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Golf Monthly

Sport

Mike Hall

Which LIV Golfers Played In The Tokyo 2020 Olympics

LIV Golf Golf Olympics Cameron Smith Carlos Ortiz Joaquin Niemann Mito Pereira Tokyo Abraham Ancer Anirban Lahiri

The Tokyo Olympics in 2020, which were actually played a year later because of the Covid-19 pandemic, featured golf for the second Games in succession.

Like the 2024 Paris Olympics, men’s and women’s competitions were held, with the action taking place at Kasumigaseki Country Club.

Each competition had a field of 60, and in the men’s line-up, 14 players who would eventually sign for LIV Golf, which began a year later, competed.

Those players represented 11 nations, and three were in with a chance of the bronze medal as part of a seven-man playoff to determine the final place on the podium.

Great Britain and Ireland player Paul Casey, who would eventually join Crushers GC, along with Colombian Sebastian Munoz and Chilean Mito Pereira, who are now both with Torque GC, lined up alongside Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, CT Pan and Hideki Matsuyama, but it was Pan who eventually prevailed on the fourth extra hole.

Thanks to Cristobal del Solar’s decision not to play in Paris, Pereira is the one LIV golfer from that trio who has qualified for the Olympics.

Another future Torque GC player narrowly missed out on the bronze medal playoff. Chilean Joaquin Niemann eventually finished T10, one shot off the group above him, along with another future LIV golfer, Australian Cameron Smith, and PGA Tour pro Sepp Straka.

Like Pereira, Niemann is back for the 2024 Olympics, but there’s no place for Smith, who will be disappointed to miss out after saying earlier in the year he “desperately” wanted to qualify.

Ripper GC captain Cameron Smith misses out on Paris (Image credit: Getty Images)

Two shots behind Smith and Niemann was Mexico’s Abraham Ancer, who joined LIV Golf less than a year later. Ancer is another of the LIV Golf stars from the 14 who gets a second chance to shine in 2024, despite falling considerably down the world rankings.

Belgian Thomas Pieters made his second Olympics appearance at the 2020 Games after finishing fourth in 2016, but the future Range Goats GC player could only finish T16 in Tokyo, along with Zimbabwe’s Scott Vincent – later to sign for Iron Heads GC – and neither is at the Paris Games.

While Xander Schauffele won the gold medal in Tokyo, future 4 Aces GC player and fellow American Patrick Reed finished comfortably adrift in T22, eight shots worse off, with another US player, Justin Thomas, in the same position.

Patrick Reed was in the US team in Japan (Image credit: Getty Images)

Finishing at five-under for the tournament, 13 shots worse off than the winner, were India’s Anirban Lahiri, who improved on his finish of 57th in 2016 with a T42, and Carlos Ortiz, who was making his debut at the Olympics.

Ortiz put pen to paper on his LIV Golf contract in June 2022, while Lahiri became one of six new LIV Golf signings in August that year.

Thanks to some success away from the circuit, including wins at the 2023 V Copa Prissa and the Asian Tour’s International Series Oman, Ortiz gained the necessary world ranking points to ensure his involvement in Paris.

Carlos Ortiz has another chance at the Paris Olympics (Image credit: Getty Images)

Finland’s Kalle Samooja finished in T45 at four-under less than three years before he earned a contract on the big-money circuit via its LIV Golf Promotions event, while two shots behind him was Australian Marc Leishman, who would later team up with compatriot Smith on Ripper GC. Joining him in a tie for 51st was Pole Adrian Meronk, who eventually joined LIV Golf earlier in the year.

In the latter’s case, he’ll become the fifth of the 14 players at the Tokyo Games to tee it up in Paris.