Xander Schauffele overcomes 'sticky start' to lead after round 3 of Olympics golf: "It was a bit of a mental battle"
Xander Schauffele and Jon Rahm hold the joint lead going into the final round of golf at the Olympics. The 2024 Open Championship winner has carded rounds of 65-66-68 to end the third round with a cumulative score of -14.
However, it was not an easy start for Xander Schauffele, who is the reigning Olympic champion. Schauffele started off with a bogey on the second hole, and had to pick up the pace during the rest of the round to climb his way to the top of the leaderboard.
Speaking to the PGA Tour, Schauffele said:
"It was a sticky start. Slow and kind of weird breaks. It was a bit of a mental battle there. Happy to bounce back pretty strong on the back nine. I was hoping to try and birdie – when you mess up easy holes, you just have to try and birdie the hard ones. Happy with the back nine.”
He compared his performance with that of an 800m sprint, implying that he had to continue his round despite getting off to a shaky start.
“I mean, I'm telling myself, like I'm slow out of the gates here. Fumbled my first hurdle and had to try and steady the ship coming in. Like the little Olympics reference there? If it's an 800, we just finished one of the laps and we still have one full lap to go.”
Schauffele and Rahm will also face off against the likes of Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler in the battle for gold at the Paris Olympics.
Xander Schauffele's performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics so far
Xander Schauffele is eyeing his second gold medal, after winning at the Tokyo Olympics. The second hole has been a rather problematic one for Schauffele so far, as he has carded two bogeys and one par.
Schauffele has now been in the lead two days in a row, and is one of the favorites to win the event. Scheffler and McIlroy are currently in T6, and are still in contention to win a medal. Tommy Fleetwood is in sole third place after round 3. Following are the top 20 players after round 3 of golf at the Paris Olympics:
- T1. Jon Rahm -14
- T1. Xander Schauffele -14
- 3. Tommy Fleetwood -13
- T4. Nicolai Hojgaard -11
- T4. Hideki Matsuyama -11
- T6. Rory McIlroy -10
- T6. Scottie Scheffler -10
- T6. Tom Kim -10
- T6. Thomas Detry -10
- T10. Ludvig Aberg -9
- T10. Jason Day -9
- T10. Joaquin Niemann -9
- T13. Christiaan Bezuidenhout -8
- T13. Thorbjorn Olesen -8
- T13. Victor Perez -8
- T13. Erik van Rooyen -8
- T17. Byeong Hun An -7
- T17. Corey Conners -7
- T17. Alejandro Tosti -7
- T17. C.T. Pan -7
Home favorite Matthieu Pavon is currently in last place, after a disastrous round of 6 over par 77.