What the Olympic Golf Fields Would Look Like ...

... if today was the day they were selected. That's what I wanted to know: What kind of fields will qualify for the men's and women's Olympic golf tournaments at the 2016 Summer Games? So I applied the proposed format and selection criteria and came up with sample fields - the fields that would exist if today (Oct. 9, 2009, the date this post was written) was the deadline for naming them. Check them out here.

What do we learn? We learn that the men's Olympic golf tournament will look like half WGC event and half World Cup of Golf. And that the women's Olympic golf tournament will look like half LPGA tournament and half LET/Futures Tour event. But that's by design: The International Golf Federation's proposed format is built to spread the 60 spots in each field among many different countries. If you want your sport in the Olympics, you have to promise a diverse field.

So on the men's side, Zach Johnson, Anthony Kim, Ian Poulter and Luke Donald would fail to qualify today. But Gaganjeet Bhullar, Felipe Aguilar and Roope Kakko (who is engaged to the LPGA's Minea Blomqvist) would get in. And so would No. 399th-ranked Iain Steel, representing Malaysia. Thirty-four countries would send players into the men's tournament.

On the women's side, 31 countries are represented using the current Rolex Rankings. And while Morgan Pressel, Seon-Hwa Lee, Brittany Lincicome, Christina Kim and Se Ri Pak wouldn't make it, the field would include Caroline Rominger, Pornanong Phatlum, Simi Mehra and No. 529th-ranked Nicole Perrot.

Both men's and women's fields would include the Top 15 players in the world rankings, so the very top players will be represented. But 24 players of the 60 in the men's field, using today's rankings, would fall outside the Top 100. And in the women's field, more than half the players in our sample field - 33 of 60 - rank outside the Top 100 in the current world rankings.

View the sample fields