Golf will crown its first Olympic champion for 112 years tomorrow, and Australia’s Marcus Fraser is one of three players favoured to clinch the historic gold medal.
Fraser will play in the ultimate group on the final day of the Olympic golf tournament after his third round one over par 72 left him nine under and in third place behind England’s Justin Rose (-12) and Swede Henrik Stenson (-11). There is, however, a three-stroke gap between Fraser a trio of players sharing fourth place, which augurs well for the Victorian to take home a medal if he continues his terrific play into the final round.
The 38-year-old had two bogies and just a single birdie on his card for his 72 and is looking forward to lining up in the last group alongside Rose and Stenson.
“Those two guys there, they are great guys. I've known them for a long time,” Fraser said.
“But at the same time, they have got world‑class games that I only dream of having.
“I did a good job today of playing my own game and sort of not thinking about what Thomas (Pieters) and Henrik were doing; they hit it miles past me. Really needed to get caught up in what I was doing today, and I felt like I did a good job of that.”
Now that he is in a medal position with a round to go, Fraser doesn’t want the “dream” to end.
“Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would come to the Olympics and compete, and now all of a sudden I have a chance of winning a medal,” he laughed.
“It feels like I'm going to wake up from this dream at some point. This is why we practice and we want to be in these situations and see what we've got.
“Hopefully tomorrow I can go out there and play a bit better than I did today and continue to scramble when I need to and shoot a good score.”
Part of the game plan will be to maintain his aggressive approach – firing at flags and giving himself as many birdie opportunities as possible.
“I feel like it's the game plan all week to go and play the golf course, and that's probably exactly what I'll do tomorrow,” Fraser said. “It probably won't change a hell of a lot. I feel like I'm a fairly aggressive player anyway. I'll continue to do that. If it comes off, it comes off. If it doesn't, it doesn't.
“You've just got to walk away knowing that you've given it everything you can and hopefully that's good enough at the end of the day.”
But if Fraser wants the colour of that medal to be gold, he has the herculean task of trying to overhaul playing partners Rose and Stenson, who boast impressive resumes.
Rose, the 2013 US Open champion, delivered a brilliant third round 65 to take a one-shot lead over Stenson, the reigning Open champion, in front of enthusiastic crowds at the Reserva de Marapendi Olympic course.
The Englishman make quick moves to the top of the leaderboard after a birdie at the par-5 1st hole was offset by a bogey at the next hole. Rose’s round then took a turn when he chipped in for eagle from 15 yards shy of the green on the short par-4 3rd hole. Two holes later, he banked another eagle after reaching the green of the par-5 in two shots and holing his putt from 18 feet.
His terrific play continued on the inward nine with three birdies – at the 12th, 15th and 16th – and just one bogey to reach his six under 65 and put him in the gold medal position heading into the final round.
“I felt like today was an important day,” Rose said. “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 myself too much work to do tomorrow.
"Obviously, this tournament has been very, very special and very, very different for all of us, you're always very aware of you're in the gold position and the silver and bronze position and after that, it doesn't mean a whole lot. – Justin Rose
“I think the way it's all worked out going into tomorrow with me at 12, Henrik at 11 and Marcus at 9 and I next is at 6; 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.”
Stenson admitted his heavy schedule over the past six weeks, which includes winning the Open, has starting to take its toll.
“More mentally than physically I'd say,” Stenson said. “It's always tiring to play in these conditions when it's windy and you've got to try and be precise and whenever you miss a shot, it's going to be hard work to get up‑and‑down and a lot of long range two putts to save par.
“Yeah, I'm quite happy to go and have some physio and get some food and go and lay down.”
But the focus remains on one thing – winning gold.
“In my mind, we're still going for one thing. Even though the consolation prizes might be better here than some other events in a way, it's still the No. 1 spot that I'm looking for and I'm going to try my hardest to make that happen,” Stenson smiled.
“It's been a long and tiring stretch for me the last month, so I'm just going to try and squeeze whatever I have left in the tank for the final 18 tomorrow.”
Like Fraser, Stenson will be adopting an aggressive game plan where nothing is left out on the golf course.
“You never know in this game when you get another opportunity to win again, whether it be a Tour event, a major or the Olympic golf tournament,” the Swede said. “I'm going to treat that no different.
“It's all about going out there, playing a solid round and prepare the same way as I've done for these first three days. You know, we'll see what tomorrow brings us.”
Queensland’s Scott Hend made a small jump up the leaderboard with his even par round of 71. He’s now one over for the tournament and sharing 36th place.
- MARCUS FRASER tees off in the last group going for Olympic gold at 12.39am Monday (AEST).
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