Great Britain’s Justin Rose followed in the footsteps of the long-departed George Lyon of Canada when he climbed onto the podium to collect the Olympic gold medal on Sunday.
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Rose did a little shimmy when his 10-foot par putt on the final hole Saturday swirled in the back side of the cup for a 6-under 65, giving him a one-shot lead over British Open champion Henrik Stenson going into the final round the medal round at Olympic Golf Course.
And Rose said, “Obviously, he watched”.
The other person who voiced the success of the Olympics was maybe the least likely to do so.
“If he was here and had a son who was an Olympic gold medalist, he would probably say, ‘What a great accomplishment, ‘” Rose said. Stenson took silver with a fourth-round 68 for 270 and Kuchar’s swashbuckling last day brought home the remaining medal on 271.
Rickie Fowler had the low round of the blustery day with a 64, though he remained nine shots behind.
So as the women who were arriving for their Olympic tournament this week began taking their places on the driving range, so, too, did the 80-year-old Hall of Famer, pausing to chat between shots. “Fooch has been on about this for ages and said that if it came down to a gold or a major he would lean towards this”, Rose said. I’ve never seen (golf) resonate so much with him. The whole week, I’ve been so focused, so into it, so up for it. I’ve been so up for it.
Even for a major champion, this was more than he ever imagined. He briefly lost the lead to Stenson after a birdie at 13 but immediately got it back when Stenson bogeyed 14 and Rose birdied 15. Stenson kept firing away, however, tying Rose with a pitch to 4 feet for birdie on the 16th.
Rose and Stenson know each other well from the European Tour and Ryder Cup, where they played one of the most scintillating rounds in the competition’s history in 2014, together carding 12 birdies in 16 holes in a four-ball win over Kuchar and Bubba Watson, the US golfers who came third and eighth on Sunday.
“He said to me, ‘Alright, Dad, I’ve got mine, now it’s time for you to get yours, ‘” said Rose, who outdueled Sweden’s Stenson on Sunday in Rio to win by two strokes.
“He made a birdie and I didn’t, and that’s why he’s got a gold medal and I got a silver”, Stenson said.
“I guess if you would have asked me before the week that I would leave here with a medal, I would have been pretty pleased and I managed to do that”.
But he needed just the one.
“I can assure you it is the happiest I have ever been finishing third”, the 38-year old Floridian said. ‘Leo is just beginning to understand what sport is all about, he started crying when I spoke to him and I might myself if I’m not careful.
“But he is unbelievable. I didn t play my best”. “You look at the guys here this week – Henrik is playing some of the best golf of anyone in the world and Justin is certainly a world-class player”. “He said basically he could see how much it meant to me and congratulations”. How cool would it have been to have a playoff for team gold, on top of Rose’s stirring individual victory?
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There was no way Giles Scott could be a proper Briton and keep a stiff upper lip as he closed in on winning the gold medal in the Finn class in the sailing regatta.
