News All Articles
Rose leads the way in Rio
News

Rose leads the way in Rio

Justin Rose will take a one-shot lead into the final round of the Olympic Men's Golf Competition after firing a brilliant 65 including two eagles on Saturday.

Justin Rose

The Briton wrote his name into the history books on Thursday as he made the first hole-in-one at the Games and he will be looking to become golf's first gold medallist for 112 years on Sunday afternoon.

He will have some serious competition, however, with World Number Five Henrik Stenson just a shot behind him at 11 under.

Henrik Stenson

Australian Marcus Fraser was then at nine under after a 72, three shots ahead of Emiliano Grillo, Stenson's team-mate David Lingmerth and Bubba Watson.

Stenson has already been involved in one titanic final-day tussle when the Swede fired a brilliant 63 to beat Phil Mickelson to the Claret Jug at Troon, and a 68 on day three at the Olympic Golf Course set up the prospect of another intriguing battle.

"I felt like today was an important day," said Rose. "There were a lot of players in contention after yesterday and I felt like today could be a day to separate or at least keep some momentum and not give yourself too much work to do tomorrow.

"This tournament has been very, very special and very, very different for all of us and you're always very aware if you're in the gold position and the silver and bronze position and after that, it doesn't mean a whole lot.

"I think the way it's all worked out going into tomorrow with me at 12, Henrik at 11 and Marcus at nine and the next is at six.

That little bit of separation makes the final three ball a lot of fun to be a part of and that's just the position I wanted to be in going into tomorrow - Justin Rose

Rose began the day four shots behind overnight leader Fraser but after making a birdie-bogey start, two eagles in the next three holes catapulted him up the leaderboard.

He holed his second shot on the short par four third and, after Fraser got in bunker trouble off the tee on the fourth to drop a shot, he hit the green in two and rolled in an 18-footer on the fifth to take the outright lead.

Stenson holed putts of 60 and 108 feet in round two and he got the putter going again, rolling in for an eagle from 30 feet on the fifth but bogeys on the fourth and eighth left him two off the lead at the turn.

Marcus Fraser

A birdie on the par five tenth moved the Swede alongside Fraser but when Rose rolled in a 36-foot putt from off the green on the 12th, the lead was two shots.

Fraser made a 23-footer on the 13th for a first gain of the day and with Rose failing to get up and down after finding sand off the tee on the 14th, the lead was shared at ten under.

It was briefly a three-way tie as Stenson holed a 20-foot putt on the same hole but Fraser got into similar trouble to Rose and dropped back to nine under, leaving the Ryder Cup team-mates sharing top spot.

Rose put an approach to seven feet on the 15th to edge ahead but Stenson hit straight back on the same hole before another close approach handed Rose the lead again on the next.

Jaco Van Zyl

Lingmerth got his round off to a poor start with a bogey on the first but he made gains on the tenth, 13th, 14th and last to sign for a 68, a total that was matched by Argentina's Grillo.

American Watson got off to a brilliant start with four birdies in his first five holes but he could only add two more along with two bogeys in a 67.

Spain's Rafa Cabrera Bello, Frenchman Grégory Bourdy, Ireland's Padraig Harrington and Finn Mikko Ilonen were then all in the group at five under.

South Africa's Jaco Van Zyl joined Rose in the history books with the second ace of the week and 30th of the European Tour season as he holed a seven iron from 173 yards on the eighth.

Keep up to date with all the Olympic action on Twitter and Facebook

.

Read next

Discover more

;