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Xander Schauffele shares first place in Olympic golf tournament

Xander Schauffele shares first place in Olympic golf tournament

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SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – Over two days at Le Golf National, only one factor – major or very, very minor – appears to have been able to slow down America’s Xander Schauffele.

You have to be careful about ants.

It was the par-four 13th hole. Schauffele drove his ball left into the deep fairway on Friday. At first, the news was that he had finally hit a bad shot. Not much had happened yet in this Paris Olympics tournament. But then he reached for his ball, leaned over for a long look and shouted, “Can I get an official?”

“They have an anthill or whatever you want to call it in their house,” he said. “So I didn’t want to mess with it too much.”

Schauffele asked for help with the anthill when two officials arrived on the scene. No help was given because it was a “loose obstruction” like a twig or leaf. Schauffele was allowed to take a swing and try to clear the back of the ball, but it didn’t work. He eventually had to chip his second shot about 50 yards into the fairway. That was the story of Schauffele’s second bogey of the round, and only his third in 36 holes so far at this Olympics.

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Otherwise, everything went very well. Schauffele enters Saturday’s third round at 11-under par, tied for first with Hideki Matsuyama of Japan and Tommy Fleetwood of Great Britain. It’s another Olympic medal for Schauffele after his gold in Tokyo – he’ll add to two majors already in 2024.

It’s not just France. Schauffele has been in a special area for months.

At Le Golf National, he played the front nine in 8 under. On Friday, he hit what sometimes looked like easy runs, moving from fairway to green and into doable birdie putts with no apparent weakness or concern in the world.

“If you hit a bad shot,” he said, “it’s easier to accept it because you know you’re playing really good golf and you can make up for it somewhere else. I think in an area like that.”

Schauffele led the charge for Team USA on Friday when other Americans either stalled (Scottie Scheffler), started too far back (Wyndham Clark) or didn’t have enough space to get going (Collin Morikawa).

Scheffler (6 under) is not out. The world No. 1 played the front nine in two overs on Friday thanks to a double bogey at No. 7. But he carded a 69 and is tied for 10th place at the halfway point.

“I’m proud of the back nine to get myself back into it,” Scheffler said. “I was pretty far behind, so it was nice to put together a couple good holes and make a couple putts and definitely keep that momentum going over the next couple of days.”

Clark recovered to score 68 after an opening 75 but was tied for 46th place with 1 over to spare.

Meanwhile, Morikawa’s 68 moved him to 4 under. A dull 70 on Thursday lifted him to 19th place.

“It’s better,” Morikawa said. “I just can’t read the shots well here and the pace is a little slow. It’s frustrating when you can’t hit as well as I want. But I’ve got two more days. I’m seven (innings) behind. So you’re not out of it. The way this kind of format works, you’re fighting for three spots.”

With Schauffele and Matsuyama in danger of running off the field in the early morning hours, Fleetwood made a move to catch them in the afternoon.

Fleetwood’s 7-under 64, combined with his 67 on Thursday, marked another special achievement for the British star.

“As the week goes on, it becomes a mental challenge. Obviously, you know how three places is going to define your week. Usually you finish in the top five, top 10, you’ve had a great week. But that doesn’t mean anything (at the Olympics). … It’s something you have to be aware of and deal with.

“But two rounds later, I still have a chance. It’s a good feeling.”

Gentry Estes can be reached at [email protected] and on Platform X (formerly Twitter) at @Gentry_Estes.

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