vegas 24048 Felipe Aguilar 24849 Pan Cheng-tsung 25650 Adilson da Silva 27151 Séamus Power 29052 Espen Kofstad 29153 Roope Kakko 29354 Nino Bertasio 29955 Siddikur Rahman 30856 Lin Wen-tang 31557 Gavin Green 32158 Matteo Manassero 34259 Rodolfo Cazaubón 34460 José-Filipe Lima 392
The following men removed themselves from possible qualification: Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones, and Adam Scott of Australia Camilo Villegas of Colombia Vijay Singh of Fiji Victor Dubuisson of France Shane Lowry, Graeme McDowell, and Rory McIlroy of Ireland Francesco Molinari of Italy Hideki Matsuyama and Hideto Tanihara of Japan Tim Wilkinson of New Zealand Angelo Que of Philippines Branden Grace, Louis Oosthuizen, and Charl Schwartzel of South Africa Kim Kyung-tae of South Korea Miguel Ángel Jiménez of Spain Dustin Johnson and Jordan Spieth of the United States Brendon de Jonge of Zimbabwe
The Zika virus, which can cause serious birth defects and is currently epidemic in Brazil, can live longer in semen than in blood, and might thus infect a male golfer's partner for up to six months later or even more. Consequently, far more top male golfers than top female golfers withdrew from the games.
Qualification by country
Americas (13)Europe (25)Oceania (4)Asia (16)Africa (2) (2) (1) (2) (1) (2) (1) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (1) (2) (2) (1) (2) (2) (1) (2) (2) (4) (2) (1) (1) (2) (2) (2) (2) (1) (1) (2) (2) (2)
Women Rank Name Country WorldRanking1 Lydia Ko 12 Brooke Henderson 23 Inbee Park 34 Lexi Thompson 45 Kim Sei-young 56 Amy Yang 67 Ariya Jutanugarn 78 Chun In-gee 89 Stacy Lewis 910 Anna Nordqvist 1111 Shanshan Feng 1312 Minjee Lee 1413 Gerina Piller 1514 Suzann Pettersen 1815 Haru Nomura 2216 Charley Hull 2717 Teresa Lu 2818 Candie Kung 3219 Pornanong Phatlum 3420 Carlota Ciganda 3621 Su-Hyun Oh 4122 Shiho Oyama 4323 Azahara Muñoz 4824 Xi Yu Lin 5025 Sandra Gal 5526 Karine Icher 6027 Catriona Matthew 6328 Caroline Masson 7729 Nicole Broch Larsen 8830 Pernilla Lindberg 9031 Alena Sharp 9132 Gaby López 9833 Mariajo Uribe 10334 Nanna Koerstz Madsen 10935 Paula Reto 12236 Gwladys Nocera 13437 Julieta Granada 13538 Kelly Tan 15339 Marianne Skarpnord 15540 Ashleigh Simon 21441 Laetitia Beck 22342 Giulia Molinaro 25143 Ursula Wikström 25644 Noora Tamminen 27445 Klára Spilková 27946 Christine Wolf 31747 Giulia Sergas 32648 Maria Verchenova 33849 Leona Maguire (a) 35350 Albane Valenzuela (a) 37851 Alejandra Llaneza 38552 Chloe Leurquin 40253 Fabienne In-Albon 40854 Tiffany Chan (a) 43455 Michelle Koh 44356 Aditi Ashok 44457 Miriam Nagl 44558 Victoria Lovelady 45859 Stephanie Meadow 49260 Maha Haddioui 560
(a) = amateur
The following women removed themselves from possible qualification: Dottie Ardina of Philippines Lee-Anne Pace of South Africa
The following women were removed from possible qualification by their NOC: Christel Boeljon (ranked 35) and Anne van Dam (51) and first replacement Dewi Schreefel of the Netherlands Cathryn Bristow (ranked 58) of New Zealand
Qualification by country
America (11)Europe (27)Oceania (3)Asia (16)Africa (3) (2) (1) (2) (2) (1) (2) (1) (1) (2) (2) (1) (1) (1) (2) (2) (1) (1) (2) (2) (3) (2) (2) (2) (4) (2) (2) (2) (1)* (2) (2) (1) (2) (2) (2) * Israel is a member of the European Olympic Committees.
References