With just over nine months until the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, positioning within the men’s and women’s Olympic Golf Ranking has taken on increased importance as the calendar nears 2024.
Players are selected from the Olympic Golf Ranking (OGR) with the top-15 men and top-15 women eligible to play in the Games -- with a limit of four from a single country. Once past No. 15 in the OGR (which is based on the men’s Official World Golf Ranking and women’s Rolex Rankings), there will be a maximum of two eligible players from each country that doesn’t already have two or more in the top 15. Le Golf National will host 120 of the world’s top players – 60 men and 60 women – near Paris next August.
September witnessed several changes across the OGR, with perhaps none more significant than China’s Ruoning Yin taking over the top spot in the women’s Ranking for the first time following top-three finishes in four of her last five starts on the LPGA Tour; she earned her first major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June. The 20-year-old’s spot atop the Rolex Rankings represented just the second time a player from China has held the top position since the Ranking’s inception in 2006 (Shanshan Feng, 2017).
While Yin made her move atop the standings, other players entered the top-60 of the women’s Ranking over the past month, including recent LPGA champions Megan Khang (No. 14, United States) and Chanettee Wannasaen (No. 26, Thailand), who both claimed their first career LPGA Tour victories. Recent top finishes by Chinese Taipei’s Peiyun Chien (No. 42) and Italy’s Alessandra Fanali (No. 54) also led to climbs into the top-60.
In the men’s Olympic Golf Ranking, Scottie Scheffler remained atop the standings following the conclusion of the PGA Tour’s 2022-23 season. Japan’s Takumi Kanaya (No. 39) leaped into the Ranking following a win two weeks ago on the Japan Golf Tour, his second Japan Golf Tour win of the year and third overall after an Asian Tour victory in February. Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen (No. 34) entered the rankings after a series of made cuts on the DP World Tour and Thailand’s Phachara Khongwatmai climbed to No. 55 after a runner-up on the Asian Tour.
As 2024 draws closer, players will continue to jockey for positioning inside the coveted top-60 with a trip to Paris and a shot at the gold medal on the line.