He had a one-shot lead over Thomas Pieters of Belgium, a former NCAA champion who closed with three straight birdies.
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After a careless three putt bogey at the second, Rose got back on track in spectacular style when, following a mighty drive to the short par four third, he chipped in from 30 yards for an eagle two.
“Obviously Henrik [Stenson] is playing great golf but the one shot lead doesn’t mean that much right now, it is about drawing a line in the sand and coming out tomorrow”. Two years ago at age 11, Li became the youngest qualifier in U.S. Women’s Open history.
Justin Rose, as they say here at the Olympics, is in the gold-medal position.
Fraser continued his remarkable roll in golf’s 112-year return to the Olympics by sitting pretty at the halfway mark of the tournament.
“It’s like all the other sports”, Rose said. “First of all, it’s hard to get a putt that long on any green in the world”.
Stenson had another 68, his best moment with a wedge in his hand – but not for a shot he hit.
“I probably need those guys to be a little bit off to be able to do that”, said Fraser, who will be in the final pairing with Rose and Stenson. He wasn’t too big. “And he was facing the right way for me”.
He had pars in the first two holes then birdied two of the next three to go two-under very early in his round.
It’s not a two-man race, even if it felt like one.
Overnight leader Marcus Fraser of Australia (72) is third on nine under. He was still alone in third place, though he was four shots behind and his lack of length could be factor in trying to keep pace with Rose and Stenson.
Then again, not even he knows what to expect out of his game.
Fraser was at 10-under 132 – another day, another Olympic record. I feel like I’m a fairly aggressive player … and I’ll continue to do that.
Watson did manage to recover from that momentary breakdown but with a par on the par 5 18th, he left shots out on the course yet still managed to work his way into a tie for fourth. “I tried to stop my stroke and did not stop quickly enough and it went about four feet”.
“That was the funniest thing ever”, the left-hander explained. I looked down and I was like, ‘That’s mud. “I think that’s a testament to how good the golf course is”.
With Rose recording six pars in succession, that took Stenson to within a shot of his Ryder Cup partner, the pair having won all three of their matches together at Gleneagles in 2014.
Matt Kuchar played a round of two under to leave him five under par for the competition, but Bubba Watson is in the best position to win a medal for Team USA.
Rose barely missed a shot all day with a marvellous exhibition of shotmaking. He holed a tense nine-foot par putt at 18 to stay on top.
He made a 40-foot birdie putt on the par-3 17th, after pars on the six previous holes. He took the lead for the first time with a 35-foot putt from off the 12th green.
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Put simply, the cream started to rise to the top in Rio as some of the best players in the world finally hit their rhythm.
