SAINT-QENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France: Golf has finally caught the Olympic spirit from big, loud galleries and has the star power it deserves as it heads into the final round of the men's event where the medals are finally on the line.
Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm tied for the lead on Saturday, one stroke ahead of Tommy Fleetwood. Hideki Matsuyama battled through the rough. Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy were close enough to win gold.
Seven of the top 10 players in the Paris Olympic qualifying round were within five strokes of the leader.
“I’m very, very excited to be going,” Fleetwood said. “The leaderboard is amazing. It’s the kind of leaderboard you would expect to see at the Olympics and probably what the sport deserves.”
Schauffele felt like he was running in place and losing ground, but in a matter of minutes he turned a two-shot deficit into a one-shot lead. He eagled the par-5 14th with a 4-iron to 25 feet, as Raam three-putted for a bogey on the hole before him.
Rahm answered with a 35-foot birdie putt across the 17th green, enough to change the momentum and possibly take it to Sunday.
Rahm, playing his last big stage before returning to LIV Golf this year, finished with a 5-under 66. Schauffele, who won the PGA Championship and British Open this year, got off to a slow start, shooting a 32 on the back nine before finishing with a 68.
They shot a 14-under 199 to tie the 54-hole Olympic record set by Schauffele when he won gold at the Tokyo Olympics.
“I had a slow start here,” Schauffele said. “I had to try to steady the boat over the first obstacle.”
He smiled briefly and added, “Like the little Olympics reference over there?”
Schauffele is looking for another gold medal to cap an incredible month in which she has won two majors.
The crowds were just as loud and boisterous, even in slightly more pleasant weather. Fans have only seen the Olympic golf twice since it returned to the program: Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Paris, which has a history of hosting golf. The French Open dates back to 1906.
“It might be new to golf, but it’s the Olympics,” Rahm said. “The crowd knows, we all know what’s at stake.”
Laem also knows very well that this is not a competition between just the two of them.
Fleetwood, who started the third round tied for the lead with Schauffele and Matsuyama, had just three birdies but made a significant contribution when he holed a 6-foot par on the 18th hole. He shot 69, one stroke behind.
Matsuyama recovered from a bad start with a 71, three strokes behind Denmark's Nicolai Hoigaard, who came into contention with a 62. It also tied the 18-hole record at Le Golf National set by his twin brother Rasmus at the French Open. Identical twins, identical scores.
Schauffele paid attention to those words as he looked at the medal round.
“62, I was on the leaderboard,” Schauffele said. “I didn't really see it. I was just trying to keep touch. I had to be in a position to win on the back nine and use my previous experience to do it.”
Scheffler and McIlroy have a chance at medals, maybe even gold. Scheffler, the world's No. 1 player and most dominant golfer for the past two years, has been in contention after making three birdies in a six-hole stretch on the back nine.
He fell back on the 17th hole with a chip that missed the green, leading to a bogey. He then nearly lost another shot when his drive ended up in a deep bunker on the right side of the 18th fairway, forcing him to lay up just in front of the water. But he hit his wedge into tap-in range to save par for a 67.
He finished four places behind Irish golfer Rory McIlroy (66), South Korea's Tom Kim (69) and Belgium's Thomas Detri (69).
“I feel like I haven't been at my best the last few days, but I've done enough to stay in the tournament,” Schaeffler said. “This course can get hot. Nikolai had a really good round today, and he'll need that to medal tomorrow.”
McIlroy lost in the seven-man playoff for bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, later famously saying, “I've never worked harder to get third.” Having not competed in a major for 10 years, he is in a position to win a medal, and it's up to him and the five players ahead of him to decide.
“To medal, I'm going to have to shoot the lowest round this week. That's the goal,” McIlroy said.
Sports that used to be slower than the marathon have now become sprints, and Schauffele can understand that.
