Scottie Scheffler’s magical year continued Sunday in Paris as the American set an Olympic record en route to a gold medal in the men’s golf competition at Le Golf National.
Scheffler, who trailed by 4 shots on Sunday charged up the leaderboard with a 9 under par round of 62 to claim the first gold medal of his already decorated career. The win marks back to back gold medals for the US after Xander Schauffele brought home the title at the Tokyo games.
With an overall Olympic record final score of 265 (-19), Scheffler narrowly edged out Tommy Fleetwood of Great Britain (-18) and Hideki Matsuyama (-17) to sit atop the podium.
Entering play Sunday, it appeared as though Schauffele, the reigning Olympic champion, and Spain’s Jon Rahm would be duking it out for gold. However, Schauffele struggled all day Sunday posting a final round score of +2 and dropping from a tie for 1st to 9th place overall.
Rahm didn’t fare much better, posting a final round of -1 to tumble down the leaderboard to finish in a tie for 5th with Rory McIlroy.
With the co-leaders struggling in their final rounds, fans were treated to a thrilling finish as Scheffler carded 4 straight birdies down the stretch, including an impressive up and down out of the deep rough on 17 to claim the lead for the first time all day.
When asked about where his new hardware ranked amongst his career accomplishments after his round, the American stated “It’s pretty high up there. Anytime you’re able to represent your country is pretty special. This was a fun week and it was great representing the USA, and I’m proud to be going home with a medal.”
“I was trying to stay aggressive, and I was doing my best to stay patient and wait for my putter to get hot,” Scheffler told the Golf Channel following his round. “I hit some really nice shots on the back nine and hit some nice putts. And really I was just trying to do anything I could do make some birdies, and I was fortunate to be able to get it done.”
Scheffler’s gold medal is yet another feather in the cap of the 28 year old who has already won 6 times on the PGA Tour this season.
With the men’s event now wrapped up, the women’s competition will officially get underway with an opening round on Wednesday August 7th. The event kicks off at 3am ET in North America.