2024 Paris Olympics: Xander Schauffele, Nelly Korda in line to defend gold medals at Summer Games

Only one month remains until the Olympic Golf Rankings are finalized ahead of the festivities in Paris

By Patrick McDonald May 24, 2024 at 11:22 am ET• 4 min read

The PGA Tour and LPGA are in full swing with major championships and big events seemingly every other week. Those are not the only tournaments which players have circled on this year's calendar, however, as the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris are fast approaching and will be here before they know it.

Less than one month separates the men's game from the finalization of the Olympic Golf Rankings -- the standings used to determine eligibility for the Olympics -- as the qualification period comes to an end at the conclusion of the U.S. Open. While the rankings sound unique, they are essentially a copy of the Official World Golf Rankings.

Here's how qualification for the Olympics works:

• Top 15 in the OWGR are eligible, but no more than four players can be selected from a given nation.
  
• Outside the top 15, "players will be eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top 15."
  

Xander Schauffele more or less locked up his spot on the U.S. team with his win at the PGA Championship as the Olympic gold medalist jumped to No. 2 in the OWGR and is set to join Scottie Scheffler in Paris. Since there are more than four men from the United States inside the top 15 in the OWGR, the red white and blue will be represented by four players on the men's side.

"It's just a cherry on top," Schauffele said after securing his spot on the team with his PGA victory. "It's totally separate to competing in the Olympics. It definitely helps with the qualifying process. That was my goal, obviously, was to qualify. The U.S. team is a strong one. It's a hard one to qualify for. I imagine this win probably secures me into qualifying for the Olympics. That's a whole different ballgame, winning that one. But definitely be able to pull some confidence from this thing."