Xander Schauffele eyes back-to-back Olympic gold medals after thrilling Saturday

American star Xander Schauffele has done a whole lot of winning in recent months. On the precipice of the final round of the 2024 Olympic Golf men’s event, he has a golden opportunity to do some more.

Schauffele, who is the defending gold medalist, will head into Sunday’s final round at Le Golf National with a share of the lead and a fantastic chance at winning back-to-back golds after a gutsy three-under 68.

Schauffele, however, is not alone on top of the leaderboard, nor was he in control all day. The 2024 PGA and Open champion battled throughout a thrilling third round that featured constant lead changes among elite golfers battling for medal position, with former World No. 1 Jon Rahm playing the role of Schauffele’s primary sparring partner.

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Rahm — who, like Schauffele, is a two-time major winner, having won the 2021 U.S. Open and 2023 Masters — fired a five-under 66 on Saturday to charge up the leaderboard into a tie with Schauffele.

When the day started, Schauffele had a piece of a three-way lead with Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and England’s Tommy Fleetwood at 11 under. That trio played together in Saturday’s final pairing, and all three got off to slow starts, especially considering that players like Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy were going low early ahead of them.

At the second hole, Schauffele lipped out on a short par putt after a great bunker shot to make bogey and fall off the pace early. Matsuyama also made a bogey, giving us our first lead change with Fleetwood, who made par at 2, taking the solo lead.

Just ahead of them on the course, Rahm started to make some waves, recording birdies at 3 and 4 to briefly tie Fleetwood for the lead at 11 under.

The leaderboard shuffling continued as our featured pairing played the par-4 4th hole. Matsuyama continued his early struggles with another bogey to fall to nine under. Schauffele and Fleetwood both had birdie looks, and Schauffele rolled his in to get back to 11 under and create a new three-way tie at the top with Rahm and Fleetwood. But Fleetwood then drained his own putt, moving back into the sole lead at 12 under.

Elsewhere on the course another major winner and former No. 1, Australia’s Jason Day, was in cruise control, going five under through 10 to reach 10 under, two off the lead.

Fleetwood and Schauffele each finished out the front nine with five-straight pars, and as they made the turn Fleetwood was tied for the lead with Rahm at 12 under. But Fleetwood would start the back nine in style with another birdie that moved him back into sole possession of the lead at 13 under.

Around the same time, Nicolai Højgaard closed out a course-record-tying 62 to move to tie Schauffele at 11 under, while Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler were putting together bogey-free rounds that had them within three shots of Fleetwood.

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Birdies at 10 and 12 brought Matsuyama right back into the thick of things at 11 under. His position improved when Fleetwood made bogey at the same hole to drop into a tie with Rahm at 12 under, before Schauffele drained at 12-footer for birdie to join them.

But the third three-way tie of the round wouldn’t last long. Moments later, Rahm dropped his fifth birdie of the day at the par-4 13th to grab the lead alone at 13 under.

The roller-coaster nature of the leaderboard didn’t end there. After Rahm birdied the par-5 14th to reach 14 under, Schauffele drained a lengthy eagle putt on the same hole to rocket up into a tie with Rahm. Fleetwood made birdie to keep pace at 13 under.

After reaching the 15th green in regulation, Rahm three-putted to drop a shot and leave Schauffele alone at 14 under. But Rahm, who won his first LIV Golf event just last week in England, wasn’t giving up that easily. At 17, the two-time major champion sank a 36-foot birdie putt to grab a share of the lead once again.

Both Schauffele and Rahm had decent looks at birdie on the difficult par-4 18th, but neither was able to make them, leaving them tied heading into Sunday.

Fleetwood finished off a 69 to remain one back, while Højgaard and Matsuyama finished the day tied for fourth at 11 under. McIlroy and Scheffler are among four players tied at 10 under with 18 holes to go.