Once it was announced that golf at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics would be a no-cut, small-field event, it should have been apparent that Xander Schauffele would thrive.
Sabbatini went out a few groups ahead of Schauffele and fired a shocking 10-under 61 to put some electricity into what looked like a Schauffele rout early in the day.
A tee shot that nearly went out of bounds and ended with him thinning an iron out of the forest because his club was wrapped around a vine resulted in a bogey 6 on the par-5 14th hole.
Schauffele’s father, Stefan, was once an Olympic hopeful for Germany in the decathlon before being hit by a drunk driver and losing vision in one of his eyes.
This one, though, will linger longer than the rest of them and could be rocket fuel to what has been an incredibly successful career to date, despite no major championship wins.
Schauffele was one of the more vocal players this week about how monumental bringing a medal back to his home country would be, and I thought of what he said on Tuesday after he won on Sunday.
For golf it’s so fresh and so new and fortunately and I are young, and so when we talk to you, it is exciting, it is very cool.
That’s meaningful in any event, even more so in an Olympics with a crushing weight bearing down on you, improbably in the form of a 61 from a man who just gained citizenship to the country he was representing a few years ago.
It may not have been seen by very many folks in the United States, but those who did stay up for it will remember that he won it and how he won it for a very long time.
Pan : Pan technically finished T3 with six other golfers but beat them all on the fourth playoff hole for the bronze medal when Collin Morikawa’s second shot plugged in a bunker.
He missed it and bowed out of the playoff early on the first hole, but his performance in his home country when everyone was expecting so much from the Masters champion was pretty inspiring.
He gave a ton of great quotes — and talked a lot about how he needs to be more relaxed on the course and more athletic with his putting — but this is the one I think will stick with me the longest.
But I think I need to do a better job of just giving things a chance, experiencing things, not writing them off at first glance.
After an opening 71 on Thursday in which he made 18 consecutive pars, he improved his score every day and closed with a 65 on Sunday.
I thought I would be proud, but the first like day or two I immediately found out that this is like the coolest thing I’ve ever been a part of.
I grew up watching the Ryder Cup, the Presidents Cup, the majors, and never grew up watching this, so no one was ever able to relay or say how it felt being an Olympian, especially a golfer.
Casey, McIlroy and Matsuyama all coming up behind them, and Casey and McIlroy will have to get up and down for par to stay alive after poor tee shots.