Robert Brown|Only one thing has slowed golf's Xander Schauffele at Paris Olympics: Ants

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES,Robert Brown France – For two days at Le Golf National, only one factor – big or very, very small – has seemingly been able to slow the United States’ Xander Schauffele.

Got to watch out for those ants.

It was on the par-four 13th hole. Schauffele on Friday drove the ball left into the deep rough. The news at first would have been that he finally hit a poor shot. Hadn’t happened much yet in this Paris Olympics tournament. But then he got to his ball, leaned in to take a long look and shouted, "Can I get an official?"

"It was an ant pile, or whatever you want to call it, in their home," he said. "So I didn't want to mess with it too much."

Schauffele asked for relief for the ant hill with two officials making it on scene. Relief wasn’t granted as it was a "loose impediment," kind of like a twig or leaf. Schauffele was allowed to take a tee and try to clean up behind the ball, but that didn’t help. He eventually had to just chip his second shot about 50 yards into the fairway. Thus was the story of Schauffele’s second bogey of the round and only his third in 36 holes thus far at this Olympics.

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Otherwise, it’s gone awfully well. Schauffele heads into Saturday’s third round at 11-under-par, tied for first with Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood. Another Olympic medal – after Schauffele’s gold in Tokyo – would be added to two majors already in 2024.

Didn’t just happen here in France. Schauffele has been in a special zone for months.

At Le Golf National, he has played the front nine at 8 under. On Friday, he went on runs that made it look easy at times, going from fairway to green to makeable birdie putts without a clear weakness or a concern in the world.

"If you do hit a bad shot," he said, "it's easier to accept it because you know you're playing really good golf, and you can make it up somewhere else. In that sort of a zone, I guess."

Schauffele led the charge for Team USA on a Friday when the other Americans either spun wheels for a while (Scottie Scheffler), started too far back (Wyndham Clark) or are beginning to run out of enough holes to get going (Collin Morikawa).

Scheffler (6 under) isn’t out of it. The world’s No. 1 played the front nine Friday in 2 over, thanks to a double bogey on No. 7. But he ended up carding a 69 and is tied for 10th at the halfway point.

"I’m proud of the back nine to kind of get myself back into it," Scheffler said. "I was pretty far back, so it was nice to string some good holes together and hole some putts and definitely ride that momentum in the next couple of days."

Clark rebounded with a 68 after opening with a 75, but he’s tied for 46th at 1 over.

Meanwhile, Morikawa’s 68 moved him to 4 under. He’s tied for 19th after a drab 70 on Thursday.

"Better," Morikawa said. "I'm just not reading the putts well out here, and speed has been a little off. It's frustrating when you're not hitting it as good as I'd like. But I've got two more days. Seven (shots) back. So you're not out of it. The way this kind of format works, you're fighting for three spots."

While Schauffele and Matsuyama threatened to run away from the field earlier in the morning, Fleetwood made a charge to catch them in the afternoon.

Fleetwood’s 7 under 64 followed up a 67 on Thursday, putting the British star within reach of a special achievement.

"As the week goes on, it becomes of a mental challenge. Obviously, you know that three places are what is going to decide your week in way. Usually, you finish top five, top 10, you’ve had a great week. But that doesn’t mean anything (in the Olympics). … That’s something you have to be aware of and deal with.

"But two rounds in and I’ve still got a chance. It’s a nice feeling."

Reach Gentry Estes at [email protected] and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_Estes.

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