The Basque golfer Jon Rahm and the Catalan player from the LIV Golf Tour, David Puig, provisionally secure direct qualification for Paris 2024, occupying the two spots in the men’s category, while Carlota Ciganda and Azahara Muñoz maintain their chances of representing Spain in the women’s category.
Jon Rahm, results
Jon Rahm and David Puig, both just 22 years old, currently ranked 3rd and 105th in the world rankings, respectively, would be Spain’s representatives in Paris, although the second spot remains closely contested due to the proximity in the rankings of Pablo Larrazábal (112th), Jorge Campillo (114th), Adrián Otaegui (123rd), Nacho Elvira (197th), and the furthest behind, Alejandro del Rey (274th).
In the women’s category, the positions are more secure, with Carlota Ciganda (30th) and Azahara Muñoz (84th) having the best chances of representing Spain for the third consecutive time after Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
They hold a greater advantage over Ana Peláez (117th), Nuria Iturrioz (172nd), and Carmen Alonso (265th). However, the participation period for the top 60 golfers in each category will end on June 17th (men’s) and June 24th (women’s).
The top 15 will have direct participation, with the rest filled from the 16th position onwards, with a maximum of 2 golfers per country for those outside the Top 15. Jon Rahm attended Arizona State University and won 11 college tournaments, second only to Phil Mickelson who won 16 titles.
In 2015, he participated as an amateur in the Phoenix Open, finishing fifth. On April 1st, he became first in the World Amateur Golf Ranking and remained there for 25 weeks, then regained the position and held it for another 35 weeks.
He thus qualified for the U.S. Open and the Open Championship the following year: in the first of the two tournaments he came twenty-third, then turned professional, simultaneously losing the right to play in the Open. The Quicken Loans National was his first professional event, and he finished third.
The Canadian Open instead saw him come second. At the end of the season, he obtained a card for the 2017 PGA Tour. Rahm found his first success in the Farmers Insurance Open thanks to an eagle on the last hole, managing to enter the major tournaments on the world scene.
At the Mexico Championship, an event in the World Golf Championships series, he finished third, two strokes behind the winner Dustin Johnson, while in the second event, the Dell Technologies Match Play, he lost the final against Johnson himself.
He later won the Irish Open by six strokes and the final tournament of the European Tour season, the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, also winning the Rookie of the Year award.
Source: Tennis World USA