Will Gold medalist Xander Schauffele represent USA at the upcoming Paris Olympics? Rankings explored
Xander Schauffele won the 2024 PGA Championship at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky last week, his first Major win. Schauffele beat runners-up Bryson DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland to claim the top spot in points.
After Schauffele's victory, a rising question among fans is whether the golfer will compete in the upcoming 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. Based on the current official Golf Rankings, the World No. 2 will be on the plane to France.
As per the criteria for the Olympics, if a country has more than four players in the top 15 of the World Rankings, then the top four players from each participant nation qualify for the Olympics. Countries that have players ranked beyond the top 15 have two spots allotted for each of them.
Based on this, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Patrick Cantlay are the ones who will be traveling to the European host nation of this year's Games as long as they maintain their rankings. This particular line-up looks strong with Schauffele having already won an Olympic gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Here is his performance from the final day at the last Olympics Games held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Xander Schauffele discusses competing at the 2024 Olympics
At the 2024 PGA Championship, Xander Schauffele had an overall score of 21-under which helped him beat Bryson DeChambeau by one stroke. Having already won an Olympic gold, many fans of his were looking forward to him winning his first major.
After Schauffele won the tournament at Valhalla Golf Club, he was asked how it would feel competing at the 2024 Olympics after his career-high triumph in Kentucky. The 30-year-old replied that winning a major was the cherry on top for him.
Xander Schauffele said:
“It’s just a cherry on top – it’s totally separate to competing at an Olympics. It definitely helps with the qualifying process. That was my goal, obviously, to qualify. The U.S. team is a strong one. It’s a hard one to qualify for. I imagine this win probably secures me into qualifying for the Olympics.”
He added,
"It’s a whole different ballgame winning that one (the Olympics), but I definitely will be able to pull some confidence from this one (PGA Championship).”
You can check out highlights of Schauffele's final round play at the 2024 PGA Championship in the video below:
The Paris Olympics are slated to begin on 26 July and end on 11 August, 2024. Before Schauffele shifts his focus to the event, he will look forward to giving it his best at the US Open next month.