Scottie Scheffler edges Tommy Fleetwood for Olympic gold in Paris

Scheffler has been an unstoppable force for most of 2024, winning his second Masters green jacket at Augusta and six times in all on the PGA Tour.

There was plenty of quality on a leaderboard befitting of Olympic competition ahead of him, but there would have been nervous glances from the rest of the field as Scheffler opened with three birdies.

The Scheffler putter, as it sometimes does, went cold for a while but he was soon rewarding breath-taking approach play with six birdies on a back-nine 29.

"I felt it was slipping away after having no birdies from four through nine," said Scheffler, who was overcome with emotion on the podium.

"I was doing good but getting nothing out of it, and I thank Teddy (Scott, his caddie) for keeping me in the right head space."

Japan's Hideki Matsuyama claimed bronze a shot back, with France's Victor Perez fourth and Ireland's Rory McIlroy finished in a tie for fifth with Spain's Jon Rahm.

McIlroy had matched Scheffler, picking up shots at the first and third but was quiet until five successive birdies from the 10th.

He paid the price at the 15th for an aggressive approach shot that fell short of the green and rolled back into the water for a double bogey six.

It was also a case of what might have been for Rahm, who walked off the 10th green with a four-shot lead after his sixth birdie.

But the Spaniard capitulated down the stretch with four bogeys and a seven on the par-five 14th in a disastrous back-nine of 39.

Xander Schauffele's Olympic title defence also unravelled with uncustomary carelessness as three bogeys and a double bogey dropped him to tied ninth.