Olympics 2024: Nelly Korda tops women’s rankings with 100 days to go

For only the third time within the last century, the Summer Olympics will feature a 72-hole stroke play for the best women’s players in the world.

Nelly Korda won the Gold Medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, contested in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mone Inami of Japan won the Silver, while Lydia Ko came in third, winning the Bronze. In Rio de Janeiro in 2016, South Korea’s Inbee Park won the Gold, Ko took home the Silver, and Shanshan Feng of China won the Bronze.

This year’s Olympic Golf Competition will take place at Le Golf National, outside of Paris, where the Europeans trounced the Americans in the 2018 Ryder Cup.

The women’s tournament will kick off Wednesday, Aug. 7, now less than 100 days from this writing. As such, we want to highlight the qualification process, provide updated standings, and other essential tidbits related to Olympic Golf.

Olympic Golf Qualification

Only 60 players will tee it up in the women’s Olympic Golf Competition, creating an aura like the Signature Events seen on the PGA Tour.

Of those 60 female players, 59 gain entry via the Olympic Golf Rankings, which relies on the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings.

Each tournament has a strength of field rating for the Olympic Golf Rankings based on the quality of players within the field. That determines the number of points awarded at an event, which are then allocated to the players based on where they finish. Better performances in stronger events lead to more points.

Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images

The host country always includes one player in the field, too, so this year, Celine Boutier will presumably represent France under that distinction.

A country can have as many as four players compete in the Olympics, as long as each of those four players falls within the top 15 of the Olympic Golf Rankings. This stipulation only applies to the United States and South Korea, the latter of which will likely have three players, not four.

Current Olympic Golf Ranking Standings

Rolex Women’s World Golf Ranking listed in parentheses:

1. Nelly Korda — USA (1)

2. Lilia Vu — USA (2)

3. Celine Boutier — France (3)

4. Ruoning Yin — China (4)

5. Brooke Henderson — Canada (5)

6. Minjee Lee — Australia (6)

7. Jin Young Ko — South Korea (7)

8. Charley Hull — Great Britain (8)

9. Lydia Ko — New Zealand (9)

10. Hyo-Joo Kim — South Korea (10)

11. Atthaya Thitikul — Thailand (11)

12. Xiyu Lin — China (12)

13. Megan Khang — USA (13)

14. Alison Lee — USA (14)

15. Amy Yang — South Korea (15)

16. Nasa Hataoka — Japan (16)

17. Hannah Green — Australia (18)

18. Ayaka Furue — Japan (21)

19. Leona Maguire — Ireland (23)

Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

20. Carlota Ciganda — Spain (24)

21. Patty Tavatanakit — Thailand (27)

22. Maja Stark — Sweden (28)

23. Linn Grant — Sweden (29)

24. Georgia Hall — Great Britain (30)

25. Ashleigh Buhai — South Africa (32)

26. Aditi Ashok — India (46)

27. Gaby Lopez — Mexico (54)

28. Albane Valenzuela — Switzerland (65)

29. Esther Henseleit — Germany (72)

30. Alexandra Forsterling — Germany (74)

Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images

31. Emily Kristine Pedersen — Denmark (87)

32. Anne Van Dam — Netherlands (88)

33. Azahara Munoz — Spain (90)

34. Perrine Delacour — France (96)

35. Stephanie Meadow — Ireland (103)

36. Peiyun Chen — Taiwan (110)

37. Nanna Koerstz Madsen — Denmark (111)

38. Bianca Pagdanganan — Phillippines (131)

39. Diksha Dagar — India (138)

40. Celine Borge — Norway (155)

41. Klara Davison Spilkova — Czech Republic (157)

42. Maria Fassi — Mexico (159)

43. Chia Yen Wu — Taiwain (165)

Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

44. Paula Reto — South Africa (173)

45. Morgane Metraux — Switzerland (182)

46. Manon De Roey — Belgium (191)

47. Shannon Tan — Singapore (193)

48. Alessandra Fanali — Italy (197)

49. Mariajo Uribe — Colombia (222)

50. Emma Spitz — Austria (227)

51. Sara Kouskova — Czech Republic (231)

52. Ashley Lau — Malaysia (238)

53. Maddie Szeryk — Canada (265)

54. Matilda Castren — Finland (270)

55. Daniela Darquea — Ecaudor (285)

56. Madelene Stavnar — Norway (287)

57. Natasha Oon — Malaysia (288)

58. Virginia Elena Carta — Mexico (305)

59. Dewi Weber — Netherlands (307)

60. Ursula Wikstrom — Finland (311)

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.