Inbee Park, Lydia Ko and Shanshan Feng are set to return to the Olympic stage to defend their Rio 2016 medals.

The qualification process for the women’s golf competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has been completed with today’s publication of the final Olympic golf rankings.

The final Olympic rankings were taken from the women’s world rankings after the completion of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, where 22-year-old American Nelly Korda captured her first major championship and moved to world number one and top of the Olympic rankings.

Both the United States and South Korea lead the way with four qualified players, while none of the other 34 countries represented has more than two. The 60-player women’s tournament will be held at Kasumigaseki Country Club August 4-7.

Korda jumped South Korea’s Jin Young Ko and Inbee Park in the final Olympic rankings and is joined by Danielle Kang (No. 5), Lexi Thompson (No. 9) and older sister Jessica Korda (No. 13). Joining Ko (No. 2) and defending gold medalist Park (No. 3) are Sei Young Kim (No. 4) and Hyo-Joo Kim (No. 6). In addition to Park, 2016 silver medalist Lydia Ko of New Zealand (No. 10) and bronze medalist Shanshan Feng of China (No. 16) are qualified.

The next step is for the International Golf Federation (IGF) to send confirmation of the qualified athletes to the National Olympic Committees. The NOCs will then confirm use of allocated quota places to the IGF by July 1 and the IGF, in turn, will reallocate all unused quota places before the Tokyo 2020 Sport Entries Deadline on July 5.

Tokyo qualifying process extended

The women’s rankings were to have run from July 8, 2018 through to June 29, 2020. However, following the postponement of the Olympics to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the IGF and International Olympic Committee adjusted the qualifying system to where the athletes accumulated Olympic Ranking points through Sunday’s conclusion to the major championship.

The top-15 world-ranked players are eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country. Beyond the top-15, players are eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country that does not already have two or more players among the top-15. The host country is guaranteed a spot, as is each of the five continents of the Olympics.

Final Olympic entries announced on July 6

Qualifiers for the men’s competition, scheduled for July 29-August 1 at Kasumigaseki CC, were announced Tuesday, June 29 following Jon Rahm’s U.S. Open victory. The Spaniard moved to No. 1 in the world with his win and topped the Olympic Rankings. He was followed by Americans Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau, respectively, making the USA the only country with four qualifiers. As with the women, 36 countries are represented among the men.

The IGF will publish a final entries list of 60 names for both the men’s and women’s events on Tuesday, July 6, which will ratify all the competitors for the respective fields at the Olympic Games.

Lydia Ko, Inbee Park and Shanshan Feng - Rio 2016

Who will be playing in Tokyo?

The medal winners from Rio 2016, Inbee Park, Lydia Ko and Shanshan Feng will be back on the Olympic stage unlike in the men's draw where Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson and Matt Kuchar did not qualify.

Just before the Olympic golf rankings were announced, Charley Hull posted to her Instagram that she will not be playing in Tokyo, she said:

"I’ve been thinking long and hard over the past few months about this year’s Olympics and whether or not I’d be able to give my best performance given all the scheduling and travel challenges involved.

"Obviously it would be a huge privilege to represent my country but I have, very reluctantly, made the tough decision not to travel this year which has been very hard given all the amazing memories I have from my experience in Rio five years ago.

"I’ll be following Team GB closely in Tokyo and wish them all the best of luck."

Since the announcement, Great Britain's Georgia Hall has also declined to take part citing the exhaustion and Covid-19 restrictions as playing a big part in her decision. She said the following on her Instagram story:

"I was honoured to have the opportunity to represent Team GB in Tokyo this year. However, it has been an exhausting schedule spending three months away from home and, with the current restrictions in place due to Covid-19, I feel it's the best decision for me not to go. I don't feel that going to Japan would allow me to prepare properly for the important few weeks ahead. I wish Team GB the best of luck in Tokyo and will be supporting them all the way. Georgia x"

Taking Hall's place will be Jodi Ewart Shadoff, who posted to Instagram about her excitement at representing Team GB:

Women's Olympic golf competitiors

Argentina

Magdalena Simmermacher

Australia

Minjee Lee
Hannah Green

Austria

Christine Wolf

Belgium

Manon De Roey

Canada

Brooke Henderson
Alena Sharp

China

Shanshan Feng
Xiyu Lin

Colombia

Mariajo Uribe

Czech Republic

Klara Spilkova

Denmark

Nanna Koerstz Madsen
Emily Kristine Pedersen

Ecuador

Daniela Darquea

Finland

Matilda Castren
Sanna Nuutinen

France

Celine Boutier
Perrine Delacour

Germany

Sophia Popov
Caroline Masson

Great Britain

Melissa Reid
Georgia Hall
Jodi Ewart Shadoff

Hong Kong

Tiffany Chan

India

Aditi Ashok
Diksha Dagar

Ireland

Leona Maguire
Stephanie Meadow

Italy

Giulia Molinaro
Lucrezia Colombotto Rosso

Japan

Nasa Hakaoka
Mone Inami

Korea

Jin Young Ko
Inbee Park
Sei Young Kim
Hyo-Joo Kim

Malaysia

Kelly Tan

Mexico

Gaby Lopez
Maria Fassi

Morocco

Maha Haddioui

Netherlands

Anne van Dam

New Zealand

Lydia Ko

Norway

Marianne Skarpnord
Tonje Daffinrud

Philippines

Yuka Saso
Bianca Pagdanganan

Puerto Rico

Maria Fernanda Torres

Slovenia

Pia Babnik

South Africa

Ashleigh Buhai

Spain

Carolta Ciganda
Azahara Munoz

Sweden

Anna Nordqvist
Madelene Sagstrom

Switzerland

Albane Valenzuela
Morgane Metraux
Kim Metraux

Taiwan

Wei-Ling Hsu
Min Lee

Thailand

Patty Tavatanakit
Ariya Jutanugarn

USA

Nelly Korda
Danielle Kang
Lexi Thompson
Jessica Korda

See the full list of golfers who qualified for the Tokyo Olympics here.