Bryson DeChambeau says he is “ frustrated and disappointed” at missing out on this summer’s Olympics as the field for the Paris tournament was set on Tuesday.
The US Open was the final qualifying event for the men’s competition, but despite winning on Sunday and finishing second in April’s Masters and seventh in last month’s US PGA, DeChambeau is not one of the 60 golfers who have been named for the 72-hole individual event at Le Golf National.
The International Golf Federation, which oversees the sports participation in the Games, decides the spots based on world rankings, with a maximum of four players per country allowed, so long as they are in the top 15.
DeChambeau is 10th in the rankings, with Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa representing the Stars and Stripes at the course where the nation was heavily beaten in the 2018 Ryder Cup.
Apart from Phil Mickelson in 2021, DeChambeau will be the first major winner not to qualify for that year’s Olympics since it was reincluded on the schedule in 2016 after a 112-year absence. The 30-year-old was always up against it due to LIV Golf not being granted access to world ranking points.
Six members of the Saudi-funded circuit will tee it up in the first round on August 1, including Jon Rahm, but DeChambeau, who was forced to withdraw at the 11th hour from the last Olympics after contracting Covid, will have to wait until 2028, when it will be staged at Riviera Country Club in LA, for the next opportunity.
“Hopefully one day this game of golf will get figured out and come back together and I will be able to play,” DeChambeau told the Pat McAfee Show. “I’m playing great golf…. 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.”
Matt Fitzpatrick and Tommy Fleetwood are Team GB’s representatives with Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy, who finished second behind DeChambeau at Pinehurst, flying the flag for Ireland. The tournament will be the highest quality yet, with eight of the world’s top 10 – Patrick Cantlay also misses out – scheduled to take part.
The women’s field, which is staged on the same course with the same format the following week, will be finalised after this week’s Women’s PGA Championship, the season’s third major, at Sahalee.
Charley Hull is already assured of her place on Team GB, with Georgia Hall set to join her great friend as they try to dethrone world No 1 Nelly Korda – who won three years ago in Tokyo – although Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Gemma Dryburgh could displace Hall with victory in Seattle.
After a fine run of form, world No 8 Hull will fancy her chances at Sahalee, but she has suffered an early setback with her clubs being mislaid in transit.
Source Agencies
