Four American golfers of the highest prestige, all of them ranked in the top six of the World Ranking at the closing of the Olympic registration; twenty-eight participants backed by a place among the top 100 in the world; names of such proven prestige as the Irishman Rory McIlroy, the Norwegian Viktor Hovland or the local idol Hideki Matsuyama ….
There are many qualified rivals for Jon Rahm and Adri Arnaus, Spanish representatives at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, a golf event of enormous prestige that will help spread the values of the sport of golf on five continents.
The Olympic golf competition will take place at Kasumigaseki Country Club, the venue chosen to host the men’s tournament from July 29 to August 1 and the women’s tournament from August 4 to 7.
On the famous Japanese course, where competitions of the highest prestige have been held in the past, the fight for medals will be settled, which is very open in view of the quality of the participants finally ratified by each of the National Olympic Committees.
Special mention must go to the quartet of North Americans present in Tokyo, a team capable, each one of them, of occupying a place on the podium. Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau occupied, at the deadline for registration, the positions 3, 4, 5 and 6 in the World Ranking, a fact that speaks for itself of the quality of the rivals of Jon Rahm, Adri Arnaus and company.
Among the aforementioned American golfers, special mention should be made of Collin Morikawa, who arrives at the event launched after his great victory at The Open. The fact that in the previous Olympic event, held in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, the winner was the Englishman Justin Rose, will be an incentive for the Americans, eager to take all possible places on the podium.
All eyes must also be focused on players of more than proven prestige, with the ability to culminate the best in four successful days. This is the case of the Irishman Rory McIlroy, the Norwegian Viktor Hovland, the Japanese Hideki Matsuyama -who will miss the support of the local public, absent due to the pandemic-, the Englishmen Paul Casey and Tommy Fleetwood… all of them always to be taken into account in a high level competition, where on this occasion there are 28 golfers located within the first 100 positions of the World Ranking.
All continents are represented in these Olympic Games, as established by the competition system for the sake of diversity: Africa contributes three golfers; Australia and Oceania, three more; South America, six; North America, eight; Asia, thirteen; and Europe, twenty-seven.
Thirty-five countries in total are represented in the men’s category, one less than in the women’s competition, where golfers from 36 different nations compete, a magnificent opportunity to broaden interest in golf around the world and reach new audiences on all continents thanks to the wide coverage provided by the Olympic Games.
One of golf’s goals for Tokyo 2020 is to build on the success of its return as an Olympic sport at the Rio 2016 Games after an absence of more than 100 years.
The Brazilian event achieved very significant international exposure, being a sport watched by a young and very gender-neutral audience. In fact, golf became the seventh most popular sport in Rio de Janeiro in terms of participation of fans from all over the world.
Recall that the Spanish representatives at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games were Rafael Cabrera-Bello and Sergio Garcia, deserving of an Olympic diploma by finishing in 5th and 8th place, respectively.
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