That’s right, Englishman Tommy Fleetwood.
Fleetwood won the French Open here in 2017 and starred in the 2018 Ryder Cup, also at Le Golf National. The French love his heroics and everyone loves his hair, but there was a bit more to Tommylad this week. “Aye, he’s from Southport,” one father murmured as Fleetwood took the tee on 14. The rest of his family nodded knowingly, sullenly. Fleetwood was raised in Southport, where his father and cousins still live, and where a tragic mass stabbing took place Monday, triggering a wave of protests across Britain.
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Fleetwood deleted Rahm’s lead — and quickly, with birdies at 11 and 12. What a Gold Medal would mean to the people of Southport, Fleetwood didn’t even want to speculate. But rest assured people were thinking about it Sunday afternoon.
They were thinking about Tom Kim, too, especially when he brushed in a 7-footer on the 15th, reaching 15 under and daring us all to walk, for just a moment, in his shoes. Kim wasn’t in the Gold Medal chase but were he to nab any place on the podium, he would earn an exemption from his looming (if distant) mandatory military service in South Korea. Every missed putt of his was met with an audible groan.
Scottie Scheffler, one of Kim’s best friends in Dallas, was playing alongside him, and had to be rooting for him, too. When Kim grabbed his ball out of the cup on 15, Scheffler re-marked his ball just 13 inches from the hole and tapped in for a quiet birdie. His seventh of the day.
All week long players had been discussing the rabid Olympics crowd as something different. It included many golf fans, sure, but also many Olympics fans — indifferent, boisterous sports fans, who don’t necessarily know when to clap or when to stay silent, or the appropriate times to belt “La Marseillaise.” With all these runs happening at once, you wanted to reach out and tell them this was special. To remind them that, Hey, this land used to be flat.
“Flat and barren,” the architect of Le Golf National once wrote. Nearly 40 years ago — and 23 years before golf was approved to be an Olympic sport — the French Golf Federation commissioned Hubert Chesneau to create a true stadium course, perfect for tournament golf, TV coverage and, importantly, fantastic on-site viewing.
“This is what TPC Sawgrass was trying to do,” Seth Waugh, outgoing PGA of America CEO, offered late Sunday night. He had been watching on 18, which is to say, he had been in the stadium.
Chesneau’s finishing stretch is highlighted by massive mounds built on the far side of the finishing hole, sloping down to the fairway toward a water hazard between the 18th and 15th, the land rising on the other side to create one big green and blue bowl. From 18, you can see 15. (Perez waved to fans on either side, hundreds of yards apart.) From behind 15 green, you can Ping-Pong your eyes back and forth to 16 green. From the 16th tee, perched above it all, you can see everything. And if you were patient enough, you did see almost everything.
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You saw Scheffler’s tap-in birdie on 15, followed by the smooth iron he tossed inside eight feet on 16. When that birdie dropped, you saw his name slide into a tie for first. You could see his irritated expression after he tugged his tee shot on 17, but could tell he wasn’t visibly annoyed when he rehearsed smooth swings from the rough. The lie was alright. Way up on the 17th green, you could see his shoulders swing in a putting motion, and the applause told you he made that one, too.
Then Scheffler disappeared into a crowded walkway. When you saw him next, he was across the 18th fairway, inspecting another lie in the rough. Then he was lunging at it and posing until his ball landed on the island green. After two nervy putts you saw Scheffler pump his fist and stroll up the hill to tally up 62 strokes, 19 under, alone in the lead.
It would be temping to stay there, at 16, to see if Fleetwood could do it. Or to watch Rahm’s last gasp for Bronze. Most of the fans did. But a couple dozen of the smartest spectators had enough sense to chase down to the driving range, where they found the world No. 1 in a much quieter place. They pushed past the female Olympians practicing ahead of their own competition and nestled up against an iron barrier, about 30 feet from Scheffler and his caddie, Ted Scott. Close enough to count Scheffler’s swings, hear some of his thoughts and watch him pick out a relaxing song.
Scheffler laid his phone on the turf and methodically smoothed wedges to the beats of U2’s “Beautiful Day.” (The music video, coincidentally, was filmed about 40 miles away in Paris’ Charles-de-Gaulle airport.) The only thing that could ruin this moment was Fleetwood holing out from 34 yards. You heard Bono run through the chorus once — It’s a beautiful day, don’t let it get away — before it got difficult to hear again. The group of fans behind Scheffler had quickly multiplied to 30 then 60. Photographers came running. One TV camera became two. Scheffler grooved another wedge.
The reaction of the crowd in the distance said it all. Fleetwood’s pitch ran close but not in. Scott shrugged up his hands, silently begging the TV folks for a result. “You won,” a cameraman said. “You won.”
For an improbable seventh time this season Scheffler and his caddie embraced in victory. It was a bit clumsy, as golf celebrations can be. Scott playfully spanked Scheffler before they were distracted by a range volunteer, who had begun leading the spectators in a Skol Viking clap.
“I like this,” Scott said, grinning and nodding his head. He reached down into a pocket of Scheffler’s bag, grabbed two handfuls of USA Golf pins and tossed them into the crowd. They had won a Gold Medal and were off to see what it looked like.
