Defending gold medal winner, two-time major champ Xander Schauffele in three-way tie for Olympics lead
Hideki Matsuyama was on a roll. He had just birdied the 16th and 17th holes and was in the solo lead at Le Golf National on Friday, being 13-under par.
He was one hole away from walking into the weekend as the solo leader at the 2024 Paris Olympics when he missed his drive far right, leaving a horrible lie in tall fescue. A hack-out only relieved his ball to more rough, just shy of the fairway.
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Still with the water to clear to get to the 18th green to try and get up and down for a bogey, he left it short and into the pond.
Matsuyama would nail a 10-foot putt to save double bogey, and he ended the day 11-under par.
Tommy Fleetwood was in Matsuyama’s group and was 12-under par going into the 18th hole. After hitting his drive in a bunker, he laid up his second shot, and made it onto the green lying three.
With a chance to par, and to take the solo lead with Matsuyama’s double bogey, he missed the par putt.
Fleetwood still shot a sensational 64, 7-under par to vault himself into a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard.
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Xander Schauffele shot a 67, 5-under par on Friday to leave him at 11-under par alongside Fleetwood and Matsuyama.
Schauffele is the defending Olympic Champion from the Tokyo 2020 Games and is currently the hottest man in golf. When he won at the 2020 Games, he also took the lead into the weekend then.
The 30-year-old American won the British Open at Royal Troon a couple of weeks ago to win his second major of the year.
Another man playing hot golf of late is Jon Rahm. The Spaniard is in fourth place, 9-under par after shooting a 66 on Friday.
Rahm is fresh off his LIV victory of the season in England and is looking to parlay his recent strong play into a medal in his Olympic debut. Rahm missed the Tokyo 2020 Games due to a positive COVID test.
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Here are the top 10 going after day 2 at the Olympics:
T-1. Xander Schauffele (USA): -11 (66)
T-1. Hideki Matsuyama (JPN): -11 (68)
T-1. Tommy Fleetwood (GBR): -11 (64)
4. Jon Rahm (ESP): -9 (66)
T-5. Thomas Detry (BEL): -8 (63)
T-5: C.T. Pan (TPE): -8 (65)
T-5. Tom Kim (KOR): -8 (68)
T-8. Stephan Jaeger (GER): -7 (64)
T-8. Guido Migliozzi (ITA): -7 (67)
T-10. Erik van Rooyen (RSA): -6 (69)
T-10. Joaquin Niemann (CHI): -6 (70)
T-10. Scottie Scheffler (USA): -6 (69)
The third round will begin Saturday at 3 a.m. ET.
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