SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France: Golf finally has some Olympic buzz from a big, rowdy gallery and the star power to match entering the final round of the men's competition with medals finally on the line.
Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm were tied for the lead on Saturday with one hit by Tommy Fleetwood. Hideki Matsuyama saved a wild day. Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy were close enough that gold was out of reach.
Seven of the top 10 qualifiers for the Paris Games were within five shots of the lead.
“I'm really, really excited to play,” Fleetwood said. “The ranking is amazing. It's like a ranking you'd expect at the Olympics and probably what the sport deserves.”
Schauffele felt like he was running and losing ground until he turned a two-shot deficit into a one-shot lead in a matter of minutes. He hit a 4-iron to 25 feet for eagle on the par-5 14th just before Rahm bogeyed the hole in front of him.
Rahm responded with a 35-foot birdie putt over the 17th green. The swings were plenty, and so were the possibilities on Sunday.
Rahm, playing on the big stage for the last time this year before returning to LIV Golf, finished with a 5-under 66. Schauffele, who won the PGA Championship and British Open this year, got off to a slow start before to post a 32 on the back nine for a 68.
They were at 14-under 199, equaling the 54-hole Olympic record set by Schauffele when she won gold at the Tokyo Games.
“I'm slowly building up here,” Schauffele said. “I hit my first obstacle and had to try and steady the incoming ship.”
He paused with a wry smile before adding, “Do you like the little Olympics reference there?”
Schauffele is chasing another gold that would cap an amazing two-major month.
The crowd was just as loud and just as rowdy in the slightly nicer weather. Fans have only been allowed to see Olympic golf twice since its return to the schedule – Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Paris, which has a history of hosting golf. The French Open dates back to 1906.
“I may have been new to golf, but it's the Olympics,” Rahm said. “I think the crowd knows it is and we're all aware of what's at stake.”
Rahm is also keenly aware that this is not a two-man race.
Fleetwood, who started the third round tied with Schauffele and Matsuyama, made just three birdies but made a 6-foot par on the 18th that was just as significant. He had a 69 and was one shot behind.
Matsuyama recovered from a poor start for a 71 and was three back with Denmark's Nicolai Hojgaard roaring into battle with a 62. That equaled the 18-hole record at Le Golf National tied and by his twin brother, Rasmus, in the French Open. Identical twins, identical score.
That caught Schauffele's eye as he looked ahead to the medal round.
“Sixty-two, that was something up there in the standings,” Schauffele said. “I didn't really see that. I'll just try to keep in touch. You have to be in a position to win on that new back and try to build on previous experience and get it done.”
Scheffler and McIlroy are in medal position, maybe even gold. Scheffler, the world No. 1 and golfer's most dominant player over the past two years, entered the fray with three birdies in a six-hole stretch on the back nine.
He fell back with a chip that missed the green on 17 and led to bogey. And he was poised to lose another shot when a drive into a deep bunker to the right of the 18th fairway forced him to lay away from the water. But he hit the wedge to tap-in range to save par for a 67.
He was four behind Irish golfer Rory McIlroy (66), Tom Kim of South Korea (69) and Thomas Detry of Belgium (69).
“I feel like I haven't been at my best the last few days, but I've done enough to hang in there and stay in the tournament,” Scheffler said. “Around this course, you can get hot. You saw that Nicolai had a very nice round today, and tomorrow I'll need something like that if I'm going to get a medal.”
McIlroy lost in a seven-man playoff for bronze at the Tokyo Games and later said he had “never tried so hard to finish third”. Without a major for 10 years, he is in position for a medal and the color depends on him and the five players in front of him.
“I'm going to have to shoot probably my lowest round of the week to have a shot at a medal. That's the goal,” McIlroy said.
The sport that moves slower than a marathon is now turning into a sprint. Schauffele can appreciate that.
