Scottie Scheffler wins Olympic golf gold with a final round 62

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Scottie Scheffler was a calm model Sunday as she presented the biggest round of her career. The final two hours were all about charging and rolling, pure theatrics that ended with an Olympic gold medal neatly placed around the neck of the No. 1 golfer.

It wasn’t until Scheffler stood on the top platform, when the last few bars of the national anthem came out across Le Golf National, that he lost control.

With the medal hanging under his right hand and focused on his chest, Scheffler raised his left arm to stifle a cry.

Tears are nothing new for Scheffler. His latest award brought out the best.

Four shots after starting the final round, six shots behind on the opening nine, Scheffler birdied five of six holes and matched the course record with a 9-under 62 for a one-shot victory over Tommy Fleetwood.

“It’s been a long week. It’s been a challenging week. I played some great golf today, and I’m proud to take home the trophy,” Scheffler said. “These guys played some amazing golf, and I think we should be proud of the golf we played this week.”

It was a showstopper, the best three-man tournament since golf returned to the Olympic program in 2016 in front of 30,000 spectators who got their euro’s worth.

An incredible move by Scheffler, who shot a 29 on the back nine. Fleetwood’s relentless play (66) and Hideki Matsuyama, who had birdie opportunities on the last six holes and had to match a par 65 to win the bronze.

And there was the dramatic collapse of Jon Rahm, who saw a four-shot lead disappear in two holes and his hopes dashed with a double bogey; by Rory McIlroy, one shot from behind hit the sword in the water; and Xander Schauffele, the PGA and British Open champion who had a chance to win another gold until he played four holes at 4-over par.

Not to be overlooked is France’s Victor Perez, who scored the opening goal on Thursday and picked up one medal on Sunday. He should know the words “La Marseillaise” if he doesn’t already. The fans cheered him on almost every tee.

They all got a chance in this thrilling game of back nine.

In the end, it was Scheffler who — yes — gave the best performance of his senior year. Already a six-time winner on the PGA Tour this year, including his second Masters title, Scheffler added Olympic gold to an incredible season with a round that kept the sellout crowd on edge for a wild finish.

He set the Olympic record of 72 holes at 19-under 265.

Scheffler becomes the second straight American to win gold in men’s golf, following Schauffele at the Tokyo Games.

The only one to be demoted was Scheffler who won during the practice session, lost his mind as he prepared for an improbable playoff when Fleetwood missed the 18th green to the left and his 100-foot putt just missed the hole.

Everything was such a blur that Scheffler didn’t even know where he was standing.

“I saw that Rahm had reached 20-under, so I changed a little bit mentally to really try to do my best to climb the leaderboard, and at one point I didn’t know if I was in contention or not,” Scheffler said.

“I just tried to do my best to make birdies and start moving up and maybe get a medal or something like that just because Jon is such a good player.”

When he finally looked at the leaderboard after the 16th green, Scheffler was on the fairway on the par-4 15th and hit a wedge in the foot. That got him into it. Then came his tee shot to 8 feet for birdie on the par-3 17th. And the winner turned out to be an 8-iron that he chipped out of the rough to 18 feet for his fourth straight birdie and his first lead of the week.

“He’s been piling on the lip left and right, and he’s been getting away from what’s a lot of people in the world chasing him,” Schauffele said. “When I take off my competition hat and put on my USA hat, I’m very happy that we got another gold medal.”

Rahm missed a meaningless par putt on the final 39th hole on the back nine, leaving him two shots from winning the bronze, four shots behind Scheffler.

“Not only do I feel disappointed but not doing it for the whole country of Spain, it’s more painful than I would like it to be,” said Rahm.

“I think that by losing today, I’m going deeper into what this tournament means to me rather than getting a medal,” he said. “I get to feel how important it was. I’ve been very honored to represent Spain in many, many different events, and not doing this game is a little boring for me.”

McIlroy, who finished his 10th straight year without a major, ran into trouble when he started the back 9 with five straight birdies. He was one of the front runners, in the middle of the 15th fairway with a sword in his hand.

“I missed my spot by about three or four yards and it ended up costing me the medal,” he said.

But he has come away with a deep appreciation for the Olympics, especially in three years of rising prize money for the rival LIV Golf League sponsored by Saudi wealth.

“I still think the Ryder Cup is the best tournament we have in our game, the purest tournament, and I think this has the potential to be right up there,” McIlroy said. “I think with how much of a s— program the game of golf is in now and you think about two championships that could be the purest form of competition in our sport, we don’t play for money in it.”

“It talks a lot about important things in sports,” he said. “I think every single player this week had an amazing experience.”

That starts with Scheffler, who showed brilliance with his best score of the year, a 62 that matched the best closing round of his career. He opened with three straight birdies to get his name on the board. He had 12 birdies on the opening back nine.

Then Scheffler started flying until he reached the platform and cried. He won The Players Championship in a five-stroke comeback in March, another Masters title in April and four signature events on the PGA Tour against the strongest fields.

And now an Olympic gold medal.

“There was a big impact on the stage when the flag was raised and they were singing the national anthem,” he said. “That’s definitely one I’ll remember for a long time.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.