Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, defending gold medallist Xander Schauffele of the United States and Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood found themself in a three-way tie for the second-round lead at the Le Golf National on Friday.
Matsuyama, the world No. 12 set the early pace with a bogey-free 63 after the first round of the golf competition but mixed his card on the second day with seven birdies, two bogeys and a double-bogey for a three-under-par 68 for a two-day total of 11-under-par 131 placed in the share of the lead with defending gold medallist Xander Schauffele of the United States (65-66) and Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood (67-64).
Matsuyama had led playing partner Fleetwood by one stroke heading down the last, but hit his third shot on the par-four into the water before holing a 12-foot putt to avoid a triple.
“It was a sad ending, but I’m glad that today was only the second day,” he admitted.
Schauffele remained in the hunt for a second successive Olympic gold as the 30-year-old continued to show his good form in a year which has already seen him win the PGA Championship and Open championship.
“If you do hit a bad shot it’s easier to accept it because you know you’re playing really good golf and you can make it up somewhere else,” said Schauffele.
Gavin Green of Malaysia. (Photo by Yong Teck Lim/Getty Images)
Malaysia’s Gavin Green showed improvement in his second round, recording three birdies on the first, third, fourth, and 11th holes, leading to a two-under-par 69. This brought his two-day total to one-over 143, placing him in a tied 46th position. Despite the positive round, two dropped strokes at the par-three 16th and par-four 17th kept Green from achieving a higher standing. Green starts the third round at 3.33 Malaysian time with Germany’s Matthias Schmid and Wyndham Clark of the United States.
