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BY STEVE EUBANKS
The hardest team in the world to make is not even up for debate. It’s the South Korean women’s Olympic golf team. Sure, breaking into the starting five for the L.A. Lakers is no cakewalk. And making the first unit for Liverpool Football Club is a feat worthy of praise. But earning a spot on the those rosters is a cakewalk compared to the battle the best South Korean female golfers will go through this winter and spring as they vie for four coveted spots in the Tokyo games.
To put it into perspective, if the qualification process ended today the Republic of Korea would send the following players to Tokyo: Jin Young Ko, who won two majors in 2019 and is No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings; Sung Hyun Park, who is No. 2 in the world; Sei Young Kim, world No. 5, winner of the 2019 CME Group Tour Championship and holder of the LPGA record for the lowest score relative to par (31 under at the 2018 Thornberry Creek LPGA Classic); and, finally, U.S. Women’s Open champion and 2019 Rolex Rookie of the Year Jeongeun Lee6, who is No. 7 in the world.
All four of those players sit higher in the world rankings than Canada’s gold medal hopeful, Brooke Henderson, or Thailand’s best player and former world No. 1 Ariya Jutanugarn.
All four South Koreans also rank higher than Lexi Thompson (USA), Minjee Lee (Australia) and two of the host nation of Japan’s best hopes for gold: AIG Women’s British Open champion Hinako Shibuno and Ai Suzuki.
So competitive is the South Korean team that, at this moment, the second alternate is the player of the decade and the reigning gold medalist, Inbee Park, a 19-time LPGA Tour winner with seven major championships, who is also the youngest person in history to be inducted in the LPGA Hall of Fame. And it’s not like Park is over the hill. She’ll be 32 when the first shot is struck in Tokyo.
So Yeon Ryu, former world No. 1 and a two-time major champion, will be barely 30 when the games begin. But unless she makes a serious move, Ryu likely will be on the outside looking in for the second consecutive Olympics. She was first alternate for the Rio games in 2016 and currently is third alternate on the South Korean squad despite being ranked 18th in the world, well ahead of China’s top player and reigning bronze medalist, Shanshan Feng, and miles clear of New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, the silver medalist in Rio.
Of course, no qualifying system is perfect. But there are 11 South Koreans ranked ahead of England’s No. 1 player, Charley Hull, and 14 South Koreans ahead of Bronte Law, who also is likely to play for queen and country in Japan.
Thirty-two South Korean players rank higher than Sweden’s first projected Olympic qualifier, Anna Nordqvist, and 34 sit above the Netherlands’ top player, Anne van Dam.
You get the picture. South Korea likely will leave more potential medalists at home than most countries will send. But the South Korean golfers who are there will be as motivated as any athletes in any sport. Women’s golf is akin to the NFL and the Premier League in South Korea. Throw in the national pride of the games and it’s easy to see why Park’s 2016 victory in Rio de Janeiro was, according to Sean Pyun, who heads Asian operations for the LPGA, the most-watched golf event in the nation’s history, even though it aired in the middle of the night in Seoul.
... As the Olympic buzz grows louder and the trials in various countries grow more intense, remember one thing: The toughest team to make isn’t in swimming or gymnastics or track and field. It’s South Korean women’s golf.
Of course anything is possible. It’s a 72-hole golf event. And the Olympics brings a different level of pressure and pride. Just ask Justin Rose, who pounded the English team logo on his chest upon winning gold four years ago, or Ko, who rolled in a gutsy 7-footer at the last to become the first female Kiwi to capture an individual silver medal in Olympic history.
But the South Koreans hold an edge, not just in rankings but in raw numbers. They are the only team at the moment that would field four players under the qualifying criteria. Japan and the United States have three eligible Olympians currently – Nasa Hataoka joining Suzuki and Shibuno for the host country and Nelly Korda and Danielle Kang joining Thompson for the USA.
England and a slew of other nations would have two players in the field – Canada, Ireland, Mexico, South Africa, Denmark, France, Norway, China and Germany among them. The most intriguing team with two potential players is Thailand, since the likely representatives will be Jutanugarn and her sister, Moriya, a story tailor made for television.
It’s early. A fourth American, Jessica Korda, could earn her way into the field, providing an even more compelling story for the networks. Not only would she join younger sister Nelly, should she make it Jessica would become the third Olympian in her immediate family. The sisters’ mother, Regina, played tennis for Czechoslovakia before becoming an American.
And Inbee Park might work her way into contention for another crack at gold.
But as the Olympic buzz grows louder and the trials in various countries grow more intense, remember one thing: The toughest team to make isn’t in swimming or gymnastics or track and field. It’s South Korean women’s golf. Nothing else comes close.