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Aug 14th, 2016
Women's Olympic tee times and pairings announced
Check out the key pairings here
Words: John Dean
The world’s top women golfers are set to take the Olympic stage in Rio de Janeiro beginning this Wednesday, 17 August.
The International Golf Federation has announced the draw for the first and second rounds of the women’s golf competition at Rio 2016 when a field of 60 competitors will be seeking to follow in the footsteps of Margaret Abbott of the United States, who won the gold medal in Paris in 1900.
Brazil will be recognized again as the host nation, when Miriam Nagl hits the opening tee shot at 7.30am in the company of Ireland’s Leona Maguire and Kelly Tan of Malaysia – a drive which will mark the return of women’s golf as an Olympic sport after an absence of 116 years.
Groupings for the field of 60 include world No.1 Lydia Ko of New Zealand playing alongside Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist and GB’s Charley Hull.
The trio tees off in Wednesday’s final starting time at 11:09am. Nordqvist and Hull will be aiming to have similar results to their medal-winning countrymen Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose.
While Ko sits in the top-ranked position in the current world rankings and headed the Olympic qualification, No.2 Ariya Jutanugarn, fresh from her first major championship victory at the RICOH Women’s British Open two weeks ago, will represent Thailand at 10:58am with American Stacy Lewis and the Republic of Korea’s Sei Young Kim.
World No.3, Canadian Brooke Henderson, will play alongside two-time major champion Suzann Pettersen of Norway and fourth ranked Lexi Thompson of the United States at 9:14am.
Another interesting group includes former world No.1 Inbee Park. The Korean star has been side-lined since the beginning of June with a thumb injury but has been working toward the opportunity to represent her country in Rio. Park tees it up with American Gerina Piller and Spain’s Azahara Munoz at 9:03am.
The field also includes three amateur golfers, Leona Maguire from Ireland, Tiffany Chan of Hong Kong and Albane Valenzuela of Switzerland.
Related:
Click here or on the image below for what was in Justin Rose's winning Olympic bag
