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SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER CLAIMED the Olympic men’s golf gold medal with a thrilling victory over Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood on Sunday.
The American world number one secured his seventh win of the year with a course record-equalling 62 at Le Golf National to edge out silver medallist Fleetwood on 19-under-par for the tournament, as Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama took bronze.
For Ireland, Rory McIlroy carded a second consecutive 66 to finish on 15 under par, two shots outside the medal places.
McIlroy had reeled off five consecutive birdies on the back nine to move within one shot of then-joint leaders Jon Rahm and Fleetwood until he found the water with his approach to the island green on 15.
The Co. Down native double-bogeyed that hole to slip out of medal contention.
McIlroy finished joint-fifth with Rahm, while Shane Lowry was down in 26th after an even-par final round of 71.
Jon Rahm sat four shots ahead after 10 holes but fell away badly to finish tied-fifth.
Reigning champion Xander Schauffele, who was tied for the overnight lead with Rahm, dropped out of contention with a three-over back nine.
Frenchman Victor Perez delighted the home fans with a stunning surge through the field but finished in fourth place despite his 63, which included a run of four birdies and an eagle in the space of five holes.
Rahm had eased into a four-shot lead with six birdies in his first 10 holes and appeared to be cruising to the title.
But back-to-back bogeys, coupled with successive birdies from Fleetwood, saw the Spaniard’s advantage evaporate.
Scheffler, McIlroy, Matsuyama and Perez all seized the opportunity to charge into contention, leaving the top six players on the leaderboard separated by just two shots as the final group headed into the last five holes.
Ireland’s McIlroy was the first to blink, though, dumping his approach shot on the 15th hole into the water to all but end his title tilt.
Rahm then suffered another serious dent to his bid when he contrived to make a double-bogey on the easy par-five 14th.
Perez narrowly missed long birdie putts on the final two greens but set the clubhouse target at 16-under overall after a sparkling back-nine 29, which sent roars echoing across the Albatros course.
Scheffler, who had earlier started the day with three straight birdies, moved into the solo lead for the first time with a fourth successive birdie on the 17th, despite having found the rough off the tee.
He safely parred the last to set a mark of 19-under, which Fleetwood reached with a brilliant birdie on the 16th.
But the Englishman handed a shot back on the 17th after a clumsy chip from just off the green, leaving himself needing birdie at the last to force a play-off.
Fleetwood could not produce any more late heroics to suffer yet another near-miss in his career, while Scheffler celebrated on the practice range.
Written by AFP and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.
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Sky News at it again. Claiming Britain have “won the Space Race in Europe”! No mention of Ireland until it failed and then it “failed off the coast of Ireland” which it actually didn’t. The lowest of the low that lot. Their journalists hadn’t a clue what was going on either and they were basically hopping up and down about an aircraft taking off. Stop lads, you’re an embarrassment. Virgin is notorious in failure. Remember when Branson tried to cross the Atlantic in a giant condom? – and it burst.
@Terry Fagan: Sure don’t you know, a virgin never goes all the way.
@Terry Fagan: Poor old sky news. The French have an entire launch pad facility in Guiana. But then again, why should the facts stand in the way of a good story.
@Terry Fagan: they are just as biased towards their own perceived greatness as BBC
The North Koreans would have a better chance of a successful launch.
Word is it was taken out by harry kane’s penalty kick
DUCK!!!
@Paul Jude Redmond: orange!
@Paul Jude Redmond: “Crashed and Burned, Mav, huh?”
Not looking good, apparently suffered an anomaly
@Ronan Lawler: Yeah, looking like a failed mission. Probably the WiFi they used ;~}
I hope no rocket debris falls and kills any wildlife, if it does I hope the wildlife doesn’t die or get maimed, if it does get maimed I hope virgin cleans up the mess
@veronikahladova: You’re very hopeful….
@veronikahladova: I think the fish will be fine..
@David Terry: I’m hearing reports that an unconfirmed number of fish have applied for a self funded space exploration program themselves. And hope to deploy an anti rocket anomaly surveillance system. In case it happens again.
That must be the worst coverage of a major event I’ve seen (or didn’t see) pathetic.
@Kevin O’Brien: Tracked the plane on Flight Radar.
@Dave Barrett: Same. And tried to follow it on YouTube too, but that was just awful. Talk about doing things wrong.
@Kevin O’Brien: It was live in Sky News and the BBC 24 hour News channel.
A lot of begrudgery vibes there fella.
@Tom Quinn: Why would I be begrudging? Virgin had a dedicated YouTube channel, you know the people who were actually launching it & it was an absolute shambles. Thrilled you saw it on both BBC4 & SKY News “fella”
@Kevin O’Brien: Well, if Virgin can mess up something technical they will.
They can’t even manage a decent WIFI signal on Earth.
@Tom Quinn: That’s very very true, can’t argue with that tbf, haha. It’s a failed mission now (unsurprisingly) Gives them a chance to fix things & I’m not on about the rocket.
@Kevin O’Brien: it was dire.
@Dave Barrett: so did I but the mup0et reporting for Sky News said he didn’t know where it was! Woeful coverage.
I reckon Brexit doomed it to failure.
@Pat O’Leary: Somehow I can see the UK papers blaming the EU!!!!
I’ll never ever buy a cd in virgin records again oh wait!
@Paul Gorry: ah those were the days Paul, CD’s, alco pops, United on top. A much simpler time.
UK is choc a block with anomalies presently
Imagine ireland trying though!
@billy bound: there would be a man on the moon today.
@Tomás Barrett: and one on the sun tonight.
Boldly going where no virgin has gone before. Down!
should have name it:
The Good Ship Brexit.
The SS Taking Back Control.
The You Can Sign Out But You Can Never Leave (Earth)……..with apologies to the Eagles.
I was disappointed that the rocket attempt failed, the technology is old enough and has been well tested. But it demonstrates that projects do fail and unexpectedly! I was also expecting to see the headline, Britain Fires Rocket Into The Sea Off The South of Ireland. Well, Dyson famously experienced many hundreds of failures as he developed a product that really sucks, onward and, err, upward, I guess?
@Tom Hogarty: Like Dyson, it ran out if power far too early.
So the launch only went half way?
Don’t know which is worse: Virgin Orbit or Virgin TV.
Maybe they can reboot it.
They can’t do a thing right
was it only 1960s NASA that could really get things done?
have your say