KAWAGOE, JAPAN
The american Xander Schauffele won the gold medal for men’s golf at the Tokyo 2020 Games, while the Colombian Sebastián Muñoz and the Chilean Mito Pereira remained at the gates of the bronze in an exciting tiebreaker.
In a dramatic last round, Schauffele preserved the lead with a total of 266 strokes, 18 under par, just one stroke behind the Slovak Rory Sabattini (-17), who stayed the the payment.
The bronze it was for the Taiwanese C.T. Pan (-15), survivor of an unusual ‘playoff ‘ of almost an hour and a half in which the Japanese Hideki Matsuyama, sports idol of the host country, the Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, the American Collin Morikawa and the British Paul Casey, as well as Muñoz and Pereira, also competed.
With four PGA titles in his window, none of them Grand Slam, Schauffele tore the day with a scant one-shot lead and in the final phase of the last round he came to be tied by the Sabbatini lightning bolt.
In a state of grace, the Slovak Sabbatini 45 years signed the best round in the history of Olympic golf with 61 hits, 10 under par, accumulating a ‘eagle’, 10 ‘birdies’ and two ‘bogeys’.
Sabbatini, who had started the day seven shots behind the lead, flashed past 15 players to catch up with Schauffele.
With the Slovak warming up for a possible gold playoff, Schauffele controlled his nerves in an empty Kasumigaseki Country Club of spectators and achieved a ‘birdie’ on the 17th hole and one last putt in par with those who hung up the gold.
The californian dedicated the greatest success of his career to his dad, Stefan, who was accompanying him in this field near Saitama.
Stefan Schauffele was an elite athlete in Germany whose dreams competing in an Olympic Games truncated when a drunk driver collided with his car.
I wanted to win for my father, surely now he is crying somewhere. This means more than anything else “, Schauffele said before taking the Olympic podium.
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