Olympics men’s event tees off at Le Golf National on Thursday

Image courtesy Olympic Golf.

By Rahul Banerji

Shubhankar Sharma and Gaganjeet Bhullar will make their Olympic debuts when the men’s golf competition tees off at Le Golf National near Paris on Thursday.

They are in a field of 60 that includes defending champion Xander Schauffele and a host of the world’s top-ranked players who will be in action at the 2019 Ryder Cup venue in Guyancourt.

The Olympics golf tournaments will run from Thursday, August 1, with the men’s event ending on Sunday and the women’s competition teeing off next Wednesday till Saturday, August 10.

Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar will carry the national banner in the women’s tournament, making it the formers’ third straight Summer Ganes since Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo (2021).

Bhullar has been grouped with fellow Asians Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand), and Malaysia’s Gavin Green for the first two rounds. They will tee off at 2.03 pm (IST) on Thursday and 4.03 pm (IST) on Friday.

Shubhankar will play alongside Puerto Rico’s Rafael Campos and Carlos Ortiz of Mexico and their group tees off at around 3.45 pm in the first round.

Heavyweight trio

In an interesting matchup, world numbers one, two and four – Scottie Scheffle (USA), Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) and Ludvig Abers (Sweden) – play the first two days together.

Another preliminary grouping has Scheuffele (USA, 2), Jon Rahm (Spain, 10) and Viktor Hovland (Norway, 7), the first two arriving in Paris with wins in their most recent outings – Schauffele at The Open and Rahm at LIV Golf UK.

Frenchman Victor Perez will have the honour of teeing off the competition in the first group on Thursday alongside Germany’s Matti Schmid and C.T. Pan of Chinese Taipei.

Countryman Matthieu Pavon, a winner on both the DP World (European) Tour and the PGA Tour will partner Collin Morikawa (USA) and Britain’s Matt Fitzpatrick.

The Olympics golf events are scheduled to be on air live on Jio Cinema and Sports 18 channel which are carrying the Games across India.

Day one, two tee times

9 am/10:55 am: Victor Perez (France), Matti Schmid (Germany), C.T. Pan (Chinese Taipei)

9:11 am/11:06 am: Thorbjørn Olesen (Denmark), Alejandro Tosti (Argentina), Joaquin Niemann (Chile)

9:22 am/11:17 am: Emiliano Grillo (Argentina), Alex Noren (Sweden), Ryan Fox (New Zealand)

9:33 am /11:33 am: Min Woo Lee (Australia) Corey Conners (Canada), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (South Africa)

9:44 am /11:44 am: Wyndham Clark (USA), Hideki Matsuyama (Japan), Tommy Fleetwood (Great Britain)

9:55 am /11:55 am: Sepp Straka (Austria), Jason Day (Australia), Tom Kim (Korea)

10:11 am /12:06 pm: Scottie Scheffler (USA), Rory McIlroy (Ireland), Ludvig Åberg (Sweden)

10:22 am /12:17 pm: Adrien Dumont de Chassart (Belgium), Daniel Hillier (New Zealand), Guido Migliozzi (Italy)

10:33 am (2:03 pm IST)/12:28 pm (4:03 pm IST): Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Thailand), Gavin Green (Malaysia), Gaganjeet Bhullar (India)

10:44 am /12:39 pm: Phachara Khongwatmai (Thailand), Abraham Ancer (Mexico), Dou Zecheng (China)

10:55 am /9 am: Yuan Yechun (China), Camilo Villegas (Colombia), Matteo Manassero (Italy)

11:06 am /9:11 am: Adrian Meronk (Poland), Sami Valimaki (Finland), David Puig (Spain)

11:17 am /9:22 am: Erik van Rooyen (South Africa), Keita Nakajima (Japan), Kevin Yu (Chinese Taipei)

11:33 am /9:33 am: Stephan Jaeger (Germany), Nicolai Højgaard (Denmark), Thomas Detry (Belgium)

11:44 am /9:44 am: Byeong Hun An (Korea), Shane Lowry (Ireland), Nick Taylor (Canada)

11:55 am /9:55 am: Xander Schauffele (USA), Viktor Hovland (Norway), Jon Rahm (Spain)

12:06 pm /10:11 am: Matthieu Pavon (France), Collin Morikawa (USA), Matt Fitzpatrick (Great Britain)

12:17 pm (3:47 pm IST)/10:22 am (1:52 pm IST): Shubhankar Sharma (India), Rafael Campos (Puerto Rico), Carlos Ortiz (Mexico)

12:28 pm /10:33 am: Nico Echavarria (Colombia), Mito Pereira (Chile), Kris Ventura (Norway)

12:39 pm/10:44 am: Fabrizio Zanotti (Paraguay), Joel Girrbach (Switzerland), Tapio Pulkkanen (Finland)

Also read: Sharma, Bhullar are India’s entries for Paris Olympics men’s golf