FILIPINO golfers Angelo Que and Jennifer Rosales remained in contention for a qualifying slot the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Que stayed within the Top 60 of the Olympic rankings after he finished at 30th position in the recent Thailand Open last Dec. 13.
During the tournament last week, Que ranked behind Juvic Pagunsan after 54 holes with a 284.
Que boosted his chance to make it to the Olympics following his runner-up finishes in the 2015 Aboitiz Invitational and the ISPS HANDA Global Cup in Japan.
The 37-year-old Que has been accumulating points after playing in around 26 tournaments throughout the year.
Philippine Olympic Committee vice president Joey Romasanta said he has been monitoring the situation in golf and feels that Que has a good chance of joining sprinter Eric Cray in the Olympics.
“Hopefully, tuloy-tuloy lang ang mga pagsali niya sa mga tournaments and he stays within the Top 60,” said Romasanta of Que, who is now no. 49th in the world.
On the other hand, Rosales stayed within the Top 60 of the women’s rankings after she placed no. 73 in the recent Sime Darby tournament in Malaysia.
Rosales is now 57th in the rankings.
Under International Olympic Committee rules, qualifiers for golfers are restricted to a field of 60 players for each of the men’s and women’s competition.
The International Golf Federation is using the official world golf rankings as a method of determining eligibility.
The Top 15 world-ranked players will be eligible for the Olympics, with a limit of four players from a given country.
Beyond the Top 15, players will be eligible based on the world rankings, with a maximum of two eligible players from each country.
So far, the United States would be represented on the men’s side by Jordan Spieth, who is the no. 1 player in the world.
Fil-Australian Jason Day is already a shoo-in at no. 2, followed by Ireland’s Roy McIlroy and another American in Bubba Watson.
Every player inside the Top 15 in the world rankings as of July 2016 will be eligible, with up to four players per country in the list.
After that, the field will be filled by the next highest-ranked players, with a maximum of two players per nation, and they will have to maintain their ranking until July 2016.
