The first round of Olympic men’s golf in 2024 is now complete and the leader is Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama. The 2021 Masters champion shot a round of eight-under-par 63, and is leading his nearest competitor, Xander Schauffele of the United States by two strokes.
Schauffele may be the world number two, but he is the hottest golfer currently on the planet. The San Diego superstar was the only golfer all season long to win multiple major titles, and just so happens to be the reigning Olympic men’s golf champion from Tokyo. Earlier this year Schauffele won the PGA Championship and the British Open.
In round one, Matsuyama had eight birdies and zero bogeys. He birdied the second, third, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th, 13th and 14th holes.
There is a three-way tie for fourth at -5. There you cam find Chile’s Joaquin Niemann, Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo. and South Korea’s Tom Kim. One of the most intriguing and fascinating features of the 2020 Olympic men’s golf tournament in 2021 was the fact that there was a seven man playoff for the bronze medal. It was eventually won by Cheng-tsung (mostly known as C.T.) Pan of Chinese Taipei.
The Olympic golf tournament is held at France’ Le Golf National in Guyancourt. In 2018, the course hosted the Ryder Cup. The tournament was handily won by Europe 17.5 to 10.5. Being from Japan, Matsuyama is ineligible to play at the Ryder Cup because the tournament only consisted of the best golfers on the PGA Tour and the best players from Europe either on the PGA Tour or DP World Tour.
