The 38-year-old Marcus Fraser carded nine birdies and a bogey is his brilliant eight-under 63 to lead Open Champion Henrik Stenson, and Canadian Graham DeLaet, by three shots.
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Fraser was at 10-under 132 another day, another Olympic record. Pretty cool that he was able to make it. “So hopefully, that lasts all week”.
France’s Gregory Bourdy and England’s Justin Rose are tied for fourth, four shots adrift of the leader.
And yes, it was quite the crowd.
Fittingly, it was a 44-year-old Brazilian, Adilson da Silva, who was handed the honour of striking the first Olympic golf shot in the modern era at 7.30am, a time when most of the swimmers, gymnasts, boxers and beach volleyball heroes were tucked up in the Olympic Village.
Meanwhile fellow Team GB golfer Danny Willett is on -1 after a round of 70 on day two and is hopeful of a change of fortune himself before the historic medals are awarded. And on completing his round he was emotional as he reflected on his golfing journey. “Or the beginning of a new one”.
Fraser turned pro in 2002, and won his first European Tour tournament a year later with the Russian Open.
Stenson, 40, is bidding to win Olympic gold a month after capturing the Claret Jug at Royal Troon.
“Once every four years, I just think it is so unique and something I’m all for”.
“No, (the computer is not) broken, ” Stenson said.
“It felt like I needed to get off to a fast start”, Fraser said.
On a fine day, the Olympic Golf Course poses few challenges to the caliber of players at the Rio Olympics, and even with less than ideal conditions birdies were flying across the par-71 layout, with 29 of the 60 players finishing in the negative.
The powerful United States team failed to fire in round one, with the exception of Matt Kuchar (69).
Stenson holed from 12 feet for a birdie on the first and 58 feet for another on the second, but looked like giving at least one of those shots back when his tee shot on the next found the water. It didn’t get much better from there. The 26-year-old former SC player dominated the Web.com Tour this season, winning in Louisiana, Mexico and Kansas and earning $449,392 in 13 starts. That led to a double bogey and he wound up at 73. Matt Kuchar and Patrick Reed are in the red as well and still have a chance at a medal, although they’ll need a handful of names up ahead to come back to them or shoot some wildly low number in the weekend winds.
More than half of the field was at par or better.
The vibe on the first tee was strong, not almost the level of a Ryder Cup, but different from other tournaments with players dressed in team colors and being introduced by country.
What it means: Up three to start the day, Fraser cruised along largely unchallenged after three birdies across his first 11 holes.
“Today felt so different from yesterday”.
World No. 12 Justin Rose orchestrated a 2-under-par 33-36=69 in the second round of the Men’s Olympic Golf Competition to post 6-under 136, up one spot to T3 with play still in progress.
“I said it to the guys walking off, ‘Now we are Olympians, ‘ and nobody can take that away from us”, he said.
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Fraser had also been playing sports fan, attending the Australia-US men’s basketball match on Wednesday and also watching his friend Sam Groth play tennis.
