When Ayaka Furue went five-under on her closing five holes to dramatically capture her maiden Major title in July’s Amundi Evian Championship, it cemented her reputation as one of the game’s brightest talents.
However, despite the 24-year-old’s achievement, she isn’t one of the two Japanese players competing at the women’s Olympics golf tournament in Paris this week. But why is that?
The short answer is that the qualifying period for the Le Golf National tournament ended after another Major, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June, and at that time, Furue was lower in the world rankings than the two who are representing Japan at the event, Yuka Saso and Miyu Yamashita.
Nevertheless, while the cold stats of the world rankings show that the duo claimed their places fairly and squarely, there’s no denying that Furue was desperately unlucky to miss out, despite the biggest win of her career coming a month after the cut-off.
As the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship began, Furue had been on course – just – to qualify for the Olympics. She was ranked well below sixth-placed Saso at 20th in the world but one place above Nasa Hataoka and two higher than Yamashita.
Then everything changed in the final round. Yamashita’s form held up in difficult conditions with a 73 to secure a T2 finish, which was enough to move her from 22nd in the world rankings to 19th, just one spot above Furue, whose T19 at Sahalee Country Club left her fractions of a point short of what she needed to finish the qualifying period higher in the rankings than her compatriot.
After the event, it appeared the door still hadn’t completely closed on Furue’s chance to become an Olympian, as Yamashita cast doubt on whether she would take her place, saying: "I'm happy that I could finish in second place in this championship and then I'm just going to try my best to represent Japan if I play [in the] Olympics."
Had Yamashita opted not to compete in Paris, that would have handed the opportunity for Furue as the next highest-ranked Japanese player, but utimately, it wasn’t to be. That means that, even though Furue, at eighth in the world, was the top-ranked player from her country heading into the games, she isn’t taking part.
