Why are Dutch Olympic officials denying golfers from competing in Paris Olympics? All you need to know about the controversial rule

The Dutch Olympic officials have denied spots to three golfers for the upcoming Paris Olympics, citing their low rankings which they deemed insufficient to challenge the top 60 players.

The Paris Olympics are scheduled to take place from Friday, July 26 to Sunday, August 11. Each country can send up to two players, and up to four if all are ranked in the top 15. The Olympic golf field will consist of only 60 players. However, Dutch officials felt that their players would not be competitive against the top-ranked players.

Joost Luiten (World No. 148) and Darius Van Driel (World No. 242) are the two male players who have been snubbed by the Dutch officials. Dewi Weber, World No. 302, has been left out of the female golf team.

In their statement, the Netherlands Golf Federation said that they presented 'extensive arguments and data' to the Dutch Committee before the latter arrived at this decision.

"According to them, it has not been demonstrated that there is a reasonable chance of a top-eight ranking during the Olympic Games,” the NGF was quoted as saying via Associated Press.

The Netherlands had a rule at the Tokyo Olympics stating that players ranked inside the top 100 in the OWGR or the top 36 in the Olympic ranking would be allowed to compete.

For the Paris Olympics, the Dutch Olympic committee stated that players ranked outside the top 27 in the Olympic rankings would need a top-eight finish in an event where five of the top 50 or ten of the top 100 players would be competing. Otherwise, they would need a top-four finish.

This time, Luiten, the highest-ranked Dutch golfer, was No. 40 in the Olympic rankings. Since Luiten and Van Driel mostly play on the DP World Tour, they couldn't compete against many top 100-ranked players. Luiten recorded five top-20 finishes, while Van Driel won the Magical Kenya Open earlier this season. However, nothing was sufficient to convince the Dutch Olympic Committee.

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Who replaced the Dutch golfers at the Paris Olympics?

Following the restriction on the Dutch golfers for the Paris Olympics, Joel Girrbach of Switzerland (World No.366) and Tapio Pulkkanen of Finland (World No.378) will replace Luiten and Van Driel.

It's not as if the low-ranked golfers haven't done well at the Olympics in the past. Last time Rory Sabbatini earned the silver medal for Slovakia at the Tokyo Olympics. He was ranked 161st when he qualified for the Olympics. Similarly (World No. 181 at that time) had bagged a bronze medal in a seven-man playoff.

Even this season, seven PGA Tour winners were ranked outside the top 100 in OWGR.