11 Big Names From Women’s Golf To Miss The Olympics

It's time for the women's Olympic golf competition, and all of the world’s current top 10 are set to tee it up at Le Golf National, including Nelly Korda, who claimed gold for the US at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Like the men’s field, though, some high-profile players won’t be competing. In the case of South Korea’s 2016 gold medal winner Inbee Park, it’s not a big surprise given her absence from competitive action since the birth of her first child in 2023, although she has had some involvement in the Games thanks to her role as one of 32 candidates on the International Olympics Committee’s Athletes Commission.

As for Shanshan Feng, who won bronze China at the 2016 games, she announced her retirement in August 2022 after a career that also included 10 LPGA Tour wins.

Here are 11 other big names who will not be competing at the 2024 Olympics.

Lexi Thompson

The American’s days in the glare of professional golf are numbered after she announced she would be retiring from the full-time game at the end of the season. 

Any hopes she had of making a third successive Olympics appearance was scuppered by her world ranking, which, at 33rd, wasn’t close to taking a place despite an uptick in form in recent weeks that included a T2 at the Meijer LPGA Classic and T9 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Ally Ewing

Ewing can count herself particularly unlucky to miss out on a maiden Olympics appearance for the US after finishing the qualifying period 16th in the world rankings, just seven places beneath the last of the three players to book a ticket, Rose Zhang. That’s despite a valiant effort to haul herself up the world rankings, helped by top-10 finishes in each of the three tournaments before the cut-off.

Megan Khang

The 26-year-old has an LPGA Tour win, 10 top-10 finishes in Majors and three Solheim Cup appearances on her resume, but she won’t be adding an Olympics debut to that list in 2024. Khang finished the qualifying period as the fifth highest-ranked American, but in a team of just three, it wasn’t quite good enough, despite a T2 at the recent ShopRite LPGA Classic.

Allisen Corpuz

There is no place on the American team for 2023 US Women’s Open Champion Corpuz either. Since that victory at Pebble Beach, which left are handily placed inside the world’s top 10, Corpuz has achieved four top-10 finishes on the LPGA Tour, but her form hasn’t quite been consistent enough to maintain the career-high world ranking of eighth she held following the Major.

Danielle Kang

Kang represented the US at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, where she finished T20, but there will be no repeat in 2024 after a qualifying period that included having to take time away from the game to treat a tumor on her spine and some poor recent form that leaves her 89th in the world rankings.

Like the men’s game, there is no shortage of high-quality Americans in the women’s game, and as well as the aforementioned stars, the likes of Angel Yin, Jennifer Kupcho, Andrea Lee, Alison Lee and Jessica Korda, who is on maternity leave, also miss out on the 2024 Olympics.

Nasa Hataoka

Nasa Hataoka had been in prime position to claim one of two Japan places, but she was controversially disqualified after the first round of the ShopRite LPGA Classic thanks to her lost ball being found after the three-minute search time expired. 

While that didn’t help her cause, her world ranking suffered even more after she missed the cut at the final tournament of the qualifying period, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, to ensure she wouldn’t follow her Tokyo Olympics bow with a second Games in Paris.

Ayaka Furue

Hataoka’s run-in with the rules appeared to leave compatriot Furue poised for her maiden Olympics appearance, particularly after T2 at the event that saw her compatriot disqualified. 

Despite holding the final place before the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, though, Furue didn’t do quite enough to secure her spot with a T19 at Sahalee Country Club. 

With the door ajar for JPLGA Tour pro Miyu Yamashita, she took full advantage with a T2 at the Major to move one above Fufue in the world rankings and in the team alongside Yuka Saso.

Mone Inami

Another Japanese star to miss out is the player who won the silver medal at the 2020 Olympics. 

Despite Inami’s maiden LPGA Tour victory at the 2023 Toto Japan Classic, much of the qualifying period for the 2024 Games has been a struggle, typified by missed cuts in each of the four tournaments leading up to the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, where she withdrew. That leaves her 110th in the world rankings and well short of the position she needed to qualify.

Madelene Sagstrom

Sagstrom competed at the 2020 Olympics, where she finished T20. However, she won’t have the chance to improve on that this year, although she can count herself somewhat unfortunate as the third-highest-ranked Swede fighting for two places. 

Instead, Linn Grant and Maja Stark will be playing in Paris while the World No.35 reflects on narrowly missing out.

Anna Nordqvist

Nordqvist played in both the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, but, now aged 37, it’s likely those will remain the three-time Major winner’s only appearances following the emergence of Grant and Stark. 

Nordqvist’s most recent win came before the qualifying period began, at the 2021 AIG Women’s Open, and despite some excellent results since, including T3 at the 2023 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, she was World No. 66 at the cut-off, 40 places below Grant.

In Gee Chun

South Korean In Gee Chun finished T13 at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but the three-time Major winner won’t be competing in Paris as she sits 85th in the world rankings. 

With compatriots Jin Young Ko and Amy Yang, who claimed her maiden Major title at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, both in the top 10, there’s no place for Chun this time around.