Justin Rose wins Olympic golf gold in Rio, outdueling Henrik Stenson

The first Olympic golf gold medal in 112 years is coming home to, well, golf’s home.

After knocking a shot-of-a-lifetime, half-wedge on to two feet on the 72nd hole, Great Britain’s Justin Rose captured Olympic gold in a dramatic Sunday finish over his Ryder Cup partner and 2016 Open Champion, Henrik Stenson.

It was an all-day, back-and-forth battle that provided the perfect crescendo to gold medal dramatics on the final hole of the tournament. The Swede and the Brit marched to the reachable par-5 18th dead even at 15-under-par with the world watching, each barely avoiding disaster with tee shots that teetered the margins of the natural, sandy waste areas on the brand-new Olympic golf course. Two fairway woods left them with nearly identical pitches up to the final green -- leaving the de facto short game contest to decide Olympic gold.

Starting the day well clear of the rest of the field, Rose punched back and forth all Sunday with Stenson. Both players stormed out to hot starts on the front nine, jumping out to 3-under starts through the first five holes and going out in 32 -- with Great Britain’s Rose holding a one-shot lead over Sweden’s Stenson heading to the back nine. Stenson pulled things level with a birdie at the par-5 10th, before pulling ahead himself after a Rose bogey at the 14th.

But while the two were dueling at the top for gold, there was a second tournament going on that was supposed to be for the bronze medal. Matt Kuchar, who started the day seven shots off Rose’s lead, vaulted well ahead of the bronze medal hunting pack with a six-under-in-six-holes stretch that got him to 11-under-par for the tournament. A birdie at the 15th got him to 12-under on the day, and that’s where things began to get really interesting.

As Stenson began experiencing some sort of back issue, Kuchar made a second run at the leaders. After three-putting for par ahead of the leaders on the short par-4 16th, the American knocked one stiff on the par-3 17th. While that was happening, the Swede missed the green left on the par-3 14th three holes behind him, failed to get up and in, and made bogey. All of a sudden, the American who started the day well out of contention stood on the 18th tee just one shot out of the gold medal position. And the competition that was mired in bad press and no-shows and seemed destined for a boring finish two days ago was set up for the best finish of the season.

Kuchar attempted to get home to the reachable par-5 finishing hole in two shots, but his well-left approach was saved by a fortunate bounce off the gallery. A pitch up to 10 or so feet gave the American an opportunity to improbably tie Stenson and Rose at the top and set the clubhouse lead at 14-under, but the putt came up just one revolution short of the cup. His 63 tied Marcus Fraser’s opening round Olympic record, and he posted 13-under par for the championship -- locking up the bronze medal at worst for the United States.

But just as Kuchar’s putt came up short, Rose pulled back ahead of Stenson with a birdie at the 15th before the two entered the wild three-hole finishing stretch. Stenson then punched right back at the 16th a birdie of his own, pulling even with the Brit at 15-under-par with just two holes to play. With birdie-able holes ahead at 17 and 18, that seemingly put Kuchar out of gold medal contention barring a collapse. That set the stage for the final hole dramatics for Rose and Stenson.

All in all, it was a fantastic finish for a tournament that desperately needed it. The Olympic qualifying criteria and high-profile drop-outs left the 60-man field with little depth to sustain the tournament’s watchability if the stars failed to perform. But the Sunday magic from Stenson, Rose and Kuchar provided names even the most casual golf fan would recognize in the medal positions, and quality supporting roles from both talented young stars (Thomas Pieters, Rafa Cabrera-Bello, Kiradech Apibarnrat) and names everyone knows (Sergio Garcia and Bubba Watson). That’s something the IOC and IGF needed to help increase buy-in from fans and players headed into the 2020 Games. The Brazilian fans, who clearly were experiencing their first major golf tournament at times as players struggled with cameras and cell phones, responded too. Sunday’s final round was sold out -- and crowds were raucous. That’s the kind of growing of the game golf’s governing bodies were looking for when the sport was added to the Games in 2009.

Positive lessons and feedback will make the men’s golf event in Tokyo will assuredly look somewhat different. That will be easy. But in golf’s reintroduction to the Olympics, the gold medal went to a well-known, major champion who embraced the Olympic experience in a dramatic, edge-of-your-seat finish starring some of the game’s biggest names.

And it made for one hell of a golf tournament.

Here’s the final full leaderboard from Rio.