Justin Rose of Great Britain, tees off on the 16th hole during the third round of the men’s golf event at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016. His round got off to a resounding start as he birdied the first, made a 50-foot putt for birdie on the second and a 108-foot putt for par on the third. Fraser’s newly minted course record should be safe, as should his lead.
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Thanks to a round of 6-under 65 and not one but two eagles, Justin Rose will take a one-shot lead over Henrik Stenson into the final round of the Olympic men’s golf tournament. “First of all, it’s hard to get a putt that long on any green in the world”.
“Like other sports, once you are in the final all the heats mean nothing”.
“Obviously, it is a nice position going into tomorrow but there is a lot of work to come out and play another great round of golf”.
“I do now what I do for any big tournament, I get into my own little cocoon and prepare as best I can”.
Rose doubled his advantage by holing his third shot from off the 12th green, before a sole blemish of the day at the 14th moved him in to a three-way tie alongside Fraser and Stenson.
Stenson had another 68, his best moment with a wedge in his hand – but not for a shot he hit.
“I was a little bit off today and when you are a little way off in these conditions, on this golf course, it feels like you are a long way off”, he said. “He was facing the right way for me”.
“It was either in or it was off the back edge”.
“In my mind we’re still going for one thing, even though the consolation prize might be better here than at some other events, in a way”, he said.
Marcus Fraser of Australia got off to a quick start, stretched his lead to four shots at one point and wound up with a 2-under 69 for the 36-hole lead in the first Olympic golf competition since 1904.
Bryan has made a fast rise since focusing on tournament golf past year after working as a trick-shot artist.
Fraser wouldn’t have had a sniff at the Olympics without the controversial Rio withdrawals of top-ranked Jason Day, world number eight Adam Scott, 48th-rated Mark Leishman and 87th-rated Matt Jones over such issues as Zika, scheduling and safety.
“Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would come to the Olympics and compete, and now all of a sudden I have a chance of winning a medal”, Fraser said.
“You can’t hide from it, (the lure of a medal is) right there in front of you”, Fraser said after his round. “I think a boa constrictor, if you were to have any kind of encounter with a snake like that, you have enough people here where you could figure out a way to fight it off”. The other three US players – Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson and Patrick Reed – finished a combined 7-over.
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But the Open champion did bogey the par-three next after dumping his tee-shot into sand, but he drained a 25-foot putt for birdie at the short eighth before three-putting at the 14th green.
