France – For two days at Le Golf National, only one factor – big or very, very small – has seemingly been able to slow the United States’ Xander Schauffele.
It was on the par-four 13th hole. Schauffele on Friday drove the ball left into the deep rough. The news at first would have been that he finally hit a poor shot. Hadn’t happened much yet in this Paris Olympics tournament. But then he got to his ball, leaned in to take a long look and shouted, “Can I get an official?”
“It was an ant pile, or whatever you want to call it, in their home,” he said. “So I didn’t want to mess with it too much.”
Schauffele asked for relief for the ant hill with two officials making it on scene. Relief wasn’t granted as it was a “loose impediment,” kind of like a twig or leaf. Schauffele was allowed to take a tee and try to clean up behind the ball, but that didn’t help. He eventually had to just chip his second shot about 50 yards into the fairway. Thus was the story of Schauffele’s second bogey of the round and only his third in 36 holes thus far at this Olympics.
Otherwise, it’s gone awfully well. Schauffele heads into Saturday’s third round at 11-under-par, tied for first with Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood. Another Olympic medal – after Schauffele’s gold in Tokyo – would be added to two majors already in 2024.
Didn’t just happen here in France. Schauffele has been in a special zone for months.
At Le Golf National, he has played the front nine at 8 under. On Friday, he went on runs that made it look easy at times, going from fairway to green to makeable birdie putts without a clear weakness or a concern in the world.
“If you do hit a bad shot,” he said, “it’s easier to accept it because you know you’re playing really good golf, and you can make it up somewhere else. In that sort of a zone, I guess.”
Schauffele led the charge for Team USAon a Friday when the other Americans either spun wheels for a while (Scottie Scheffler), started too far back (Wyndham Clark) or are beginning to run out of enough holes to get going (Collin Morikawa).
