Bryson DeChambeau says he’s ‘frustrated and disappointed’ about missing out the Olympic Games this summer since on Tuesday the field for the Paris tournament was set.
The US Open was the last qualifying event for the men’s competition, but despite winning on Sunday and finishing second at the Masters in April and seventh at the US PGA last month, DeChambeau is not one of the 60 golfers who have been named to the 72-hole individual event at Le Golf National.
The International Golf Federation, which oversees sports participation in the Games, decides the positions based on the world ranking, allowing a maximum of four players per country, as long as they are among the top 15.
DeChambeau is 10th in the standings, with Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa representing the Stars and Stripes in the field where the nation was heavily defeated in the 2018 Ryder Cup.
Aside from Phil Mickelson in 2021, DeChambeau will be the first major winner not to qualify for that year’s Olympics since he was reinstated on the calendar in 2016 after a 112-year absence. The 30-year-old always had difficulties because LIV Golf was not allowed access to world ranking points.
Six members of the Saudi-funded circuit will compete in the first round on August 1, including Jon Rahm, but DeChambeau, who was forced to withdraw at 11 a.m. from the last Olympics after contracting Covid, will have to wait until 2028. when he will appear at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, for the next opportunity.
“Hopefully one day this golf game will be resolved and he’ll recover and be able to play,” DeChambeau said on the Pat McAfee Show. “I’m playing great golf…. but ultimately yes, am I frustrated and disappointed? Sure, you could absolutely say that. But I made the decisions I made and that has consequences and I respect that.”
Matt Fitzpatrick and Tommy Fleetwood represent Team GB with Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy, who finished second behind DeChambeau at Pinehurst, flying the Irish flag. The tournament will be the highest quality yet, with eight of the world’s top 10 (Patrick Cantlay also missing) scheduled to participate.
The women’s field, which will be played on the same course in the same format the following week, will be finalized after this week’s Women’s PGA Championship, the third major of the season, at Sahalee.
Charley Hull has already secured her place on Team GB, with Georgia Hall set to join her great friend in her bid to dethrone world number one Nelly Korda, who won three years ago in Tokyo, although Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Gemma Dryburgh could displace Hall. with victory in Seattle.
After a good run of form, world No. 8 Hull will relish his chances at Sahalee but suffered an early setback when his clubs got misplaced en route.
