American rivals lead stacked men's golf squad at Olympics

Scottie Scheffler doesn't often play a golf tournament where he isn't favored head and shoulders over the rest of the field.

But thanks to his two-major season and his experience on the Olympic stage, Xander Schauffele is in position to give Scheffler a run for his money.

Schauffele and Scheffler give the United States a potent one-two punch at this year's Olympic men's golf competition, which begins Thursday at Le Golf National outside Paris.

Schauffele, the defending gold medalist from the Tokyo Games, will play for the first time since winning the Open Championship two weeks ago. Along with his maiden major title at the PGA Championship in May, he's emerged as a serious challenger to Scheffler for PGA Tour Player of the Year honors.

"I've had a pretty good year and Xander has had a pretty (good) year as well," said Scheffler, who has six wins on the year, including the Masters. "It's for people to vote on. I'm proud of the year that I've had and the consistent results."

Scheffler praised Schauffele for his consistency, as both a golfer and a person.

"We were playing a practice round (Monday) and I was actually thinking about it, like, 'Man, Xander is the exact same today after winning (The Open) as he was if he had lost the tournament by one,'" Scheffler said.

Schauffele stayed in Europe after his big win at Royal Troon in Scotland, heading to Portugal with Collin Morikawa, partly to play golf and partly to unwind.

"Just try to keep doing what we're doing," Schauffele said of his approach to Paris. "Last time I played, I didn't know the course either. So I've seen a little bit -- I saw a little bit of Troon going into there and saw a little bit of Le Golf National coming into here."

The U.S. has the best chance to take home a gold medal thanks to putting four participants in the field: Scheffler, Schauffele, Morikawa and Wyndham Clark. The field was determined by the Official World Golf Ranking, and countries were limited to two participants unless they had as many as four in the rankings' top 15.

It's a standard 72-hole stroke play event ending Sunday -- no team golf component, every man for himself. A hole-by-hole playoff will be used to determine medals in the event of a tie.

The par-71, 7,174-yard Le Golf National hosted the 2018 Ryder Cup and is the regular site of the Open de France on the DP World Tour. The only winners of that tournament in the field this week are Italy's Guido Migliozzi (2022), Sweden's Alex Noren (2018) and Tommy Fleetwood (2017), playing for the British team.

Team Ireland will be well-represented by Rory McIlroy, trying to shake off another disappointing major championship season, and Shane Lowry, one of the country's flag-bearers. McIlroy was asked where a gold medal would rank in his season.

"It would be the achievement, certainly of the year, if not -- I think for me, it's well-documented that I haven't won one of the Big Four in 10 years," McIlroy said. "It would probably be one of, if not the biggest in my career for the last 10 years."

LIV Golf had seven of its members qualify to represent their countries, led by Jon Rahm of Spain. Not only does Rahm have Ryder Cup experience at Le Golf National, he's playing the best golf of his season. He tied for seventh at The Open and won his first LIV Golf individual title last week in England.

"This golf course is pretty straightforward: Hit the fairway; hit the green," Rahm said. "It limits you in so many ways, it almost tells you how it should be played. ... For the most part, I think you're going to see all of us hitting it to the same spots off the tee and playing it very, very similarly."

--Field Level Media