Before making his Olympics debut for Team USA, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler made sure to draw first-hand inspiration from two of the best: Simone Biles and Suni Lee.
Scheffler and his family were on-hand at the women's gymnastics team all-around final, where Biles, Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey led Team USA to a gold medal in spectacular fashion.
After firing an opening round 4-under 67 at Le Golf National to begin his Olympics quest, the six-time PGA Tour winner in 2024 said he was impressed by “all the gymnasts” on Team USA.
“Simone, being as talented as she is, I was amazed at their poise,” said the two-time Masters winner. “They compete for years and years and years for some of them, that may be the only time they are on the Olympics team.
“For one tournament to have such an emphasis every four years is really challenging. As somebody who, like if I had a bad week this week, I could take a week off and I would still have another great chance to prove it to myself that I can do it under the biggest lights.
“For them at times, the Olympics is really such an important event for them, and so for us to be able to witness how poised they were, with all the expectations placed upon the United States Team, for them to go in and win was really special.”
Scheffler lauded Lee's resilience during the all-round final. Lee (who overcame a kidney disease to return to the Summer Games) rebounded from a fall in warmups and mid-competition mistake — her feet tapped the ground — to score a gritty 14.566 on the uneven bars.
“We watched Suni Lee do her warmup last night on the uneven bars, and she face planted on the map coming off of the top bar and the whole gym went silent. We were like, Oh my gosh, is she okay? And how is she going to do this?. I'm thinking to myself, if you face plant, first of all, it's really going to hurt and it's going to throw you off.
“Five minutes later, she's got to go up there and do her routine in front of the entire world and really be judged for a long time on that one specific routine. She's been chosen to represent the United States and every score counts. If she messes up and something like that happens and she messes up, it's going to cost the United States a gold medal.
“To see her go up there and have a completely flawless routine is pretty cool. It was fun to watch them compete.”
Scheffler is rising the ranks of all-time greats in golf. Yet, he dismissed comparisons to fellow 27-year-old Katie Ledecky. On Wednesday night, the Team USA legend became the first American women to win eight Olympic gold medals after her predictably dominant performance in the 1500 meter freestyle.
“Like Katie Ledecky, to compare golf to her, I think is fairly challenging. I think she has like the 20 best times in the 1500. That would be like me shooting the lowest 20 scores on tour and I shot 59 once and it's got beaten — like shooting 57 20 times. I'm going to have to practice harder.”
Scheffler also checked out table tennis before turning his focus to the 72-hole, 60-person, no-cut competition at Le Golf National. Scheffler is one of four Team USA representatives at the Olympics, along with Xander Schauffele (-6 on Thursday), Collin Morikawa (-1), and Wyndham Clark (+4). Japan's Hideki Matsuyama (-8) set the pace in Round 1.
Meanwhile, Lee and Biles are currently competing in the individual all-round final.
Greatness recognizing greatness. That's what the Olympics are all about.
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