In a stunning Olympics final round, the world number one Scottie Scheffler pulled off an incredible come-from-behind performance to win the Olympic gold medal.
Beginning the day four shots behind leaders Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm at Le Golf National blitzed the back nine for six birdies to shoot a nine-under 62 and take home the title for the U.S. England’s Tommy Fleetwood second to win the silver medal, with Hideki Matsuyama earning the bronze for Japan.
“It’s pretty high up there,” Scheffler remarked after the round about where his gold medal ranks among career accomplishments.
“Anytime you are able to represent your country is pretty special. This was a fun week and it was great representing the USA, and I’m proud to be going home with a medal.”
But for the first half of Sunday’s finale, the reigning Masters champion was something of an afterthought, trailing the leaders as other stars initially looked destined for the podium.
The 54-hole leaders started steady with pars at the first two holes, but it didn’t take long for them to heat up.
Both Schauffele and Rahm matched each other with back-to-back birdies at the par-5 3rd and par-4 4th to reach 16 under, and playing partner Fleetwood ran his birdie streak to three-straight holes at the same time to improve to 15 under.
Meanwhile, Matsuyama, who shot even par on Saturday, got off to a blazing start with three birdies over his first five holes on Sunday to get back into contention at 14 under.
But he wasn’t done there.
Matsuyama rolled in a 10-footer for another birdie at 6 to get within one shot of the lead.
At the par-4 6th, Schauffele hit his approach well inside of Rahm’s. But Rahm drained his 23-footer for his third birdie of the day. When Schauffele’s closer birdie try burned the edge, Rahm was in the lead alone at 17 under.
After Rahm recorded two more birdies at 7 and 9 to close out the front nine, and Schauffele made bogey at 8, the Spanish star and two-time major champion started pulling away from the pack.
But while the distance between Rahm and Schauffele was growing, two other players were desperately trying to keep pace with Rahm.
Fleetwood, who was three under on the front nine, added another birdie at the 11th.
Meanwhile, two early back-nine birdies moved Hideki Matsuyama to six under through 12 holes, leaving them both tied for second at 17 under.
Just when it started to seem that the gold medal was Rahm’s to lose, his cruise control shut off with back-to-back bogeys at 11 and 12.
Moments after Rahm’s par try at 12 narrowly missed, Fleetwood rolled in a birdie, and just like that Rahm’s four-shot advantage had disappeared, with both players tied at 18 under.
