The final round of the women’s return to Olympic golf for the first time since 1900 promises to be must-see TV, what with world No. 1 Lydia Ko stepping on the gas and chasing formerly top-ranked Inbee Park for the gold.
Olympic golf 2016: Time and TV schedule for Round 4
It’s Inbee Park and Lydia Ko in the final group for what promises to be a memorable Saturday finish to the first women’s Olympic golf event since 1900.
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Ko, who was playing uncharacteristically lackluster golf in her first two rounds, charged into contention Friday with her first-ever hole-in-one, on the par-3 eighth hole. When the New Zealander followed her ace with a birdie on the ninth — her fourth and final one of the day — and made the turn in 6-under 29, the game was on. She finished a bogey-free round with a 6-under 65 and, at 9-under for the week, just two shots back of frontrunner Park.
South Korea’s Park was hardly making herself an easy target. The seven-time major champion. who has hinted she may retire after the 2016 season, had been sidelined with a thumb injury since early June. The summer games appear to be just the elixir she needed, as she poured in three birdies in her first five holes, though five bogeys overall brought her back to earth with a 70 and a brief two-way tie for the lead with Gerina Piller. With Piller faltering down the stretch, with a bogey at the last on a wind-blown Rio Olympic Golf Course, Park balanced a bogey on 18 with a birdie on No. 17 -- good enough to retain the 54-hole lead.
On the American front, Stacy Lewis soared into the mix with a course-tying 8-under 63 on Thursday but could not maintain the momentum, falling back to a share of eighth place with a deflating 76 in the third round. Instead, Piller took the Team USA baton, firing a 68 that included three straight birdies in the middle of her front nine.
“That’s one of my best rounds,” said Piller, who has eight top 10s on the LPGA Tour in 2016. “I like my position [and] where my game is.”
It should be interesting to see how Piller, who is the wife of PGA Tour player Martin Piller (who missed Friday’s cut at the Wyndham Championship), handles the final-round pressure after earning a spot in the final group with Park and Ko.
Golf Channel has televised the entire event and will bring it home on Saturday, starting at 5 a.m. ET with pre-game coverage leading up to the 6 a.m. first tee time.
Here’s the full media schedule for the final round:
2016 Rio Olympics golf coverage for Saturday
All times Eastern
Event: Women’s competition
TV: Golf Channel, 6 a.m. to approx. 8 p.m.
Online Streaming:
NBC Olympics simulcast stream at 6 a.m.
NBC Olympics featured holes stream, Nos. 1, 16-18, at 6 a.m.
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