“That felt better than anything I’ve ever won. It was the best tournament I ve ever done”, Rose said.
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“A couple of loose shots on 14 and 15 but overall I can’t complain, I just left myself too much to do”.
Rose finished with four rounds in the sixties and his closing 67 secured the gold medal with a 16-under-par total of 268.
Stenson closed with a bogey to take the silver on 270, one stroke ahead of USA bronze medallist Matt Kuchar.
“I have no regrets really”, added Svenson, who was consistency personified with an opening round of 66 followed by three 68s.
“It was fun and I played pretty well”, he said.
“But I was still there at the end and it came down to whoever made birdie down the last”.
“To be an Olympic medalist is something special”.
Many were questioning why it had become an Olympic sport again, especially as a number of the world’s best players pulled out for various reasons, including fears about the Zika virus, before the tournament. It was unique, incredible.
Rose’s gold does not change my opinion that if Olympic golf remains a tournament for top professionals, some of whom clearly couldn’t care less about becoming Olympians, it devalues what the Games are about – the awesome achievements of those sportsmen and women for whom a gold medal is their ultimate accolade.
Rose reclaimed the lead with a birdie from five feet on the 15th as Stenson was forced to save par from short of the green after a mis-hit approach.
Kuchar, ranked 20th, birdied four of the last five holes on the front nine and began the back side with a 13-foot eagle putt to reach 11 under. Out of reach in two, it came down to a pitch and putt for gold and, after Stenson had come up 20-feet short, Rose stepped up for one of the shots of his life. Between two holes of a practice round, Mark Futcher, Rose’s caddie, showed Rose a photo – now somewhat famous – of Michael Phelps charging ahead in the 200-meter butterfly, eyes only forward. I knew that would be a strategy that wouldn’t necessarily give me an advantage today but it would kind of – it was something that was going to be very, very useful.
“I always wanted to be in an Olympics and I always wanted to medal”, Kuchar said.
“It’s just wonderful when you sit back and think about who I am”, Watson said. Gold would come down to a chip and a putt.
Kuchar emerged from a host of contenders to take the last podium spot by firing a 63, matching the Olympic record set in round one by Australian Marcus Fraser.
MATT KUCHAR: “I grew up a fan of sport”. “I’m so proud he got the bronze”. “The overwhelming sense of pride is just remarkable”.
The stroke-play last round felt more like a match-play showdown just as it was in 1904 when Canadian George Lyon took the prior Olympic crown.
Stenson would miss the next putt also, but it didn’t matter.
The bogey wasn’t enough to take the silver away from Stenson.
It seemed that Stenson might repeat his Open victory at Royal Troon when he edged in front due to a Rose bogey at the 13th, but he handed back the initiative to the Englishman when he bogeyed the 14th and Rose knocked in an eight-footer for birdie on the 15th.
“I was just on the outside and barely qualified”, he said after finishing three strokes behind Rose on Sunday.
After a week of disappointing crowds in nearly every event and a build-up marred by questions over golf’s suitability for the Olympics, everyone involved with the sport will be proud to have witnessed such great support, with over 12,000 enthusiastic spectators lining the fairways.
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“If he was here and had a son who was an Olympic gold medalist, he would probably say, ‘What a great accomplishment, ‘” Rose said.
