Olympic golf 2016 results: Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson set to make Sunday in Rio something memorable

The first two rounds of the Olympic men’s golf tournament had left plenty to be desired.

Low-ranked tour journeymen at the top of the leaderboard, small crowds, and less-than-ideal scoring conditions had left many, including this golf writer, wondering about the long-term future about golf in the Olympic games. The event garnered headlines in the weeks leading up to the tournament for all the wrong reasons -- and the flatlined action on the course did more to validate the high-profile absences than it did detract from the negative attention.

But after a scoreable Saturday in Rio where the world’s best met the moment, Great Britain’s Justin Rose and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson have set the table for a duel for gold that might make everyone forget the event’s problems -- at least for a day or two.

After a third-round 65, the 2013 US Open Champion Rose (-12) will take a one-shot advantage over Stenson (-11) into the final tee time on Sunday. They’ll play alongside the first-and-second round leader in Australia’s Marcus Fraser (-9), who scratched and clawed his way to a 1-over 72 to keep himself in medal position.

There’s a host of other familiar names with a shot to make it onto the podium, too -- including the once-forgotten Americans. After a hard charge on moving day, Bubba Watson sits in a tie for fourth at 6-under-par alongside Sweden’s David Lingmerth and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo. Even at six shots off the pace, pristine scoring conditions on Sunday might still give the trio a chance to take home a gold medal.

Here are some takeaways from Saturday -- and some storylines for Sunday, when golf Olympic medals will be handed out for the first time in 112 years.

In its first edition, Olympic golf could’ve done a heckuva a lot worse than a final Sunday duel between Stenson and Rose. As a matter of fact, it might not have been able to do much better. A 60-man field playing 72 holes isn’t large enough to have lots of players stacked on top of each other in contention. Combine that with the rather large number of players most golf fans haven’t heard of because of the less-than-good selection criteria and opt-outs, and Olympic golf was ripe for a snoozefest of a Sunday.

Instead, at the worst we’ll probably get a duel between two major championship winners, including possibly the best player on earth on August 14, 2016. If he takes home a gold medal to hang on his Claret Jug, it’ll be hard to argue against Stenson being the best player in the world at this very moment. These two were the favorites at the start of the week, and now here we are heading to Sunday in 1-2 position. That doesn’t happen often in golf.

Late on Thursday afternoon, I’ll admit I’d left Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson for dead in this golf tournament. They’d clearly enjoyed their time in Rio being Olympians -- which was awesome and super cool to see. But despite being two of the world’s top seven players, my expectations for them were fairly low. Fowler’s been out of form since stumbling on Sunday at Quail Hollow in early May, and Bubba’s never fared particularly well outside the U.S. With a few holes left in each’s round on Thursday, here’s how things were going for the two.

Saturday couldn’t have been more different. After opening with rounds of 75 and 71, Fowler fired the second-best round of the tournament on Saturday with a 7-under-par 64. Bubba backed up his 67 on Friday with another round of the same on Saturday. And it could’ve been better for both, each making a pair of bogeys on the closing stretch of holes — including a completely weird, extremely Bubba Watson mistake by Bubba.

Both Bubba (-6, T-4) and Rickie (-3, T-14) will start the final round a bit off the pace of Stenson and Rose but hardly out of medal contention. Why? Well..

Given the piece of land he was provided as a canvas, Gil Hanse’s Olympic Golf Course is an amazing track to be dropped on some former sand dunes in the Rio area. But with no thick rough, wide fairways and only medium-speed greens, the course’s main defense against super-low scores are Rio’s coastal winds.

Tomorrow’s forecast? Mid 80’s. Sunny. Little-to-no wind. It’s expected to be the best conditions for scoring of any of the four tournament days.

We’ve already seen a 63 (Marcus Fraser) and a 64 (Fowler) this week, and it wouldn’t be a shock to have someone get out and post a super-low final round that echoes back to the leaders. And in the final round at the Olympics, there’s no reason for a player not to be super-aggressive. This isn’t a regular professional event where players compete for a paycheck; there’s absolutely no incentive other than medals. Expect risk/reward decisions and aggressive plays from those further back in the field early on Sunday -- and don’t be shocked if there’s a number lower than 63 that gets posted. If that’s one of the players at 3-under-par or better, they could no question put some pressure on Stenson and Rose later.

Here’s your leaderboard heading into Sunday’s final round.