Xander Schauffele paid tribute to his father — whose own Olympic dreams were shattered in a car accident — after winning the gold medal at the Tokyo 2020 men’s golf tournament yesterday.
Schauffele won by a shot from surprise silver medallist Rory Sabbatini of Slovakia after holing a knee-knocking four-foot putt at the 72nd hole at Kasumigaseki Country Club. He was immediately embraced by his tearful father Stefan, who is also his swing coach and mentor.
“I knew he was going to be there crying, luckily he had shades on, but it was really cool,” said Schauffele. “This whole experience has been really special and to have him here is even better.”
The American world number five finished on 18-under par 266 after carding a 67 while veteran Sabbatini, 45, shot a stunning, course-record 10-under par final round of 61 to snatch a shock medal. Schauffele’s father was a top German decathlete when his car was hit by a drunk-driver nearly 40 years ago on his way to Olympic training, and suffered multiple injuries including the loss of sight in his left eye.
“My dad dedicated a big chunk of his life for quite some time to obtaining a medal and that was taken away from him. I’m just really, really happy and fortunate to be sitting here. He’s been my only swing coach, and as the mentor you sort of feed off your personal examples to give to someone younger than you or older.
“And his were all Olympic-related. He put all his eggs in one basket for quite some time to compete as a decathlete in the Olympics. It was swiped away from him, but he saw potential in me to become a good golfer.”
Taiwan’s unheralded CT Pan won bronze after seeing off stars such as Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, four-time major winner Rory McIlroy and British Open winner Collin Morikawa during an epic seven-man playoff which stretched over four agonising extra holes.
Pan started the week with a three-over 74 that left him 11 shots off the pace after the first round. “It’s quite a turnaround for this week winning the bronze medal,” admitted Pan, who has a world ranking of 208. “I couldn’t even think about it after Thursday’s round.”
The South African-born Sabbatini came into the Olympics at 204th in the world and with little form this year, having missed his last four cuts on the US PGA Tour. “It doesn’t sound like it belongs to me,” admitted Sabbatini of his silver medal. “Did I think I had 10-under in me today? After yesterday, not a chance.”
He had not won an event on the PGA Tour since the 2011 Honda Classic. His Slovakian wife Martina Stofanikova was his caddie this week and Sabbatini spoke of his pride at representing his adopted country.
“It’s fantastic. We started this journey, four, five years ago, but the sole purpose of it was to generate future generations of Slovak golfers,” said Sabbatini who switched nationalities in 2019.
“Slovakia doesn’t have anybody to represent them. And we looked at it as a way to use it as a springboard to try and create more interest in the game of golf in Slovakia.”
There was agony for home supporters in the bronze playoff when Matsuyama fell at the first extra hole, along with Paul Casey. Three more players were eliminated on the third play-off hole, including former world number one McIlroy, leaving Morikawa and Pan to go head-to-head back down the 18th.
Pan was in the left rough off the tee and could not find the green but Morikawa fared worse, burying his approach into the steep face of a greenside bunker for an almost impossible ‘fried egg’ lie.
He did explode it onto the green but was left with 25 feet for par which he could not make. “I thought my shot was going to be all right and just mishit... it sucks,” said Morikawa who could only watch as Pan chipped on to 12 feet and sunk the par putt.
A disappointed McIlroy said: “I never tried so hard in my life to finish third. But it’s been a great experience, it makes me even more determined to go to Paris and try to pick up a medal.”
Bronze-medallist Taiwan’s C T Pan (left), gold-medallist USA’s Xander Schauffele (centre) and silver-medallist Slovakia’s Rory Sabbatini stand on the podium after the men’s golf individual stroke play during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe, Japan, yesterday. (AFP)
