Xander Schauffele has shared what surprised him after his opening round at the Olympic Games, with the American sat in second place heading into Friday.
Xander Schauffele would have been the favourite for many given that he is the one male player in the field with experience of winning a gold medal. He is also the player who has won two major titles this year, with some even believing that Scottie Scheffler would trade years with Schauffele.
The 30-year-old does not lead the way after the opening round, but he is second – two shots back of Hideki Matsuyama in Paris. But with three players tied for third right now, there is clearly so much work ahead before Schauffele secures another spot on the podium.
Many of the players were raving about Le Golf National before the event, and it appears that the course has lived up to expectations, with scores of fans coming through the gates to cheer on surely the best field golf has had since returning as an Olympic event in 2016.
Xander Schauffele shares what surprised him after opening round at the Olympics
Schauffele was asked after his first round about whether he was expecting so many fans to come and watch this event.
“I wasn’t. I looked at the course, I thought of the Ryder Cup. I was like, wow, what a venue, just the way everything sits and the way the course was designed with the moguls and mounds and everyone can kind of see,” he said.
“A lot of water everywhere. It’s kind of a scene, to be honest. And was just getting across the bleachers on 1 was amazing. Everyone starts chanting. It was loud. And then it got really quiet before everyone teed off.
“I had Mito behind me. They were chanting his name. They’re saying, “Let’s go Blue.” They were making it an awesome experience, no doubt.
“I don’t know what I was expecting. I heard 30,000 a day, which is a lot. It’s a ton of people. And I heard they got up to like 18ish, maybe, 20 today, something like that. We’ll make it up as we go. What we normally do. But it was an awesome atmosphere. And the fact that there’s only 20 groups, the fans sort of – it’s very congested in the best way possible,” he added.
A sign of what is to come from golf at the Olympics
Le Golf National showed back in 2018 that it is a fantastic arena for watching golf, with that incredible grandstand set up on the back of the first tee ahead of the Ryder Cup. That created such a remarkable atmosphere which seemed to spread across the course.
And there is plenty of reason to be excited for this event, with many of the world’s best players in attendance, regardless of which tour they play their golf on. Both 2016 and 2021 ran into a couple of issues, so this feels like the first time that the golf is being done without any sort of asterisk since it returned to the Olympics.
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