'You Need To Let Each Country Choose Who They Want To Play' - Jon Rahm Calls For Olympic Golf Qualification Changes

Jon Rahm makes his Olympics debut this week at Le Golf National after a "heartbreaking" miss last time in Tokyo due to Covid-19.

The Spaniard enters Paris 2024 as one of the favorites for gold after his maiden LIV Golf victory in the UK last week, where he won his first tournament since the Masters last April.

Rahm is joined by fellow LIV Golfer David Puig in Paris this week, where the duo will be competing separately in the individual race for medals. He hopes that a team event will come in the future - with a mixed team golf event looking likely for LA 2028 - and also called for changes to the selection process.

The qualifying for the Olympics currently uses the Official World Golf Ranking system, which does not award his tour - LIV Golf - points. There are 7 LIV Golfers in the Olympics but big names like Bryson DeChambeau and Cameron Smith have missed out due to, in part, their tour's lack of world ranking points.

"I think you can always do it, like with other sports, and allow the countries to pick themselves. There needs to be some guidelines, but like Team USA Basketball has freedom to choose whoever they want," he said on the Olympics golf qualifying process.

"I understand it's a different circumstance, but I think you need to let each country choose who they want to play, and in the future, I would also like to see some team aspect in the Olympics, as well, right. 

"I mean, we are here representing Spain. So I would love to actually, as a partner or somehow, whether as a combined sport or us playing together, to be able to represent Spain. That would be extremely nice to share the stage with another player, to do something different, to maybe what we do every other day, right."

Rahm also opened up on his positive Covid-19 test ahead of Tokyo 2021, which came whilst he was World No.1.

"Yeah, at that time everything was so ambiguous. The virus; the protocols were changing and new information was coming every day," he said.

"It was painful to physically feel good and not be able to go. To take five or six tests and only one of being Olympics and being denied entrance was very heartbreaking, especially I think it was the day before we were supposed to fly. That was hard.

"It's not like almost everything else in golf where you have the following week to work. You have to wait three years to hopefully get the opportunity again. It was long. 

"But a lot has happened since that time, and I'm very happy to be here and very happy to get a chance and get a crack at a golf course that I love and a golf course that I have good memories on."

Rahm returns to the scene of Europe's stunning 17.5 - 10.5 victory over the USA in the 2018 Ryder Cup, where he made his debut for Team Europe and defeated Tiger Woods in the Sunday singles. He doesn't think course knowledge will play too much of a factor this week.

"Being familiar with a golf course is always going to help. Experience is always going to help. It doesn't mean you're going to win," he said.

"Actually, I wouldn't think so. This golf course is pretty straightforward: Hit the fairway; hit the green. It limits you in so many ways, it almost tells you how it should be played. There's very few holes where you might see a variety of strategies. 

"For the most part, I think you're going to see all of us hitting it to the same spots off the tee and playing it very, very similarly. But just having played here often, right, that comfort you might have on the golf course is maybe what can make a difference in certain ways, and more than that seeing the golf course in different weather conditions and knowing how to play it. 

"But when you're the best players in the world, it really doesn't matter. That's the mentality you have. First-time players on a golf course win it, is not a topic that comes up very often. 

"If this was the Ryder Cup, yeah, I would say maybe it's an advantage, would be more of an advantage if the entire team plays it. But in this case, not being match play and being stroke play, it's maybe not as big a factor as it maybe sounds like on paper."