Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. This is FTW Explains: The Olympics.
Love him or hate him, Bryson DeChambeau is playing like one of the best golfers in the world in 2024.
The 30-year-old who grew up in California and now resides in Texas won his second U.S. Open title this year with a memorable finish at Pinehurst No. 2. DeChambeau — who is nicknamed “The Scientist” and also has monikers for each of his clubs — got an up-and-down out of the bunker from more than 50 yards away and onto the green, where he sank a four-foot putt on the final hole to beat Rory McIlroy by a single stroke.
DeChambeau also finished in the top 10 at the Masters and second in the PGA Championship this year. He’s ninth in the World Golf Rankings.
So, as golf gets underway at the Summer Olympics in Paris, France, you might be wondering: Why isn’t one of the best American golfers there?
The answer is simple, but also sort of complicated.
A lot of it has to do with DeChambeau playing on the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf instead of on the PGA Tour.
When boiled down, the reason DeChambeau isn’t in France is because he didn’t qualify. Qualification takes place across a two-year period where points are piled up at events deemed eligible by the Official World Golf Ranking.
But the LIV Golf League is not accredited by the OWGR. And so, DeChambeau’s only chance to qualify was to play well enough at majors to boost his ranking high enough to make it.
One would think that a world-ranking of ninth would suffice, but the other obstacle DeChambeau faced in qualifying is that he is from one of golfing’s strongest countries. For the Olympics, a maximum of four players per country inside the OWGR’s top 15 can compete.
While DeChambeau is ninth in the world, he’s the sixth American in the OWGR. Ahead of him are Patrick Cantlay at eighth, and the four U.S. players who are competing in the Olympics in Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa.
There are some LIV golfers competing in the Olympics. If a country didn’t have at least two players inside the top 15 of the OWGR, two outside of the top 15 could qualify. So, Jon Rahm and David Puig are there for Spain, Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz are representing Mexico, Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira of Chile are competing, and so is Adrian Mernok of Poland.
DeChambeau, meanwhile, is hopeful for 2028, when the Olympics will be played in his native California.
He told ESPN after winning the U.S. Open:
“Am I frustrated and disappointed? Sure, you could absolutely say that, but I made the choices that I made and there’s consequences to that and I respect it. But hopefully, sooner rather than later, we figure out this great game of golf, so we can get past all of that and move forward into showing how awesome this sport actually is around the globe.”
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