Xander Schauffele held back a charging field to grab a gold medal for the US at the Toyko Olympics. The Kasumigaseki Country Club looked a treat and strong fields battled it out for the men’s medal despite the COVID pandemic affecting some player’s plans.
Inclement weather delayed play at certain stages, but the rain did soften the greens and made for good scoring. In the second round Schauffele took control and shot a fine 63 to hold sway at the halfway point. The chasing pack made little ground during the third round and Xander went into the final round one shot ahead of home country hero Hideko Matsuyama, with Brit Paul Casey one shot further back. Australia’s Cam Smith fired a five under 66 third round to slot into T11.
While Xander was solid in the final round with a -4 (67) the challenges came, with Slovakia’s Rory Sabbatini shooting a superb -10 (61) to leap into second spot, and take the Clubhouse lead. Xander was struggling to keep his game together and it took a clutch final putt from Schauffele to hold on to gold. Chinese Taipei’s C.T.Pan shot a fantastic -8 to share third place with Collin Morikawa, Mito Pereira, Sebastian Munoz, Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey and crowd favourite Hideko. C.T Pan eventually took Bronze on the 4th hole in a seven man playoff.
Australia’s Cam Smith was four shots adrift the winner, finishing T10 in a solid performance. Marc Leishman, our other contender, finished way back T51 in the 60 man field.
The ladies play off for gold this week.