Aussies settle in but Schauffele among Olympic leaders

Jason Day was left to rue an errant tee shot late in his second Olympic round, the only blemish as the Australian No.1 settled into his Paris campaign. After a nervous opening round at Le Golf National, Day climbed up the leaderboard eight places to a tie for 13th at five under after carding a three-under 68. However, the field has work to do to catch the leading trio—Japan’s overnight leader Hideki Matsuyama, 2020 gold medallist American Xander Schauffele, and Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood—who are all at 11 under.

Australia’s other male representative, Min Woo Lee, cast aside his disappointing opening five-over 76 with a rousing six-under 65, one of the standout rounds of the day. Making his belated Olympic debut, Day began his second round with birdies on the first and third holes. He added two more birdies on the 11th and 13th, the latter coming from an 18-foot putt. However, he found the water off the tee at the par-three 16th, leading to his only bogey of the round.

Reflecting on his performance, Day said he felt more settled during Friday’s round than on day one, when he admitted he had battled nerves. “It was much more focused, actual left-to-right, I played nice today,” Day said. “The only downside to the game today is I missed one green, and that was when I missed the green on 16.”

Day also expressed a desire to capitalize more on the par-fives, noting poor drives on the 9th and 14th holes. “It would have been nice to be able to capitalize on the par-fives a little bit more as there’s only three of them,” he said. “But other than that, it was nice work—I just have to push a little bit over the weekend.”

Lee, with eight birdies including five on the front nine, was proud of his response after his opening-round blues. “It was great, I played really good, just got off to a really good start and that definitely helps,” the West Australian said. “Yesterday was tough, but tough days of golf happen, so pat on the back for not giving up and playing good golf.”

In-form Schauffele, who won last month’s British Open to claim his second major title this year, shot a five-under-par 66 to draw level with Matsuyama. Englishman Fleetwood carded a superb second-round 64, with only Belgium’s Thomas Detry, in a tie for fifth, going lower with a 63.

Australia has yet to win an Olympic medal in golf, which was added to the Olympic programme for the Rio Games in 2016. Minjee Lee and Hannah Green will contest the women’s tournament later in the Games.