Olympic golf has become a shooting sport. Prepare your popcorn

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – On Friday night, Thomas Bjorn took Nicolai Hojgaard and Thorbjorn Olesen to dinner in Versailles. Bjorn is a European golf legend but he is acting as team captain this week – a mediator who helps keep everything under control for the players in this unusual setting.

Basically, you are a good vibes creator. Bjorn wanted to get the Olympians out of the hotel for a bit, change things up, and visit Le Limousin, a French bistro — one of his favorites.

Twenty-four hours later, you can hope they’re back at Le Limousin eating the same food because Team Denmark turned the Olympics on its head.

By now, you may have seen the leaderboard. You might see Spain, USA and Team Great Britain in the top three spots. You might see boys with the same name – Hideki, Rory and Scottie – all running around. But what Denmark did was get everyone thinking about the whole field. Hojgaard and Olesen arrived at the hotel lobby Saturday morning with “different faces,” Bjorn said. And the result?

Olesen shot a 66 with a bogey. Hojgaard beat him by four, tying the course record 62, opening the leaderboard. Making everyone think differently about what might happen tomorrow. Getting them to think about things in the rear view mirror. To make them think he needs par on that brutal 18th hole, the toughest in the area.

One of the most unusual aspects of this tournament is that you can almost guarantee a playoff game on Sunday evening. With three top spots he needs to be solved in an orderly way – of the podium and raising flags and history books – 62 from, uh, Alejandro Tosti will make things interesting. A 62 from Erik Van Rooyen would be golden. Wait, could it be Wyndham Clark, who shot points at Pebble Beach in February? Check it out – it was 60 at Pebble. Someone who will come out of here suddenly seems possible.

“62, that was something up there on the leaderboard,” said co-leader Xander Schauffele, hands firmly on the steering wheel. “I didn’t see that, to be completely honest.”

We are not sure that Nicolai did.

“I think I went out there as if I had nothing to lose,” he said. “We are very far behind.”

And they were. But they are gone now. Hojgaard is only three back.

Eleven of the world’s top 20 are competing this week and suddenly eight of those 11 are within four shots of the lead. But using our 62 theory – the second round is clearly the best – we have at least 20 players away from the 62 medal.

Tommy Fleetwood, who currently sits in the Bronze position, was asked if a 62 like that was “an extraordinary round.”

“It’s not an unusual round. It’s a fantastic round,” said Fleetwood. He would know a thing or two about Le Golf National, as he won the French Open here and played in the Ryder Cup the following year.

“Today I don’t think I could have shot that goal with what I had. You just have to play with what you’ve got, and if I had gone out today and started shooting and thought 62 was what I should have done, I would have been nowhere and probably would have been worse.

But that’s the point. Thinking about 62. Scottie Scheffler, player no. 1 in the world, four back, but he thinks 62 is what it will take to win Gold. Rory McIlroy, tied with Scheffler, shot 66 Saturday, his best round of the week, and still believes he needs to improve tomorrow. There are too many people chasing.

Think back three years ago, when one Rory, Mr. Sabbatini, arriving at the Kasumigasecki Country Club in his final round in the red, white and blue of Slovakia. As his wife ran in hot conditions, Sabbatini took the irons out of the bag to make it easier to walk. He also shot 61 – an easy walk! – and jumped everyone in the Silver area.

Behind him, as has been well documented, was the 7-man Bronze qualifier. Stackable, too. One still clinging to Collin Morikawa three years later, as he was the last man standing he didn’t he won the medal, but was defeated by CT Pan. (Speaking of Pan, he’s in a group of less than seven, six shots backstage.)

With 54 holes, we have something very neat and organized. LIV golf is tied with the best PGA Tour golfer. A clear, solo, lead-sucking two-shot Bronze artist. (Or is it a one-shot gold shot?) And a bunch of people like Jason Day (five back) ready to step on the gas.

“Winning a medal is more difficult than finishing on Saturday,” said Day. “I will be pushing tomorrow. I need to try to win a medal. That is my intention. Then there are the other top guys. They will be thinking a lot. There is a lot of pressure on them. It’s completely understandable. But many things can go wrong in those finishing holes. Fingers crossed I will play the good guys tomorrow.”

He said. Everyone thinks.