With consistent play and an unflappable demeanor, American Xander Schauffele wins Olympic golf gold medal

In what was an intriguing, drama-filled, back nine showdown involving nine golfers, American Xander Schauffele sank a pivotal birdie putt on the 17th hole, hanging on to a one-shot lead and becoming an Olympic gold medalist.

“I felt like for the most part of the day I stayed very calm,” Schauffele said in his post victory press conference. “I usually look very calm, but there’s something terrible happening inside at times.”

Schauffele shot rounds of 68, 63, 68, and 67 on Sunday, for an 18-under total of 266 to win the Olympic tournament over four hot and humid days at Kasumigaseki Country Club.

The 2016 PGA Tour rookie of the year has narrowly missed winning Major Titles three times, posting three top-three finishes. His Olympic victory on Sunday, in Japan, is certainly the greatest of his career.

“It’s different for a lot of reasons,” Schauffele said, asked about the Olympic golf tournament. “For me personally, I haven’t won anything in quite some time. That bothered me and my team.”

The 27-year-old golf professional from San Diego, California, teed off in the fourth round, one stroke ahead of Japanese golf hero Hideki Matsuyama. Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, strung together four birdies but two bogeys between holes nine and 15. However, despite plenty of encouragement and support from the many Japanese volunteers and officials, he was unable to catch Schauffele. Matsuyama missed a makeable 10-foot birdie putt on 18 that would have given him the bronze medal.

Schauffele only briefly relinquished his third round lead, making the only bogey of his round, on 14, after an errant tee shot ended up in thick Japanese greenery, dropping him into a tie for the lead with the day’s biggest surprise and ultimately, the silver medalist, Rory Sabbatini of Slovakia. The veteran pro, who last won a PGA Tournament in 2011, fired an Olympic record 61.

“I was able to lean on those moments where I’ve lost and sort of lose my cool,” Schauffele said, “I thought that today I had a one-shot lead going into (hole) 16 or 17, and I looked at the board and saw that Sabbatini 61 (score).

“That was a nice wake-up call for me. Thank goodness there was a board there, or I wouldn’t have known.”

Sabbatini, age 45, was the oldest of the 60-player Olympic field. The South African native obtained Slovakian citizenship in 2019, with assistance from his Slovak wife, who caddied for him this week.

“Just being here was an honor, to be a Slovakian representative,” Sabbatini said. “To be here and medal is something that hopefully really gets the fires started to build golf in Slovakia, especially with the juniors.

“I don’t know really know how to say what it means. This is something that was started just a couple of years ago, trying to inspire future generations of Slovak golfers.”

The expected battle for gold between Schauffele and Matsuyama never fully materialized, with Rory McIlroy chasing and Sabbatini joining the party late. It was a compelling, edge of your seat finish to the Tokyo 2020 men’s Olympic tournament, exceeding all expectations.

Seven Player Showdown for a Bronze Medal

It was a bizarre, unprecedented, unfamiliar, seven-player playoff, requiring four extra holes, contested over an hour-and-20 minutes, that had players scratching their heads about rules and procedures.

Matsuyama, McIlroy, Pan, Collin Morikawa of the U.S., Great Britain’s Paul Casey, Colombia’s Sebastian Munoz and Chilean Mito Pereira were the cast of characters performing in the extra hole drama, all of whom finished their four rounds tied at 15-under.

First out were Matsuyuma and Casey, the Japanese golfer unable to recover from a horrendous lie after a poor tee shot and Casey missing a 15-foot putt on a return to the 18th hole.

With five now remaining, all made threes on the par three 10th hole, advancing to a third playoff hole.

On the third playoff hole, the par four 11th, McIlroy and Munoz were next in line be eliminated, as Morikawa and Pan dropped birdie putts.

The duo returned to 18 for the fourth hole. Morikawa plugged an approach shot in a bunker guarding the spacious green, a daunting task to get it out forcing him into an unorthodox stance. There was some hope still for the American recent British Open champion as Pan also struggled, pulling both his drive and approach shot left.

Finally, after one-hour-and-twenty minutes of bonus Olympic golf, Pan made par to Morikawa’s bogey, bringing home a bronze medal for Chinese Taipei.

McIlroy, who came up short in his quest for an Olympic medal in Japan five years after skipping the Rio 2016 Games, gave further reflection to his mixed emotions about Olympic golf.

I’ve been thinking about that, I need to give things a chance,” the four-time Major champion, representing Ireland at the Olympics, said. “I was speaking to my wife last night and I was like ‘maybe I shouldn’t be so skeptical’. I think I need to do a better job of giving things a chance, experiencing things, not writing them off at first glance. That’s sort of a trait of mine.”

Schauffele is the second U.S. men’s golfer to win an Olympic golf tournament. Charles Sands won a gold medal at the Paris 1900 Summer Olympics, prior to one more Olympic tournament in 1908, and then a 112-year absence before the sport’s return for Rio 2016.

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