Justin Rose has won gold for Great Britain at the Rio Games, marking golf’s triumphant return to the Olympics for the first time in 112 years. “That was a really surreal moment”, Rose said. Like Cardoso, Andrade had never seen a live professional golf event until Sunday, nor had he ever played the sport. “It felt very different than any other golf tournament”.
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“He was very complimentary – and yeah, obviously he did watch”.
“I am very proud of this achievement, especially as I had to beat a world class player in a great battle”.
Rose said: “It’s very important for Olympic golf going forward – I don’t know who wouldn’t want to be a part of a great competition on Sunday afternoon with the best players in the world and it means something to them”.
“I never thought growing up that golf would be in the Olympic Games”, Garcia told reporters.
“It just meant something a lot more to him for some reason, and I can’t explain that”.
Rose finished with four rounds in the sixties and his closing 67 secured the gold medal with a 16-under-par total of 268.
“I have no regrets”. I can’t say it was purely down to that but it was not helping, put it that way.
“A cross between a golf tournament and a carnival”, is how the champion Rose described the action. “It was unique, incredible”. According to the International Golf Federation, da Silva was included in the first group because he represented Brazil, the host nation, while DeLaet was in the first group since Canada was the defending champion after George Lyon claimed gold during the 1904 Summer Games before the sport was eliminated. There was only a week between the Open Championship and PGA Championship, and only a week between the finish of the Olympics and the FedExCup playoffs.
Stenson’s three-putt sucked the drama out of what might have been a nerve-racking 5-footer for Rose.
However, after Rose’s third shot, an extraordinary pitch from 38 yards that landed within three feet of the pin, it was Stenson who blinked.
Rose, whose only major victory was the US Open in 2013, birdied and then punched the air and grabbed the British logo on his shirt to the acclaim of the crowd. I think they will sit back and see how successful this was.
“Hopefully his vibes came off to me, ” Ko said of Rose.
“It’s a dream come true”, Rose said. Gold would come down to a chip and a putt.
Kuchar, ranked 20th, 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.
Rose, though, believes that they will, in time, regret their decisions. “The overwhelming sense of pride is just remarkable”.
The lasting memory of its debut was Rose and Stenson going at it for more than five hours, neither with more than a one-stroke advantage the entire round.
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After a hard build-up to the event featuring a spate of withdrawals, organisers could not have hoped for a better outcome than a Major victor of Rose’s stature claiming the gold medal.
