Scottie, Rory, Rahm try to catch Xander and others at Le Golf National’s Olympic Golf

With two rounds to go in men’s Olympic golf, Xander Schauffele is in a great position at the top of the leaderboard, while Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Jon Rahm are playing catch-up. 

According to Jon Rahm, the course is not what he considers long at 7,174 yards. He only missed one fairway in the second round and at 9-under par is closest of the other pursuers, two back of Xander Schauffele, Hideki Matsuyama, and Tommy Fleetwood. 

“If you put it in the fairway for the most part, you are giving yourself short irons in,” he said about the way Le Golf National was playing. “Overall ball-striking was really good. It's always fun to play days like that where you're swinging and it's always going on line and almost always going the right distance, right.”

Others were not as lucky on Friday at the 2024 Olympic Golf competition.

Scottie Scheffler hit his ball into some stuff that was so thick he could hardly move it out, and Scheffler is a big guy.

“That shot I hit off 7, I think I was just a bit distracted by some stuff and could have focused a bit better. It was an uncharacteristic swing shot for me,” he admitted. “After that, you hit it in the hay, you don't know what's going to happen. I knew if I hit it down there, I was going to be pretty screwed.”

He hit into some grass that was encouraged to grow by water that was nearby. It took him two to get out.  

“I took a sand wedge out of there and swung really hard and thought it would come out, and I was surprised. The next one I hit about 70-yards, hit the thick stuff,” he said about what led to a double bogey on the hole. 

He said he looked at the scoreboard and realized he needed to do something to get closer to the leaders. So, he birdied four holes on the back nine and pulled within five. Two more good rounds might give him a good chance, although he’s playing Xander Schauffele who has been fairly unflappable all season.

“I would like to be leading,” Scheffler added.

He admitted he was having difficulty reading the greens at Le Golf National, or at least in the second round, he was. The solution was to call in his trusty caddie, Ted Scott.

“The way I was feeling, I wasn't really going to disagree with what he was saying. It's like, yeah, man, you just tell me what to do here and I'll oblige,” Scheffler said.

Scheffler is at 6-under par.

Rory McIlroy also had his challenges in round two.

“A few too many mistakes. Sort of similar story to yesterday,” he explained. “Making the good swings and making enough birdies and another eagle today. But yeah, just offset by a few too many mistakes over the first couple days.”

That included a double on the 17th. 

“It was a good shot on the last especially after the double on 17,” he noted. “Going into those last three holes, if someone was going to tell you that you would make a double on one of them and you would play them in even par, you'd be like, well, it was okay.”

He said anyone who put himself in a good position off the tees on Friday had plenty of chances for birdie.  

McIlroy is at 5-under par, six back of the leaders at the Paris Olympic Games. 

It should come as no surprise that Xander Schauffele, who has won two majors back-to-back this season, is one of the leaders after two rounds. He has already proven that he doesn’t back up or give up, and he’s already won one Olympic gold medal.  

Schauffele’s major challenge in round two was an ant hill kind of hidden in some grass. He wasn’t certain if he could touch it or move the ants and so he called for a ruling, which he wasn’t sure whether to believe. 

“I called for a second official because I asked the lady if I can use my club to scrape the sand since it's loose, and she's like yes,” he said.  But his spidey golf sense kicked in. “My gut was like, oh, boy, am I really going to use my club, have it on film, and then talk to you guys (media) after?”   

He asked for another opinion, and that official told him he couldn’t move the grass but he could use a tee to move the ants.

“I didn't do anything to be honest. I ended up hacking out 50 yards on the fairway,” he said.

Despite some bad lies, missed fairways and double bogeys, Scheffler, McIlroy, and Rahm still have a chance to catch and surpass Schauffele. But they can’t expect him to fold, except perhaps to bend over to move an ant.

(Note to USGA: Ants? Really? What? We’re going to move them one ant at a time? How about an all-encompassing ant rule? You can move a ball from fire ants, but not regular ants?  Do you ask the ants what kind they are? Wait to get stung? Call an entomologist? How about a fix for this? This kind of stuff is what makes people hate the Rules of Golf.)