Date: June 22, 2016
Author: Martin Blake

Olympic spots go on the line

The race for a spot on Australia's Olympic men's and women's golf teams heats up on both sides of the Atlantic this weekend.

Scott Hend and Marcus Fraser, the two men most likely to join Jason Day in Rio in August, are both playing the BMW International Open in Germany.

Queenslander Hend is ranked 74th in the world and took over from Fraser (ranked 80th) in the slot after his win in Asia last weekend.

There are two spots for Australians at Rio, with Day clearly holding the first place and Adam Scott and Marc Leishman both declining the Olympics.

The cut-off date is July 11, going on world rankings at the time.

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On the women's side, the two spots are currently held by Minjee Lee (ranked 13th) and Su Oh (ranked 42nd), but Karrie Webb (ranked 57th) still has a chance of leapfrogging back into the second Australian slot.

Webb, the seven-time major winner and World Golf Hall of Famer, has taken the week off and is not playing the LPGA tournament in Arkansas, while Oh is playing.

Webb will be focussing on the Women's US Open in a fortnight, the last chance for her to jump into the top-two ranking that was taken from her by the 20-year-old Oh in her breakout season in America.