Olympic Women’s Golf 2024 Preview:
Men’s golf teed off before the Olympic women’s golf tournament. Scottie Scheffler matched a course record of 62 (shooting 29 on the back nine) at Le Golf National on Sunday to win Olympic Gold at a pre-tournament price of 7/2. Tommy Fleetwood finished one stroke back at 18-under to win the silver medal for Team GB, while Hideki Matsuyama was 17-under and won the bronze.
After 10 holes, Jon Rahm had a four-stroke lead in Sunday’s final round at 20-under. Then, he collapsed to shoot 39 (a ten-shot difference from Scheffler on the inward nine) and failed to medal, finishing T-5.
Based on the excitement, competitiveness, and massive crowd support, golf is here to stay in the Olympic Games.
This week, the ladies have their turn at Le Golf National.
Nelly Korda (+450), the defending gold medalist from Tokyo, is the current No. 1 ranked player in the world and has been Scheffler-esque on the LPGA Tour this year with six victories, including a major championship win at the Chevron Championship. Nelly leads an American contingent that includes Lilia Vu (9/1) and Rose Zhang (16/1), who both have wins on tour this season.
Thailand’s Atthaya Thitikul (+850) won the Dow Championship event with China’s Ruoning Yin (20/1) at the end of the June.
Aside from Nelly Korda, other 2024 major championships in this week’s field include U.S. Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso (33/1) of Japan and KPMG Women’s PGA Champion Amy Yang (40/1) of South Korea.
Team USA and South Korea are the only nations with three competitors. Jin Young Ko (11/1) and Hyo Joo Kim (20/1) will join Amy Yang for South Korea.
Seventeen of the Top 20 players in the world rankings are in Paris this week, including Canada’s Brooke Henderson (16/1), France’s Celine Boutier (18/1), Miyu Yamashita (18/1), Australians Minjee Lee (22/1) and Hannah Green (25/1), Great Britain’s Charley Hull (25/1), China’s Xiyu Lin (25/1), and Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit (33/1).
New Zealand’s Lydia Ko (33/1) medaled in both the Rio and Tokyo games.
The Field
The women’s competition takes place on Wednesday, August 7 through Saturday, August 10. Here are the 60 players in the Olympic women’s golf field:
World Ranking as of June 24, 2024
USA
Nelly Korda – No. 1
Lilia Vu – No. 2
Rose Zhang – No. 9
South Korea
Jin Young Ko – No. 3
Amy Yang – No. 5
Hyo Joo Kim – No. 13
China
Ruoning Yin – No. 4
Xiyu Lin – No. 15
France
Céline Boutier – No. 6
Perrine Delacour – No. 75
Australia
Hannah Green – No. 7
Minjee Lee – No. 11
Great Britain
Charley Hull – No. 8
Georgia Hall – No. 36
Japan
Yuka Saso – No. 10
Miyū Yamashita – No. 19
Thailand
Atthaya Thitikul – No. 12
Patty Tavatanakit – No. 25
Canada
Brooke Henderson – No. 14
Alena Sharp – No. 292
New Zealand
Lydia Ko – No. 17
Sweden
Maja Stark – No. 21
Linn Grant – No. 26
Spain
Carlota Ciganda – No. 30
Azahara Muñoz – No. 109
Ireland
Leona Maguire – No. 32
Stephanie Meadow – No. 134
South Africa
Ashleigh Buhai – No. 41
Paula Reto – No. 196
India
Aditi Ashok – No. 60
Diksha Dagar – No. 167
Mexico
Gaby López – No. 62
Germany
Esther Henseleit – No. 64
Alexandra Försterling – No. 69
Switzerland
Albane Valenzuela – No. 70
Morgane Métraux – No. 127
Denmark
Emily Kristine Pedersen – No. 87
Nanna Koerstz Madsen – No. 106
Chinese Taipei
Pei-yun Chien – No. 88
Wei-ling Hsu – No. 161
Netherlands
Anne Van Dam – No. 108
Philippines
Bianca Pagdangan – No. 113
Dottie Ardina – No. 298
Belgium
Manon De Roey – No. 154
Austria
Emma Spitz – No. 178
Sarah Schober – No. 330
Singapore
Shannon Tan – No. 181
Mexico
María Fassi – No. 186
Norway
Celine Borge – No. 187
Madelene Stavnar – No. 307
Czech Republic
Klára Spilková – No. 192
Sára Kousková – No. 290
Colombia
Mariajo Uribe – No. 198
Italy
Alessandra Fanali – No. 211
Malaysia
Ashley Lau – No. 279
Finland
Ursula Wikström – No. 286
Noora Komulainen – No. 301
Slovenia
Ana Belac – No. 288
Pia Babnik – No. 336
Morocco
Ines Laklalech – No. 321
The Course
The Albatross Course at Le Golf National, located in Guyancourt, just southwest of Paris, will host the Olympic Games competitions. Golf fans and bettors alike should be familiar with this track as it hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup (won by Team Europe 17.5-10.5). It also hosts the Open de France each year on the DP World Tour.
Designed by Hubert Chesnaeu and Robert Van Hagge, Le Golf National opened near Versailles on the outskirts of Paris in 1991.
The course will play as a Par 72 of 6.374 yards for the Olympic competition this week.
Due to the amount of water, the best way to describe Le Golf National is as a combination of a links course with a Florida-style design.
Le Golf National has regularly been one of the toughest courses in the DP World Tour rotation. The average winning score across the past ten French Opens has been around 11 under par. Nevertheless, Scottie Scheffler won Olympic Gold this past weekend at -19/265.
Three cuts of rough, ranging from 2.5 inches to 4.7 inches, which we did not see at the Ryder Cup in 2018, have been added to this week’s setup, so hitting the narrow fairways (28-yard average width) is paramount.
The greens are quite large, an average of 7,535 square feet, and a mix of bentgrass and poa annua. At the 2018 Ryder Cup, the greens ran at a little over 10 on the stimpmeter as the home Ryder Cup team gets to set up the course as they choose, and the Europeans are historically better on the slower greens. This week, they are expected to run at a faster speed of 12 but will be soft as France has received a lot of rain of late.
Ten of the Albatross’ 18 holes have water at least partially in play, including six on the back nine. The greens on the 15th, 16th and 18th holes all have water guarding the approach shots, so it should make for an exciting finish.
Detailed course information is provided by the GCSAA (Golf Course Superintendents Association of America) here.
The IGF website also provides us with a hole-by-hole course tour here.
Olympic Women’s Golf History
2020 Tokyo
Gold: Nelly Korda – USA
Silver: Mone Inami – Japan*
Bronze: Lydia Ko – New Zealand
*Inami and Ko tied, but Inami won the sudden-death playoff for the silver medal.
2016 Rio
Gold: Inbee Park – South Korea
Silver: Lydia Ko – New Zealand
Bronze: Shanshan Feng – China
Olympic Women’s Golf Selections
Brooke Henderson 16/1 Caesars Sportsbook
Canadian Brooke Henderson has 13 LPGA Tour victories including two major championships. The form has slowed a little bit this summer as she was No. 5 in the world after a T-3 at the Chevron Championship, but now ranks 17th. However, this course should be a good setup for a strong iron player like her, who ranks sixth on the LPGA Tour for Greens In Regulation and 7th in Total Birdies.
Rose Zhang 18/1 Circa Sports
Rose Zhang tied for 1st on this course in 2022 as the low scorer in the Espirito Santo Trophy, which is a team competition for the World Amateur Team Championship. She is second on the LPGA Tour for Strokes Gained: Approach and iron play largely determined who won the men’s competition last week as Scheffler led the field for that category this past weekend.
Linn Grant 18/1 Caesars Sportsbook
Sweden’s Linn Grant won the Scandinavian Mixed co-sanctioned event with the DP World Tour and Ladies European Tour earlier this summer and finished 3rd in her last start at the Dana Open three weeks ago. She was the second leading points-getter for Team Europe in the Solheim Cup last year where the Europeans successfully retained and thrives on the international stage.
Lydia Ko 40/1 Circa Sports
The New Zealander has a silver and a bronze and is looking for a gold to complete the full set. She started the season with a victory in the Tournament of Champions and a runner-up at the DriveOn Championship but hit the skids in the late spring/early summer. However, she rebounded with a Top 10 at the CPKC Women’s Open in Canada last time out and is a legitimate dark horse here.
Maja Stark 60/1 Bet365
Grant’s fellow Swede Maja Stark also had a successful Solheim Cup, going 2-1-1. She is a six-time (one LPGA Tour) winner on the Ladies European Tour and has two runner-up finishes on the LPGA Tour this year, including a second to Nelly Korda in the Chevron Championship earlier this year.