• Slug: Sports–Olympics Golf Valley Ties, 1,100 words.
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By Scott Sandulli
Cronkite News

PARIS – When the summer sun beats down on the desert, saguaro shadows extend further and further in a way that transcends the backdrop of nature. Over 5,000 miles across the Atlantic, at the world’s most extraordinary gathering of competition, the Arizona aroma holds firm on the stage of Olympic golf. With the sports world focused on the Paris Games, the Arizona fairways serve as the approach to the greens of Le Golf National as several Valley stalwarts cross the pond in pursuit of gold.

“Everyone that competes in the Olympics talks about what a special experience it is,” Arizona State men’s golf coach Matt Thurmond said. “Playing for their country, being around the very best athletes in all these different sports in the same place. What an incredible experience.”

Returning to the slate of Olympic sports for the third time since a century-long hiatus ended in 2016, the golf event boasts some of the world’s top swingers in a star-studded field. Rather than a selection committee, players are awarded a tee time based on the International Golf Federation’s world rankings published on June 17.

The world’s top 15 golfers are all eligible, with no more than four from the same country selected. From there, a maximum of two players from each country that doesn’t already field two or more golfers from the top 15 are also granted bids.

The United States is the best-represented nation on the links in Paris, bringing four golfers across the Atlantic within the top 10 of IGF’s Olympic Golf Rankings. Tokyo Olympics gold medalist and six-time WM Phoenix Open participant Xander Schauffele, World No. 5 Wyndham Clark and No. 7 Collin Morikawa help form a formidable foursome representing the the United States in pursuit of individual gold, but no name more prominent than the best in the world, whom Arizonans have had a front-row seat to watch in recent years.

Schauffele has started out strong after two rounds and Friday was tied for first with Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama.

Tied for 10th after two rounds is Scottie Scheffler, the name that is the most recognizable part of this all-star American roster as the world No. 1, but also because of his knack for defending it in the desert. At the Valley’s signature PGA Tour event, Scheffler won first prize at the Phoenix Open in 2022 and 2023, becoming the 15th multi-time champion at TPC Scottsdale’s annual Super Bowl weekend event. The most raucous date on the PGA Tour every year, Scheffler, also a two-time Masters winner, hopes to channel the pressure put on by the patrons in Arizona, a one-of-a-kind scene to get golfers ready to show out on the world’s stage in Paris.

“It’s a little bit different than a lot of the tournaments that we play,” Scheffler said ahead of the Phoenix Open. “That provides some fun stuff but some challenges, as well, with the noise and all that. It’s definitely, definitely a lot of fun.”

As far as playing in the Olympics, Scheffler told reporters, “I would approach it the same way I would a tournament here.”

Scheffler’s quest to join the legendary Arnold Palmer as a three-peat champion at the Phoenix Open was stolen this past February by Nick Taylor, Team Canada’s highest-ranked golfer at the Olympics. Unlike the world’s top golfer, Taylor has never taken home a PGA Major trophy, but his recent win at the sport’s loudest coliseum has him ready to put on for The Great White North.

“It’s been something on the top of my goal list since (golf in the Olympics) came back and, really, since Tokyo,” Taylor said to PGATour.com of making the Olympic team. “To really have a nice year and a half, two years of steady play, and some really nice results put me in a good position. The competitive nature in me was vying for one of those two spots.”

Twenty mils down the road lies another golf hotbed in the Valley, one where another of the game’s brightest stars got his start on the links.

Jon Rahm became a local legend at Arizona State as an amateur, winning 11 tournaments over his four-year career in Tempe. Second only to golf legend Phil Mickelson for tournament victories as a Sun Devils athlete, Rahm placed the tee for a golden age of golf in Tempe, a product of which will be joining him in representing Team Spain. David Puig, a Spanish countryman on the LIV Golf Tour, played for Thurmond at ASU from 2019-2022 as one of the best club-twirlers Thurmond had seen in maroon and gold.

Rahm sits in fourth place after carding a 5-under Friday.

The program pillar since 2016, Thurmond noted the successes of Rahm, Puig, Taiwan’s CT Pan and Kevin Yu as instrumental in his construction of a perennial NCAA contender on the links, one that came strokes away from a national title in 2022.

“The real impact is the mark that they’ve left on the fabric of our program,” Thurmond said. “There’s unique things (I’ve learned) from every one of them. The reality is that these are brilliant athletes at what they do. I’m learning from them every day. Each one of them has taught me so much.

“Any time that a great golfer and great person comes in, they leave their legacy.”

Having come under Thurmond’s mentorship at ASU and elsewhere, names such as these have become part of the veteran coach’s favorite selling point when filling his roster with recruits each year.

“ASU, this is where the best players in the world go. It’s a big part of my recruiting pitch.”

The event format in which the competitors will battle is similar to a four-day PGA Tourevent, with players competing in a stroke-play format. The tournament will consist of 72 holes over four days at Le Golf National at Guyancourt from Thursday, to Sunday. Unlike the PGA Tour, there is no cut after the second round, meaning all 60 golfers will play through four 18-hole rounds. Playing host to the Ryder Cup in 2018 and the Open de Paris annually since 2001, the course is a par 72 with a standard capacity for 80,000 spectators.

As an individual sport at the Games, gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded to the golfers with the lowest, second-lowest and third-lowest scorers in the four-day tournament, adding to the medal count of the respective nations at each podium position..
“Everybody in the Phoenix area is into golf in some way,” Thurmond said. “It’s a huge business here. Every corner you go around, there’s a golf course. There are equipment manufacturers, tour players all around town, instructors, mental coaches, agents, and fitness coaches. The best golf resources are here.

“In this country, I think it’s the golf epicenter.“

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