Olympic golf leaderboard: Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose dueling for gold in final round

There was a point around 48 hours ago where the story of golf’s return to the Olympics was the lack of drama and excitement it had provided on the course. Today, we’re set up for one of the most exciting finishing nines of the 2016 season.

Through nine holes, Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose are already evoking memories of the Swede’s duel with Phil Mickelson at last month’s Open Championship. At 15-under-par for the tournament, Rose leads Stenson by a shot — but the duo stands three shots clear of any other competitors.

Outside of a sole bogey from Rose, it’s been a flawless opening nine for the two leaders. Stenson started with birdies at the 1st, 2nd, and 5th, while Rose grabbed birds at the 1st, 3rd, and 5th — before giving one back at the par-4 7th to even things up. But Rose punched right back on the par-3 8th, sticking one well inside Stenson and making a birdie 2 to pull back ahead by a shot. Both are major champions and the pressure of bringing home the first golf gold medal in 112 years hasn’t been too much to deal with. At this point, it’d be stunning to see Sweden and Great Britain not get to add gold and silver medals to their tally here — it’s just a matter of which one heads home to which nation at this point.

But behind the two leaders, there’s effectively a second tournament going on to join them on the medal stand. After Australian journeyman Marcus Fraser stumbled on his outgoing nine, the race for bronze is wide open — and after a sputtering start in Rio, the United States is poised to hop on the medal stand. Starting the day seven shots off the lead and four shots out of the bronze medal spot, Matt Kuchar’s furious six-under-over-six-holes run has pulled him into 3rd place alone and possibly within shouting distance of Stenson and Rose at 11-under-par.

Plenty of other well-known names are giving chase for the bronze, too. Belgium youngster Thomas Pieters — who won an NCAA individual national championship at Illinois — sits just two shots behind Kuchar, but has only has a few holes left to play. Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat and Spain’s Rafa Cabrera-Bello both sit three behind Kuchar, while Bubba Watson and Sergio Garcia are still within shouting distance at 7-under-par for the tournament.

Here’s the full leaderboard from Rio.