Qualification for Golf at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo 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 21 June 2021 (men) or 28 June 2021 (women), 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 qualified from the host nation and 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 The final rankings for the men's competition were released on 22 June 2021. Rank Name Country Worldranking1 Justin Thomas 32 Collin Morikawa 43 Xander Schauffele 54 Patrick Reed 95 Rory McIlroy 106 Viktor Hovland 147 Hideki Matsuyama 168 Paul Casey 209 Abraham Ancer 2310 Im Sung-jae 2611 Cameron Smith 2812 Joaquín Niemann 3113 Tommy Fleetwood 3314 Corey Conners 3615 Garrick Higgo 3816 Shane Lowry 4217 Marc Leishman 4318 Christiaan Bezuidenhout 4619 Kim Si-woo 4920 Carlos Ortiz 5321 Mackenzie Hughes 6322 Sebastián Muñoz 6723 Guido Migliozzi 7224 Rikuya Hoshino 7625 Antoine Rozner 7826 Thomas Detry 9427 Alex Norén 9528 Thomas Pieters 10729 Kalle Samooja 11730 Matthias Schwab 11831 Rasmus Højgaard 12132 Sami Välimäki 12233 Jazz Janewattananond 12934 Jhonattan Vegas 13035 Henrik Norlander 13636 Mito Pereira 14637 Adri Arnaus 14738 Joachim B. Hansen 15139 Rory Sabbatini 16740 Sepp Straka 17441 Ryan Fox 17842 Renato Paratore 18043 Pan Cheng-tsung 18144 Romain Langasque 18645 Adrian Meronk 18946 Maximilian Kieffer 19347 Jorge Campillo 21348 Juvic Pagunsan 21649 Ondřej Lieser 23150 Scott Vincent 23951 Gunn Charoenkul 25952 Hurly Long 26353 Fabrizio Zanotti 28054 Rafael Campos 28155 Gavin Green 28656 Yuan Yechun 29157 Kristian Krogh Johannessen 29258 Wu Ashun 31559 Anirban Lahiri 34060 Udayan Mane 356 The following men removed themselves from possible qualification (world ranking as of 21 June listed): Dustin Johnson (2), Patrick Cantlay (7) and Brooks Koepka (8) of the United States Sergio García (48) and Rafa Cabrera-Bello (140) of Spain Adam Scott (41) of Australia Bernd Wiesberger (54) of Austria Danny Lee (191) of New Zealand Louis Oosthuizen (12) of South Africa Martin Kaymer (99) and Stephan Jäger (114) of Germany Tyrrell Hatton (11), Matt Fitzpatrick (21) and Lee Westwood (27) of Great Britain Camilo Villegas (225) of Colombia Emiliano Grillo (74) of Argentina Victor Perez (37) of France Francesco Molinari (133) of Italy
Additionally, the Dutch Olympic Committee did not allow Joost Luiten (177) and Wil Besseling (221) to participate since they required their participants to be ranked in the top 100 of the world ranking.
Before the start of the competition, Bryson DeChambeau (6) tested positive for COVID-19 and was replaced on the US team by Patrick Reed. Jon Rahm (1) also withdrew following a positive test and was replaced by Jorge Campillo.
Women The final rankings for the women's competition were released on 29 June 2021. Rank Name Country WorldRanking1 Nelly Korda 12 Ko Jin-young 23 Inbee Park 34 Kim Sei-young 45 Danielle Kang 56 Kim Hyo-joo 67 Brooke Henderson 78 Yuka Saso 89 Lexi Thompson 910 Lydia Ko 1011 Nasa Hataoka 1112 Patty Tavatanakit 1213 Jessica Korda 1314 Minjee Lee 1415 Hannah Green 1516 Shanshan Feng 1917 Ariya Jutanugarn 2118 Sophia Popov 2319 Mone Inami 2720 Carlota Ciganda 3221 Mel Reid 3822 Anna Nordqvist 4923 Nanna Koerstz Madsen 5224 Céline Boutier 5825 Leona Maguire 6026 Lin Xiyu 6227 Gaby López 6428 Caroline Masson 6829 Emily Kristine Pedersen 6930 Madelene Sagström 7231 Matilda Castren 7432 Hsu Wei-ling 7833 Azahara Muñoz 8434 Jodi Ewart Shadoff 8635 Giulia Molinaro 9836 Perrine Delacour 10137 Stephanie Meadow 12238 Min Lee 13039 Anne van Dam 13340 Alena Sharp 13641 Kelly Tan 15442 Albane Valenzuela 16343 Bianca Pagdanganan 16544 Aditi Ashok 17845 María Fassi 18046 Maria Fernanda Torres 18547 Tiffany Chan 21848 Sanna Nuutinen 23249 Klára Spilková 27650 Manon De Roey 27851 Christine Wolf 28852 Pia Babnik 30153 Mariajo Uribe 30654 Daniela Darquea 34955 Magdalena Simmermacher 39956 Lucrezia Colombotto Rosso 40557 Maha Haddioui 41858 Tonje Daffinrud 41959 Kim Métraux 44560 Diksha Dagar 454
The following women removed themselves from possible qualification (world ranking as of 28 June listed):
Charley Hull (ranked 41) and Georgia Hall (51) of Great Britain Lee-Anne Pace (209) of South Africa Morgane Métraux (353) of Switzerland Ashleigh Buhai (86) of South Africa Marianne Skarpnord (265) of Norway Two weeks before the competition, Paula Reto (420) of South Africa tested positive for COVID-19 and withdrew. She was replaced in the field by India's Diksha Dagar. Reto subsequently tested negative multiple times and could have played but for her prompt withdrawal in order to allow maximum time for a replacement to prepare.
Qualification summary The following summarized the NOC's qualified for the Olympic golf tournament with the amount of golfers qualified per country. NOC Men Women Total 1 1 22 4 2 13 2 13 2 24 2 2 2 24 1 12 1 12 2 24 1 1 22 4 2 24 2 24 22 4 1 1 2 24 2 24 22 4 2 24 1 12 22 4 1 1 1 1 11 2 2 13 1 1 1 23 1 1 1 12 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 46 2 24 2 24 2 2 1 23 22 4 44 8 1 1 1 1Total: 42 NOCs 6060120
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