Jon Rahm backs new selection process for Olympics golf and advocates for team event

Spain’s Jon Rahm would like to see a different format and different way of selecting the golfers to participate in the Olympics.

Speaking ahead of Thursday’s first round of the men’s tournament at the Paris Games, Rahm proposed allowing each country to select its representing golfers, as opposed to the current format based on world golf rankings.

“There needs to be some guidelines,” Rahm told reporters at Le Golf National, “but, like, Team USA Basketball (is) free to choose whoever they want.”

The Olympic qualifying process has come under scrutiny this year for excluding some players for LIV Golf, whose three-round tournaments aren’t acknowledged by the world rankings.

While seven LIV players, including Rahm, were able to qualify for their respective country, Americans like reigning U.S. Open champ Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka of the USA were not.

“I think you need to let each country choose who they want to play,” Rahm said.

Golf is still a relatively new inclusion for the Olympics, having only rejoined the program in 2016 after an a 112-year absence. In doing so, it has adopted a traditional 72-hole individual tournament.

Rahm said he’d like the Olympics to expand to include “some team aspect.”

“That would be extremely nice to share the stage with another player,” Rahm said, “to do something different, to maybe what we do every other day.”