If you are a golfer from South Korea, there is plenty more than the $270,000 Lotte Championship winner’s check in play at Ko Olina Golf Club today.

There is the ongoing, deepening battle to claim one of the country’s four coveted and hotly contested berths for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics this summer.

Nowhere on the planet is golf’s inaugural Olympic appearance more anticipated than in the Republic of Korea, which is the team to beat — if anybody can.

Nowhere are the berths on that team more fraught with drama or controversy either.

The Land of the Morning Calm currently boasts eight of the top 20 and 12 of the top 30 players in the world. So dominant are the South Koreans that if they could field three teams — say, for example, Team Kim, Team Lee and Team Park — they might sweep gold, silver and bronze.

Yet, the way it stands now, the official Rolex Rankings (which are based on finish and strength of field) used to determine the squads would mean the world’s No. 10 (So Yeon Ryu) and No. 12 (Hyo Joo Kim) ranked players would be home in Korea watching the Olympics since IOC rules limit each country to no more than four participants.

As the July 11 cutoff date for the Rio de Janeiro Games nears, the pressure mounts to accumulate points and build position with strong finishes. Korean Olympic medal winners can receive as much as 300 million won ($261,550 at current exchange rates) but securing a berth on the Olympic team is more about pride, validation and a place in history.

“It is the main goal for me,” said Sei Young Kim. “But with (five) players from Korea in the top 10, it is very tough,” said Kim, who is fifth in the rankings and fifth on the tournament leaderboard.

In Korea the weekly Rolex Rankings are anticipated and scrutinized upon release each Monday like college football playoff or college basketball bracketology projections in the U.S.

Hyo Joo Kim, who climbed to seventh upon winning the Bahamas Classic but is currently sitting 12th, told Seoul’s Joong Ang Ilbo (Central Daily), “I want to play in the Olympics, of course, but I have been too stressed over it and I think the stress was reflected badly in my recent performance.”

Positioning has also been at the heart of a raging controversy.

When In Gee Chun suffered a back injury in February and was forced to miss three tournaments after being hit by a piece of mishandled baggage that fell down an escalator at Singapore’s Changi Airport at her arrival for the HSBC Open, it touched off a firestorm. The fact that the bag belonged to the father of rival Ha Na Jang, who went on to win the event, has given fans and Tonya Harding conspiracy theorists much to debate, especially when Jang vaulted from 10th to fifth, passing Chun, who fell from sixth to eighth in the process.

That the flamboyant Jang did a Beyonce-inspired victory dance and was accused of offering a tepid apology further inflamed passions at home that have yet to be quieted.

“I definitely want to play in the Olympics if the opportunity comes,” said Chun, who is third on the leaderboard.

Meanwhile, Kim said, “I would like to focus on the tournaments and the ticket to the Olympics might just follow.”

If it were only that easy.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.