Team USA’s Scottie Scheffler rode a final-round 62 that included magnificent run of four consecutive birdies on the back nine to win gold at the 2024 Olympics, continuing his generational season. Scheffler’s win was the culmination of one of the finest back-nine Sundays of the year, a day at Le Golf National outside Paris where so many of the game’s greatest had one hand on a medal, and then let it go.
Paris 2024 marked golf’s true emergence on the Olympic stage. The sport’s debut in Rio was marred by fear of the Zika virus, which kept many of the sport’s biggest names at home, and the empty galleries at Tokyo in 2021 did little to bolster the sport’s image. This year in Paris, galleries ranged all over the rolling hills of Le Golf National, and the effect was powerful.
“You don’t get this atmosphere at the Masters. It’s different. I think it’s a little more fun than a major. Sort of like a celebration in a way,” Ireland’s Rory McIlroy said on Saturday. “I feel French this week, the amount of, ‘Allez, Rory’ I’ve had out there. It’s been really cool.”
Early on, Spain’s Jon Rahm rode that Sunday momentum to the top of the leaderboard. He and 2020 gold medal winner Xander Schauffele of the United States entered Sunday at Le Golf National tied at -14, with Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood one stroke back. Eleven players were within four strokes of bronze, giving a huge chunk of the field a shot at a medal.
After 10 holes, Rahm had appeared to lock down gold, standing four strokes ahead of the field. But then came a reminder that the Olympics has a way of keeping everyone on edge. Rahm three-putted on the par-3 11th at almost the same moment that Fleetwood and Matsuyama were birdieing their holes, and suddenly the four-stroke lead turned into two.
One hole after that, again within minutes of each other, Fleetwood birdied the 12th as Rahm bogeyed, and then Rahm’s lead was entirely gone. With six holes left to play, Matsuyama stood one stroke back at -17, and McIlroy, riding a four-birdie streak, was one stroke off the medal stand at -16.
The most intriguing player of the back nine, at least from the raucous gallery’s perspective, was Frenchman Victor Perez, who rode a consecutive run of four birdies and an eagle to get to within two strokes of the lead. His every move on the course drew cheers from the Olympic-casual crowd, and the prospect that he could claim a medal loomed tantalizingly close.
One particularly interested player on Sunday: Tom Kim, who had far more to play for than just a bit of metal. If Kim had won a medal, he would have been exempted from 18 to 21 months of mandatory military service for South Korea. He drew as close as one stroke outside a medal position, but ended up stumbling into the clubhouse and finishing -14.
The first of the leaders to eject: Schauffele, who bogeyed 12 and 13 to fall four strokes off the lead. Other major winners had better luck; McIlroy’s 49-foot eagle putt on 14 ended up in tap-in range, allowing him to drop to -17 and one stroke off the lead. Scheffler’s approach on the water-guarded 15th island green rolled to within inches, and his tee shot on 16th was within birdie range; two birdies later and he was tied for the lead at -18.
Soon, though, McIlroy followed Schauffele down the leaderboard when his shot to the 15th rolled off the green and into the water, leading to a round-killing double bogey. Behind him, Rahm struggled on the 14th and double-bogeyed to drop two strokes off the lead. So with four holes remaining for the leaders, Scheffler and Fleetwood shared the lead at -18, Matsuyama was one back at -17. Rahm and Perez stood at -16, and McIlroy and Kim were at -15.
Perez claimed the clubhouse lead at -16 before a wild crowd, putting the final touch on a back-nine 29. Scheffler then rolled in a 17-footer at 17 for his fourth consecutive birdie to take the solo lead at -19. Soon afterward, Fleetwood rolled in a birdie of his own at 16 to tie the lead. Rahm also holed a long birdie at 16 to stop the back-nine bleeding and get to -17, even with Matsuyama.
Scheffler’s birdie putt on 18 — which would have set both an Olympic and a Le Golf National record — slid just past the hole. He tapped in a nervy par and walked into the clubhouse with a -19 and a near-certain medal.
That left Fleetwood, Rahm and Matusyama on the course in the hunt for a medal. Matsuyama couldn’t quite finish out the 18th with a birdie, ending the day at -17. Fleetwood’s long par putt on 17 rolled just wide, leaving him at -18 heading to the final hole. Rahm also bogeyed the hole, falling to -16 and out of the medal hunt.
So with one hole to play, Fleetwood needed a par for silver, a birdie to force a playoff for gold. Rahm needed a birdie to force a playoff for bronze. Fleetwood’s approach ran long and left, and Rahm’s ended up far from the flag. After Fleetwood missed his third shot, the gold medal was Scheffler’s.
Source Agencies
