We’re halfway through the first Olympics golf competition in 112 years. It’s been an uneven first two days, which was to be expected given that the field is just 60 players deep and many of the top stars in the world did not attend. The novelty of having some of these familiar faces in such an unfamiliar setting at the biggest sporting event in the world was going to wear off, and the golf actually needed to deliver. It’s done that at times and at other times, well, it’s been a slog.
Olympic golf 2016: Tee times, pairings for Saturday’s third round
There are just 36 more to play at the Olympics golf competition, where players will need to make a charge on moving day.
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Saturday is typically known as moving day at majors and PGA Tour events and any player who has designs on a medal will need to make a charge in the third round. It’s still open to most of this small field, but Sunday will be too late to pull off some big chasedown. You need to post a mid-60s number on Saturday to set yourself up for the dramatic medals chase Sunday afternoon.
Unlike a normal PGA Tour event or major championship, there is no cut this week. The International Golf Federation is keeping all 60 players around for the entire weekend. It would be stupid to cut that group down, but it may lead to a pretty stretched out leaderboard with a lot players who have absolutely no chance and finish miles behind the leaders.
It’s winter in Brazil right now so the daylight is limited. They will keep the 60-man field in groups of three over the weekend, as opposed to the usual twosomes you’d get for the final two rounds of a typical tournament. Everyone is going off No. 1 but now they’re sorted according to score, with leaders Marcus Fraser, Henrik Stenson, and Thomas Pieters bringing up the anchor at 10:09 a.m. ET.
Golf Channel will have all the coverage again from the very first shot, coming at 6:30 a.m. That final group should finish up just before 3 p.m. ET, barring no weather delays.
Here’s the full tee sheet for the third round (all times ET):
6:30 a.m. -- Shingo Katayama, Julien Quesne, Wen-Tang Lin
6:41 a.m. -- Miguel Luis Tabuena, Jhonattan Vegas, Espen Kofstad
6:52 a.m. -- Brandon Stone, Anirban Lahiri, Roope Kakko
7:03 a.m. -- Thongchai Jaidee, Rickie Fowler, Gavin Green
7:14 a.m. -- Jaco Van Zyl, Wu Ashun, Siddikur Rahman
7:25 a.m. -- Hao Tong Li, Fabrizio Zanotti, Nino Bertasio
7:41 a.m. -- Ryan Fox, Adilson da Silva, Danny Chia
7:52 a.m. -- David Hearn, Yuta Ikeda, Scott Hend
8:03 a.m. -- Jeunghun Wang, Felipe Aguilar, Rodolfo Cazaubon
8:14 a.m. -- Joost Luiten, S.S.P. Chawrasia, Matteo Manassero
8:25 a.m. -- Danny Willett, Martin Kaymer, Mikko Ilonen
8:36 a.m. -- Padraig Harrington, Soren Kjeldsen, Bernd Wiesberger
8:47 a.m. -- Ricardo Gouveia, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed
9:03 a.m. -- Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Jose-Filipe Lima, Bubba Watson
9:14 a.m. -- David Lingmerth, Matt Kuchar, Byeong Hun An
9:25 a.m. -- Seamus Power, Emiliano Grillo, Nicolas Colsaerts
9:36 a.m. -- Cheng Tsung Pan, Thorbjorn Olesen, Alex Cejka
9:47 a.m. -- Graham DeLaet, Danny Lee, Fabian Gomez
9:58 a.m. -- Gregory Bourdy, Justin Rose, Rafa Cabrera-Bello
10:09 a.m. -- Marcus Fraser, Thomas Pieters, Henrik Stenson
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