Qualification for Golf at the 2016 Summer Olympics in

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

was determined not by any form of qualifying tournament, but by the rankings maintained by the

International Golf Federation The International Golf Federation (IGF) was founded in 1958 and is the international federation recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the world governing body for golf. The IGF has two membership categories representing the ...

. Qualification was based on world ranking (

Official World Golf Ranking The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of professional golfers. It was started in 1986. The rankings are based on a player's position in individual tournaments (i.e. not pairs or team events) over a "rolli ...

for men,

Women's World Golf Rankings The Women's World Golf Rankings, also known for sponsorship reasons as the Rolex Rankings, were introduced in February 2006. They are sanctioned by eight women's golf tours and the organisations behind them: Ladies Professional Golf Association (L ...

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

The following men removed themselves from possible qualification: *

Jason Day Jason Day (born 12 November 1987) is an Australian professional golfer, PGA Tour member and winner of the 2015 PGA Championship. He is a former world number one in the World Golf Ranking, having first achieved the ranking in September 2015. ...

Marc Leishman Marc Leishman (born 24 October 1983) is an Australian professional golfer. He has won six times on the PGA Tour. In 2009 he won the Rookie of the Year award on the PGA Tour, the first Australian to win the award. Career Leishman was born in W ...

, Matt Jones, and Adam Scott of Australia *

Camilo Villegas Camilo Villegas (; born 7 January 1982) is a Colombian professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. Early years Villegas was born in Medellín, Colombia, and took up golf as a child. After several different National Junior Championships in Co ...

of Colombia *

Vijay Singh Vijay Singh ( hif, विजय सिंह ; born 22 February 1963), nicknamed "The Big Fijian", is a Fijian professional golfer. He has won 34 events on the PGA Tour, including three major championships: one Masters title (2000) and two ...

of Fiji *

Victor Dubuisson Victor Dubuisson (born 22 April 1990) is a French professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. Amateur career Dubuisson was born in Cannes. He enjoyed a successful amateur career, during which he won several major amateur tournaments, incl ...

of France *

Shane Lowry Shane Lowry (born 2 April 1987) is an Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour and the PGA Tour. His notable achievements include winning the 2019 Open Championship, the Irish Open as an amateur in 2009, and the 2015 WGC-Brid ...

Graeme McDowell Graeme McDowell (born 30 July 1979) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland. He has a total of eleven tournament victories on the European Tour, and four on the PGA Tour, including one major championship, the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Be ...

, and

Rory McIlroy Rory Daniel McIlroy (born 4 May 1989) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who is a member of both the European and PGA Tours. He is the current world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, and has spent over 100 weeks in tha ...

of Ireland *

Francesco Molinari Francesco Molinari (born 8 November 1982) is an Italian professional golfer. He won the 2018 Open Championship, his first and only major victory, and the first major won by an Italian professional golfer. The Open Championship win capped a su ...

of Italy *

Hideki Matsuyama is a Japanese professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He is the first-ever Japanese professional golfer to win a men's major golf championship the 2021 Masters Tournament. As of January 2022, Matsuyama has 17 worldwide wins, eight car ...

and

Hideto Tanihara is a Japanese professional golfer. He has won 17 tournaments on the Japan Golf Tour. Professional career Tanihara has won 14 tournaments on the Japan Golf Tour and featured in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. His highest ranking ...

of Japan *

Tim Wilkinson Timothy David Wilkinson (born 26 July 1978) is a professional golfer from New Zealand. Biography Wilkinson was born in Palmerston North, and was educated at St Peter's College. He won the New Zealand Stroke Play Championship in 2000 and tur ...

of New Zealand *

Angelo Que Angelo Que (born 3 December 1978) is a Filipino professional golfer. Que won the Philippine Amateur twice before turning professional in 2003. He has played on the Asian Tour since 2003 and has won thrice: the 2004 Carlsberg Masters Vietnam, th ...

of Philippines *

Branden Grace Branden John Grace (born 20 May 1988) is a professional golfer from South Africa who currently plays for LIV Golf. He formerly played on the European Tour, the PGA Tour, and the Sunshine Tour. In 2012, he became the first player in the histor ...

Louis Oosthuizen Lodewicus Theodorus "Louis" Oosthuizen (; born 1982) is a South African professional golfer who won the 2010 Open Championship. He has finished runner-up in all four major championships: the 2012 Masters Tournament, the 2015 and 2021 U.S. Op ...

, and

Charl Schwartzel Charl Adriaan Schwartzel ( ; born 31 August 1984) is a South African professional golfer who currently plays in the LIV Golf Invitational Series and has previously played on the PGA Tour, European Tour and the Sunshine Tour. He has won one major ...

of South Africa *

Kim Kyung-tae Kim Kyung-tae ( ko, 김경태; born 2 September 1986), also known as K.T. Kim, is a South Korean professional golfer who plays on the Asian and Japan Golf Tours. Career He won several tournaments as an amateur, including the 2006 Japan Amateur ...

of South Korea *

Miguel Ángel Jiménez Miguel Ángel Jiménez Rodríguez (born 5 January 1964) is a Spanish professional golfer. He has won 21 times on the European Tour and has been a member of two victorious Ryder Cup teams. Early years Born in Málaga in southern Spain, Jiménez ...

of Spain *

Dustin Johnson Dustin Hunter Johnson (born June 22, 1984) is an American professional golfer. He has won two major championships, the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club with a 4-under-par score of 276 and the 2020 Masters Tournament with a record score ...

and

Jordan Spieth Jordan Alexander Spieth (born July 27, 1993) is an American professional golfer on the PGA Tour and former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking. He is a three-time major winner and the 2015 FedEx Cup champion. Spieth's first majo ...

of the United States *

Brendon de Jonge Brendon de Jonge (born 18 July 1980) is a professional golfer from Zimbabwe. He currently plays on the PGA Tour. He played collegiate golf at Virginia Tech. Virginia Tech career De Jonge was a two-time All-America selection by the Golf Coaches of ...

of Zimbabwe The

Zika virus ''Zika virus'' (ZIKV; pronounced or ) is a member of the virus family ''Flaviviridae''. It is spread by daytime-active ''Aedes'' mosquitoes, such as '' A. aegypti'' and '' A. albopictus''. Its name comes from the Ziika Forest of Uganda, whe ...

, 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

Women

(a) = amateur The following women removed themselves from possible qualification: *

Dottie Ardina Dottie Ardina (born 2 December 1993) is a Filipino professional golfer. Ardina won numerous amateur tournament in Asia and represented the Philippines at the Espirito Santo Trophy (World Amateur Team Championships) in 2006 and 2010. Her 2006 app ...

of Philippines *

Lee-Anne Pace Lee-Anne Pace (born 15 February 1981) is a South African professional golfer. Career Pace was born in Paarl, Western Cape. She had a successful amateur collegiate career in the United States, where she attended Murray State University and the U ...

of South Africa The following women were removed from possible qualification by their

NOC A network on a chip or network-on-chip (NoC or )This article uses the convention that "NoC" is pronounced . Therefore, it uses the convention "a" for the indefinite article corresponding to NoC ("a NoC"). Other sources may pronounce it as an ...

: *

Christel Boeljon Christel Wilhelmina Boeljon (born 30 July 1987)
is a

Anne van Dam Anne van Dam (born 2 October 1995) is a Dutch professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour and Ladies European Tour, where she has five wins. She played in the 2019 Solheim Cup and the 2020 Summer Olympics. Career Van Dam turned professiona ...

(51) and first replacement Dewi Schreefel of the Netherlands *

Cathryn Bristow Cathryn Bristow (born 14 November 1984) is a New Zealand professional golfer. College career Bristow played for the Oregon Ducks. Professional career She is a three-time winner on the ALPG Tour – once in 2012 and twice in 2016. She also won t ...

(ranked 58) of New Zealand

Qualification by country

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

is a member of the

European Olympic Committees The European Olympic Committees is an organisation based in Rome, Italy, consisting of 50 National Olympic Committees from the continent of Europe.EOC members include transcontinental countries Turkey and the Russian Federation, as well as Israel, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Golf at the 2016 Summer Olympics - Qualification Qualification for the 2016 Summer Olympics

Qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...