Photo credit: Dino Gomez
California men’s golf alumni and current PGA Tour standouts Collin Morikawa and Byeong Hun An have qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, where they will represent the United States and the Republic of Korea, respectively.
The Golden Bears will play in the men’s portion of the Olympic golf competition Aug. 1-4 at Le Golf National, located just outside of Paris in Guyancourt, France. The 60-golfer field – finalized Monday based on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) – will play a single 18-hole round each day, with the top three finishers earning gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively.
Morikawa, ranked seventh in the OWGR, will join fellow Americans Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Wyndham Clark in Paris, while An, ranked 23rd, is one of two South Koreans to punch a ticket, alongside Tom Kim. The top 15 golfers in the OWGR automatically qualified for the Olympics, with a maximum of four golfers per country being selected from that group. After selecting participants from the top 15, the Olympic committee selected up to two golfers per country from the remainder of the OWGR. Both Bears have previous Olympic experience, as Morikawa placed fourth and narrowly missed out on a medal for the United States at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and An finished 11th for the Republic of Korea at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Morikawa has won six times on the PGA Tour since graduating from Cal in 2019, including a pair of major championship victories at the 2020 PGA Championship and 2021 Open Championship. He has five top-five finishes in 15 events played on the PGA Tour this year. Morikawa, a four-time All-American while donning the Blue and Gold, was the 2019 Pac-12 Championship individual medalist and Pac-12 Player of the Year and owns Cal’s career stroke-play average record (69.78).
An turned professional in 2011 after one season with the Bears. The youngest champion in the history of the U.S. Amateur at the age of 17 in 2009, An has four professional wins, including the 2015 BMW PGA Championship title on the European Tour. The Seoul native has impressed in 2024 with five top-10 finishes, including a runner-up effort at the Sony Open and a third-place finish at the Wells Fargo Championship.