Gold medal repeat in sight for Xander Schauffele amid crowded leaderboard in Paris Olympics

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – If Xander Schauffele is feeling a little déjà vu ahead of the final round of his gold-medal defense, it would be understandable.

With just 18 holes to go before the gold, silver and bronze medals are handed out at Le Golf National, the defending Olympic champion has put himself in a similar position as in Tokyo: in the lead at 14-under, tying the 54-hole Olympic record he set three years ago. Granted, the world No. 2 has company at the top with Spain’s Jon Rahm, but Schauffele said he’s got himself where he wants to be.

“After my first few holes, yeah, I feel better than then for sure,” Schauffele explained, referring to his slow start Saturday that included a bogey at the second, a birdie at the fourth and a string of pars that left him feeling flat. “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.”

His 3-under back nine got a little momentum from a birdie at the 12th, but it was the walk-off eagle at 14 that juiced the two-time major champion, inspiring his own Olympic metaphor.

“I mean, I'm telling myself, like I'm slow out of the gates here,” said Schauffele, who opened with rounds of 65-66. “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.”

Also in a somewhat similar position is world No. 3 Rory McIlroy, who rebounded from a roller-coaster 69 in Round 2 to card his first bogey-free round of the week – a 5-under 66.

“The story of the first two days was the mistakes, and today I went out with the mindset of trying to limit those mistakes, which I did,” said McIlroy, who is representing Team Ireland. “It was a really solid round of golf and puts me in contention for a medal tomorrow.

Standing at T6 at 10-under on the week, he was in a similar position ahead of the final round in Tokyo – three shots back of Schauffele at T5. Also in the mix last time around? Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, who was solo second on the 2020 leaderboard and stands T4 in Paris, and Team Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood, who was T9 ahead of the final round but currently sits solo third.

“It's amazing for the game to see all those sort of players up there,” added McIlroy. “Obviously Xander, who has had an incredible year; Scottie, best player in the world. You've got Jon Rahm, some younger players, Nicolai (Højgaard) shooting 62 today. Yeah, it's an amazing leaderboard and should be an exciting day tomorrow.”

Adding to the drama this time around is world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who carded a 67 on Saturday and stands T6 with McIlroy, Korea’s Tom Kim and Belgium’s Thomas Detry at 10-under. While Paris marks his Olympic debut, the 12-time PGA TOUR winner is looking to add a seventh win of the season to his 2024 resume.

“I'd like to be leading,” Scheffler said. “I feel like I haven't had my best stuff the last few days, but I've done enough to hang in there and stay in the tournament. Around this course, you can get hot. You saw Nicolai had a really nice round today, and I'm going to need something like that tomorrow if I'm going to be holding a medal.”