Sisters Nelly and Jessica Korda are expected to lead the American women’s golf contingent at the Olympics in Tokyo.
The International Golf Federation released the list of the 60 players in the Final Olympic Golf Rankings on Tuesday. The list was cemented after the completion of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, which Nelly Korda won last weekend to move to No. 1 in the world and in the rankings for the Olympics.
Both the United States and South Korea qualified four athletes, while other countries were limited to a maximum of two, based on the world golf rankings.
Also invited to compete for the United States were Danielle Kang and Lexi Thompson. The qualifying South Koreans are Jin Young Ko, Inbee Park, Sei Young Kim and Hyo-Joo Kim.
The 60-player women’s tournament is scheduled to be played Aug. 4-7 at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan. The course, opened in 1929, has hosted the Japan Open Golf Championship four times.
The national Olympic committees have until Thursday to confirm the participation of each player. Any unused berths will be reallocated.
Park won the gold medal in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Also qualifying for Tokyo were the other Rio medalists: Lydia Ko of New Zealand (silver) and Shanshan Feng of China (bronze). Thompson competed for Team USA in 2016 — the first time women’s golf had been an Olympic sport since 1900.
Jin Young Ko finished No. 2 in the rankings, followed by Park, Sei Young Kim, Kang, Hyo-Joo Kim, Brooke Henderson of Canada, Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Thompson and Lydia Ko to complete the Top 10.
–Field Level Media
