Citius, altius, fortius – communitier (“faster, higher, stronger – together.”)
The Olympics motto, like the games themselves, speaks to a common goal within the world’s athletic community: competition with a fraternal purpose beyond the stark declaration of winners and losers.
Try telling that to the Netherlands Olympic Committee.
Based on their positions in the Olympic Golf Ranking, four Dutch golfers qualified for the Paris Games next month. Only one will be competing.
“It has not been demonstrated that there is a reasonable chance of top-eight ranking during the Olympic Games,” the Netherlands Golf Federation, which lobbied on behalf of Joost Luiten and Darius van Driel in the men’s tournament and Dewi Weber in the women’s event, said in explaining the Netherlands Olympic Committee’s denial of the three. Only Anne van Dam will compete for the Dutch.
This is the second Olympics in which the Netherlands has kept qualified golfers home because they weren’t among the top 100 in the world and, in the view of the Dutch committee, lacked a reasonable chance to be among the top finishers at the games.
Luiten, 38, a six-time winner on the European Tour, stood No. 148 in the Official World Golf Ranking, which determines the Olympic order. Van Driel, 35, who won the DP World Tour’s Magical Kenya Open this year, is No. 242. Weber, 28, who is No. 302 in the Rolex Rankings and a former NCAA runner-up at Miami, has yet to win as a professional and lost her card after the 2023 season on the LPGA. All three have represented the Dutch in numerous amateur and/or professional team international events in recent years.
Van Dam, 25, one of the longest drivers in the women’s game, has won five times on the Ladies European Tour and ranks No. 108 in the world.
Four years ago, two of the top three – silver medalist Rory Sabbatini of Slovakia and bronze medalist C.T. Pan of Taiwan – were ranked Nos. 161 and 181, respectively, in qualifying for the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games before ascending the medal podium.
In an Instagram post, Luiten called the decision “sad and painful” and criticized his nation’s Olympic committee as having “absolutely no clue about golf.”
Ironically, the return of golf to the Olympics in 2016 after a 112-year absence was supposed to fix much of that disconnect worldwide. To have the denial occur in a country that has sponsored a national open since 1912 – and which Luiten won in 2013 and 2016 – underscores the fact that growing the game globally has a way to go, and sometimes in the most unlikely of places. READ MORE
The United States and South Korea were the only nations to qualify more than two players for women’s golf in the Olympic Games next month. Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu, who rank 1 and 2, respectively, in the Rolex Rankings, will join No. 9 Rose Zhang on the American team. Amy Yang, on the strength of her recent KPMG Women’s PGA victory, jumped to No. 5 in the world and will join Jin Young Ko (3) and Hyo Joo Kim (13) for the South Koreans. The 72-hole stroke-play tournament for 60 players will be held August 7-10 at Le Golf National in Guyancourt, west of Paris. READ MORE
Kathryn Riley, USGA
England’s Robert Rock, who is enjoying a career renaissance of sorts, will attempt to play his way into a second major championship in as many months at Open Championship Final Qualifying on Tuesday.
Final Qualifying at four sites in the United Kingdom will determine at least 16 spots to join the list of players already exempt for the 152nd Open Championship on July 18-21 at Royal Troon in Scotland.
Rock, a 47-year-old two-time winner on the European Tour, announced his retirement as a touring professional in October 2022 and has spent the ensuing months as a swing coach and soccer dad. He advanced out of the Walton Heath qualifier to compete in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, his first major championship in five years, but he missed the cut.
Among the players who will attempt to qualify will be England’s Justin Rose, a former U.S. Open winner who has played in 20 Open Championships, and Spain’s Sergio García, a former Masters champion who will headline a contingent of 11 LIV Golf members seeking spots in the world’s oldest major championship via final qualifying. READ MORE and MORE
Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbon, who lost in a playoff Sunday to Marcel Siem at the Italian Open, received a nice consolation prize: a berth in the 152nd Open Championship. McKibbon and American Sean Crocker, who tied for third, earned exemptions via the Open Qualifying Series. Siem already held a spot for the Open, which will be played July 18-21 at Royal Troon in Scotland. READ MORE
Nelly Korda, the world’s top-ranked female golfer, will be sidelined indefinitely because of a dog bite, she said. Korda, 25, who has won six LPGA tournaments this season, including a record-tying five times in a row, will not defend her title in this week’s Aramco Team Series London event on the Ladies European Tour. Her status the next week for the Amundi Evian Championship, the LPGA’s fourth major championship of the year, is uncertain. Korda, who has missed three consecutive cuts, is the second LPGA player to be injured by a dog this season after Alison Lee was hospitalized with an infection after she was bitten by her boyfriend’s dog. READ MORE
TAP-INS
Will Zalatoris withdrew from the PGA Tour’s Rocket Mortgage Classic after eight holes of his third round, citing a back injury. Zalatoris, 27, a one-time winner on the tour who has slipped from No. 7 in the world last year to 42nd, underwent microdiscectomy back surgery in April 2023 and missed most of the year. READ MORE
Harry Higgs, who won in consecutive weeks in May on the Korn Ferry Tour, has clinched PGA Tour membership for 2025 with a tie for fourth at the recent Compliance Solutions Championship, the KFT announced. Should Higgs win again this year on the developmental tour, he would earn an immediate promotion to the PGA Tour. READ MORE
The U.S. Senior Open will adopt two-stage qualifying similar to the U.S. Open’s local and final sites and restructure its exemption categories beginning in 2025, the USGA announced. READ MORE
Caffeine TV, which began streaming LIV Golf tournaments in the U.S. this season, cited a lack of profit in ending its deal, leaving the Saudi-funded tour without a pay-for-play platform in the middle of its third season. READ MORE
The PGA Tour introduced Andy Weitz as the chief marketing and communications officer and, in a new area, the executive vice president for the tour’s global operations. Weitz is a former chief marketing officer at Aon, a professional services company that since 2019 has had a sponsorship role with the PGA Tour. READ MORE
American Lara Tennant clipped Scotland’s Valerie Thomas on the second playoff hole to win the Scottish Senior Women’s Open. They had tied at 10-over 226 through 54 holes at Old Course Ranfurly Golf Club in Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, Scotland. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon