The Tokyo Olympic men’s golf tournament is set to produce three new medalists.
All three Rio medalists -- Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar -- failed to qualify outright for Tokyo.
The Olympic men’s golf field of 60 is drawn from the world rankings after this weekend’s U.S. Open.
Rose, Stenson and Kuchar went into the U.S. Open outside of outright qualification, and none made the cut at Torrey Pines.
Rose, who in Rio became the first Olympic golf champion since 1904, is ranked highest of the trio at No. 42. He needed to climb more than 20 spots in the rankings to pass Paul Casey and Matthew Fitzpatrick for the second and final British spot after Tyrrell Hatton.
Stenson has dropped to No. 149 in the world, but he still had a chance going into the U.S. Open. A nation can qualify up to two golfers per gender to the Olympics if they’re all ranked outside the top 15, and Sweden’s No. 2, Henrik Norlander, entered this week ranked No. 134. Stenson is currently Sweden’s first alternate if Alex Noren or Norlander withdraws from the Games.
Kuchar is ranked 59th in the world but outside the top 25 Americans. Even with a win this week, he would not have qualified, according to rankings guru @VC606.
The top four U.S. men will qualify for Tokyo, given they will be ranked in the top 15. Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Bryson DeChambeau were the top four entering the U.S. Open, though Johnson has said he will not take an Olympic spot. That moves everybody up one spot, which put Xander Schauffele in qualifying position going into the U.S. Open.
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