How big was golf in the Olympics? “My phone has been on fire the last 24 hours and it seems to resonate with a much wider audience, and that’s what I’ve taken away from this week, it’s not necessarily just golf fans that are interested, it’s just sports fans, and a nation as a whole that seems to get behind you”.
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Stenson, playing the best golf of his career after the duel with Phil Mickelson at Royal Troon last month, started the final round one shot off the pace and had shot a bogey-free round with four birdies through 13 holes. To come out of it with a medal is incredible, and to come out of it with gold, unbelievable.
“Coming up with that last pitch when I needed it was magical”.
“Anybody making the decision going forward, I would just ask them, ‘Were you in Rio on Sunday?'” Rose said.
“I think we did some good for the game and we’re going to do that again Wednesday through Saturday when the women play”.
Stenson went hard at his third but missed right and left a long par putt back, which he missed, leaving Rose two putts to win it.
“For me what was heartening was hearing comments from guys who really weren’t in contention for being on the podium who spoke positively about it being one of the best golfing weeks of their lives”, Rose said.
He ended day one in a tie for fourth on four under par, trailing early leader Marcus Fraser by four shots.
While many players cited the threat of the Zika virus as their reason for withdrawing from the Games, Rose’s participation was never in doubt. “I did as well as I could”, Stenson said.
Deadlocked at 18, Stenson was shy of the green with his approach while Rose was left of the green with bunkers between, the gold fight down to a pitch and putt contest.
“I barely qualified”, Kuchar said. The 60 players who came, dressed in their country colors and team bags – and three medals at the end of the week – showed what they were missing. One over through his first three rounds, Patrick Reed blitzed the back nine with six birdies to shoot 7-under 64 and finished tied for 11th.
Rose’s wife Kate is a former gymnast who competed for Britain at worldwide level, although her speciality of acrobatic gymnastics is not part of the Olympic programme. “But this is the coolest sport I’ve seen at the Olympics”.
Bronze medallist Matt Kuchar of the United States defended golf’s place in the Games and said the thrill of having a medal around his neck was incomparable.
The other person who voiced the success of the Olympics was maybe the least likely to do so.
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“I’m not sure much more needs to be said except what transpired this week”. I don’t know if I would ever take that medal off. “I was grinning from ear to ear every time I looked at the leaderboard and saw he was making pars and making birdies, he was going to get a medal”, the two-time Masters victor said.
