Australia’s Marcus Fraser opened up a three-shot lead on day one of the Olympic Golf tournament following a sublime 8-under 63.
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2016 Open Championship victor Henrik Stenson is -8 for the tournament, shooting a 3-under-68 on Friday.
It could have been a far wider gap for Fraser who had six legitimate birdie putts lip the hole.
In July, Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy said he was unlikely to watch television coverage of the Olympic golf competition, preferring “track and field, swimming, diving, the stuff that matters”. However, an excellent drive onto the green that traveled 240 yards set up Stenson 36 yards outside the hole.
The Belgian golfer was spectacular in moving up from fourth place to second place.
He held a three-stroke lead over Open champion Henrik Stenson and Canadian Graham DeLaet.
Pieters, ranked 64th, was one stroke adrift after opening and closing with three consecutive birdies to shoot 66 despite playing much of his round in heavy rains and brisk wind before afternoon clearing.
Still, it was the sight of Stenson on the leaderboard that was so hard to ignore.
The lowest score? Nothing different about that.
But this was hardly a masterpiece. He hit into the water on the next hole and still had a full 4-wood just to reach the front part of the green.
Henrik Stenson continued his fine form Friday to put himself in position to win an Olympic medal. Just 1 under after his first nine, Lee fired a bogey-free 31 on the back with five birdies, including four in a row to end his day.
“If you don’t dream about it, you’re never going to achieve it I think”, he said. “That’s the longest putt I’ve made in my career, I would say”, Stenson said. I managed to birdie the first and get the round going.
He followed by duffing a tee shot and making bogey, and it was a relief to play what he called ordinary golf until another wild finish. The ball bounced three times on the green, then backspun into the flagstick and dropped into the cup.
Right behind Fraser is Belgium’s Thomas Pieters, who has been the most consistent golfer through the first two days.
I think the women’s event could provide the most drama as nine of the world’s top 10 players will be in attendance.
“Other people are probably more surprised than I am”.
Overall, the Olympics will be a positive for golf. The Australian caught only a little of the nasty weather, and it didn’t last long before the sun came out.
Rose’s ace led him to a 4-under-par 67 on the day.
“It felt like I really deserved that today”.
“Any time you get to play with Stenson on the weekend, you know you’re doing something right”.
USA stars, who are four of the eight top-rated players in the event, continued to struggle with Rickie Fowler on five over, sharing next-to-last, and two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, who opened on 73, to tee off in the final group.
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“We’re very happy and very proud to be the Games where golf’s coming back to the Olympic universe”, he said.
