The 2021 Olympics is scheduled for July 29th to August 7th at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kasahata, Saitama, Japan, about 45 kilometres northwest of Tokyo. The men’s competition will be held July 29th to August 1st with a short break before the women’s competition August 4th to 7th.
The Olympic Qualifying process appears very fair and inclusive to all regions. The Top-15 players in both men’s and women’s world rankings automatically qualify, with a maximum of four from each country. The remaining spots go to the highest ranked golfers from countries that do no already have 2 players qualifying among the Top-15. In total 60 men and 60 women will compete for Olympic glory which is a relatively small field for tournament golf and making the qualifying period an interesting watch.
Most of all is the Korean Women’s team qualifying. Korea has 6 players in the Top-15. Currently Korean’s hold the Top 3 spots in the Rolex World Rankings, 1. Jin Young Ko, 2. In Bee Park and 3. Sei Young Kim. This has made the race to Japan a fierce competition within Korean women’s golf.
The Olympics for women professionals is clearly more important than the men’s tours. Korean women have said it compares equal or even more valuable in the Korean golfing public’s view.
America is the second strongest country represented going by world ranking results with Nelly Korda, Danielle Kang and Lexi Thompson all in the top-10.
Although Korea and America will go into the Olympics as favourites many other stars of the women’s game will make the trip, including Canada’s Brooke Henderson, New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and the Thai talent Patty Tavatanakit.
For the men’s game the Olympics lags behind in importance compared to golf’s traditional majors and lucrative World Golf Championships. In 2016 big names like Dustin Johnson, Rory Mcilroy and Adam Scott all chose to skip the event. Scott and Johnson have both passed on the Japan Olympics also, facing some criticism.
Asian Tour members Gavin Green from Malaysia and Thailand’s Jazz Janewattanond and Gunn Charoenkul are in position to earn Olympic spots as well.
The largest spotlight will likely be on the 2021 Masters Champion, Hideki Matsuyama, playing in front of his home country and golf obsessed nation of Japan. It will be interesting to see how Matsuyama is able to handle the pressure in Japan where he already has a Tiger Woods level following and similar media attention in Japan. Matsuyama is a very private person, protecting his private life from public view to a great extent.
The twist is that it really is a home game for Matsuyama. In 2010 while still an amateur Matsuyama won the Asia-Amateur Championship in 2010 at Kasumigaseki Country Club for a place in the Masters.
Each 60 player field will play four rounds and if players in medal places are tied after 72 holes, a three-hole playoff will decide the medallists. If still tied after the three-hole playoff it will go to a sudden death play-off, which would make for some very exciting television.
- Exceptional service for our golfing holiday in Bintan, everything including transfers from our hotel in Singapore to hotel in Bintan including ferry service first class, 6 round of golf to different course including transfers on time, no issues with any of the courses we played.
Barry Hutchinson - Just completed almost 3 weeks in Hua Hin with Golfasian as our organizer!
Everything has been perfect, transportations, teeoff times, golfcourses, primarily Bayan and overall services has worked out excellent!
Have used another provide previous years but will surely ask Golfasian for an offer for our 2019 golfvacation in Asia! They do know how to keep you happy!
Jan Ödman - This is the 2nd time i engaged GolfAsia for the HCM package. What impressed me much was they archived my last record and was able to recommend me 'new' courses to play this time. As was the last trip, they were organised and reliable. The arrangements (including a golf game that required speedboat transfer) were seamless and hassle-free.
Well done, GolfAsia. Looking forward to another trip by you.
Khai Leong - We just spent 3days our annual golf event (23pax) in Chiangmai with Golfasian.
Say....it was brilliant arrangement, all guys of Golfasian performed with professional manners and sincere hospitality. All schedule went on smoothly and all our participants were so happy.
once again, thank you very much!!
I highly recommend them to anyone who want to arrange golf event in Thai (or anywhere else in asia). we will be back to soon!!!
Hajime Agata - This is our second golf holiday organised by Golfasian. First was a trip to Thailand and our latest Vietnam. We can not fault the services provided by Golfasian, from the first email enquiry to the itinerary provide. Watches could be set for the pick ups and all drivers were very friendly, standards of hotels were excellent. All courses we played in both Thailand and Vietnam were excellent and some quite challenging. We would highly recommend using Golfasian and we will definitely be using them again. Thank you for making such a stress free holiday from start to finish
Anne Webber - perfekte ,verlässliche Organisation mit hoher Zuverlässigkeit.
mehrfach mit Gruppe in Thailand,Kambodscha und Vietnam erfolgreich benutzt im Golfbereich in Kombination mit Sightseeing
Juergen Stotz - Our Danang golf tour has just finished. We played the 4 great courses there, and played them twice. Our group was 10 pax, from being met at the airport and being delivered to our hotel, and then for our 8 days of golf, everything was perfect. I would like to specially thank Miss Huong who did so much to help us before and during our tour, and also our driver/tour guide Lucky who is not only a lovely man, but was funny, full of knowledge which he was happy to share with us, and he is a great and safe driver. Well done to the Golf Asian team. We would not hesitate to recommend them for a golf tour in Asia. Don’t try to do it yourself, use Golf Asian..5 stars..😀
Ian Wedding - The very good coordination of our Golf Package activities from the time of our Arrival to Thailand upto the time of our Departure.
Lauro Catalino Dela Cruz - We have just arrived back home after playing at Hua Hin in the Centara Masters followed by another week in Bangkok playing several courses. A big Thank You to the Golfasian team for the great organization and the service prided to us to make our stay one to remember and talk about for a long time. We thoroughly enjoyed the courses played in Bangkok, particularly Royal Gems. Everything about the Trip was Outstanding including our Hotel (Centara Grand in Bangkok). A big thank you to Brian for the course selections and putting everything together for us. We look forward to having Golfasian organize more trips for us, Cheers.
Trevor Evans - Exceptional service. All aspects of our holiday went smoothly. Pick-ups always on time. Hotels of superior quality. Golf courses spectacular. Thank you
Karen Munro
