Golfers Tom Kim, An Byeong-hun to represent Korea at 2024 Paris Olympics

Korea's An Byeong-hun, left, and Tom Kim qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics in men's golf after the list closed following the U.S. Open on Sunday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Korean golfers Tom Kim and An Byeong-hun will represent Korea at the 2024 Paris Olympics after results from the U.S. Open finalized the men's pool over the weekend.

A total of 120 golfers will play on the Olympic stage, with 60 golfers in the men's tournament and 60 golfers in the women's competition.

It will be the first time at the Olympics for Kim, who will be 22 years old when the Games begin in July, and the second time for 32-year-old An, who qualified for the 2016 Rio Olympics and finished in 11th place.

Qualification to the Olympics is determined by a golfer's position on the Official World Golf Rankings, with the cutoff date for the men's tournament on June 17 after the 2024 U.S. Open and the final date for the women's field on June 24, following the KPMG Women's PGA Championship.

A golfer in the top 15 by the cutoff date automatically earns a spot at the Olympics, but each country can send a maximum of four entries. So while golfers from the United States took up nine spots in the top 15 as of Sunday, just four of them will be in Paris — No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, No. 3 Xander Schauffele, No. 5 Wyndham Clark and No. 7 Collin Morikawa.

Kim ended the U.S. Open at No. 26 on the official rankings with An a spot behind at No. 27. Despite An failing to make the cut at the Open, the two of them edged out fellow Korean golfers Im Sung-jae, who ended the weekend at No. 34, and Kim Si-woo, at No. 45.

Both Im and Kim Si-woo were at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

The women's list closes next weekend, with Ko Jin-young and Kim Hyo-joo the only Korean golfers among the top 15. It will be the first year since golf's return to the Olympics in 2016 that Korea does not send the maximum number of golfers to the women's tournament. Korea's Park In-bee took gold in women's golf in Rio.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]