Olympics 2024: Women's final round has plenty of fairy-tale drama and high-profile heroines

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — They’re handing out medals at the women’s golf here outside Paris on Saturday, but it feels like they should be awarding Oscars. The final round is set up for the kind of movie fairy tale that usually involves Disney princesses (there are 12 women legitimately in medal contention with the final 18 holes to play) and a misunderstood ogre (Le Golf National’s inscrutable yet relentlessly entertaining Albatros course should win the award for this week’s Best Supporting Actor, with eagles and doubles littering the grounds here like so many half-smoked Gauloises). Who wins the gold and almost equally meaningful silver and bronze seems as predictable as ordering a French version of a pizza on Uber Eats via Google Translate.

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Nearly every leading candidate for Saturday’s final round brings with her a story that feels like a rejected script for a Hallmark movie, full of redemption, heartache, tragedy, love and strange possibility, like a Victor Hugo original edited by Albert Camus and directed by François Truffaut.

In other words, mes amis, hold on to your berets and baguettes. Saturday at Le Golf National will be nothing short of miraculous. Or as the French say, Impossible n'est pas français, which loosely translated from the original proverb means “there is no ‘can’t’ in French.” Here are six can’t-miss scenarios to look for when things get going for the gold:

Lydia Ko has Hall of Fame in sight

It’s hard to think of the 27-year-old New Zealander, who’s now always smiling and earnest, as wizened, but it’s worth pointing out again that she started this week making noises about this possibly being her last Olympics. Given she’s won silver and bronze in her two previous appearances at the Olympics and played in the final group both times—to say nothing of having won two majors, 27 worldwide titles and been world No. 1 as long ago as 2015—Ko is the veteran’s veteran at the top of the leaderboard.

Standing at nine under and even with relatively unheralded Swiss Morgane Metraux in first place, a win by Ko puts her automatically into the LPGA Hall of Fame. She played the third round with that unique combination of happy go lucky and ready for her close-up that included six birdies on a way to a 68. She leads the field in birdies for the week.

“In a way, I do think that because I have two medals under my belt, I've got nothing to lose,” she said. “I know that I'm going to give it my all, and I'm going to try my hundred percent, and if it’s meant to happen, it's going to happen. I know that feeling; standing on the podium is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime kind of fairy-tale emotion that you feel and I would love to feel that again tomorrow.”

Ko, who won on the LPGA in January, but has been only working her way back to decent play in the last month or so, said she deleted her Instagram this week to focus on the job at hand. Instead, she downloaded the Simone Biles documentary, “Rising.” It’s been an inspiration.

“I think one of the things she said that I liked was, ‘I get to write my own ending,’” said Ko. “Sometimes we get carried on about things that we can't control, and if I can do a good job of the things that I can control, the rest is out of my hands.”

Morgane Metraux is playing role of Swiss climber

On the opposite side of the career spectrum, but reflecting that same sort of quiet resolve was the best player in Switzerland. Metraux fought her swing and nerves through a one-under third round to tie the lead with a closing eagle after reaching the 18th green with a hybrid from 200 yards and holing the 20-footer on the last revolution. She comes from the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and while she’s won an event on the LET this year, she’s barely in the Top 100 in the LPGA’s Race to the CME Globe.

This week, Metraux has played like she belongs in the lead and steadied herself throughout the third round. That included forgetting her glove before the round and fishing out a rain glove from her bag. She leads the field in eagles for the week with three and is fifth in strokes gained/approach.

“I stayed patient today,” said Metraux, noting that she’s not superstitious and she’ll go back to a regular glove tomorrow. “I just focused on myself and didn't let what everybody else was doing get to me. I know this course is very difficult, and any hole can get to you at any point.”

But she knows she’s not in Lausanne anymore. She survived three bogeys in four holes to start her back nine on Friday, rallying with a stuffed birdie on the gettable par-5 14th and the stout closing eagle. A win, or a medal in the Olympics, won’t add a franc to her bank account. It will be, instead, priceless.

“I don't think anything is close to the Olympics for us, obviously” Metraux said. “I came in this week just telling myself, ‘it's medal or nothing.’ So just give it everything, obviously without attacking too much but within reason. I think I need to go into every event with that mentality because it seems to be working well.

“I’m not thinking about [being in contention for a medal], and I don’t want to. I have plenty of family and friends with me. So we're just going to have a fun night and just keep doing the same routine tomorrow, and hopefully it goes my way.”

Mariajo Uribe could wave goodbye with gold

Even more of an improbable love story than Ko, Uribe is committed to retiring after the last putt on Saturday. Even though she won in New South Wales in March, which essentially qualified her to represent Colombia at these Olympics, Uribe hasn’t made a cut in the three LPGA events she’s played this year. She battled through her back nine in the third round, missing makeable par putts on both 15 and 17.

She’s taking a go-for-broke approach, hitting plenty of drivers on a course that penalizes the smallest of mistakes. She ranks in the top eight in strokes gained/off the tee, approach and around the green. Her attitude seems to be when you see the finish line, you don’t slow down.

“When I see other athletes retire this week, it was a little tough,” Uribe admitted with a voice that was more upbeat than resigned, like the socks with smiley faces on the side. “It's a pretty special week for all of the girls, but, of course, I think it's going to be a little hard tomorrow when that last putt falls. No matter what happens, it's going to be an emotional day. But right now I feel calm and excited for it.

“I think after 15 years, I know win or lose it's going to be the same tomorrow. I'm going to be the same person and it's not going to change my life that much.”

And if you’re looking for a little sweet irony, it was 17 years ago this week that Uribe won the U.S. Amateur to jumpstart her career. “If anything, I'm an underdog this week,” she said, confidently understating the obvious. “It's going to be a great day no matter what happens. It's a special day for me so it's just a matter if it's going to be extra special.”

Rose Zhang can add to phenomenal young career

The sensational young American star, who’s still taking classes toward a Stanford degree but already has a win and an appearance on a Solheim Cup team, rallied with a five-under 67 that included an eagle on the closing hole that made up for a double bogey on the 15th hole when her approach shot found the water.

Zhang is one of the few players in the field who’s played Le Golf National in competition before, having been tied for unofficial medalist honors at the World Amateur Team Championship in 2022. She is No. 1 in scrambling for the week, and though a win here wouldn’t count as a major, it would put Zhang’s name on the short list for one of the very best in the game already at barely 21 years old.

“On this golf course, you can't put yourself too ahead of what's in front of you,” she said. “I don't think there needs to be a change [in strategy for the final round]. I know what I can do and what I can control is the most important thing. I'm here to just enjoy the grind, and I know I'm going to have to grind tomorrow. You just have to be in the moment.”

Nelly Korda within striking distance of repeat

Perhaps the most inscrutable of dramatis personae set up for the final round is Korda, the No. 1 player in the world and defending Olympic champion from Tokyo. A bizarre quadruple bogey on Thursday on the short par-3 16th and six three-putts for the week have cost her enough strokes to where she could be leading in a walk. Instead, Korda is five behind, despite picking up 11 strokes on the field off the tee and approaching the green.

She holed out from 82 yards on the seventh hole for birdie, but also is 48th in putts per green in regulation. Each day Korda has stuck around with coach Jamie Mulligan trying to find a consistency in her putting stroke, particularly from short range, that’s been lacking. Korda navigates her day with with a kind of casual grace and occasional consternation (a young Catherine Deneuve would play her in this movie). She is someone who knows she is this close to the kind of greatness, or in this case Olympic excellence, she saw in U.S. super swimmer Katie Ledecky, who paid the grounds and the U.S. golfers a visit Friday morning. But Korda’s got another source of inspiration heading into the final round, from another, potentially more relevant U.S. superstar.

“I'm happy with the way that the day played out after the start that I had,” she said after Friday’s round, referencing an opening approach shot in the water and a bogey on the easy-playing par-5 third hole. “Obviously, I wish I could take [the three-putt on] 17 back. But I can't. That's just the reality. I'm not going to be sad about it. I'm just going to go to the putting green right now and try to bounce back tomorrow.

“I'm giving myself a chance. Anything can happen. Scottie [Scheffler] was nine back, or whatever he was at, and he ended up winning.”

The course deserves its own spotlight

At the end of everything, sometimes the stage and all its myriad set decorations make for the most dramatic of moments. Like the chandelier crashing in the Phantom of the Opera or the helicopter scene in Miss Saigon, Le Golf National’s final four holes are a passion play for all the game can be.

There has been everything from a 2 to a 9 recorded on the closing stretch of the Albatros course, meaning no lead is safe and there may be no such thing as being too far back to not have a chance. Obviously, first and foremost, Scheffler’s back-nine 29 coupled with Jon Rahm’s equally shocking back-nine implosion in the men’s competition provided the potential for this course to steal any and every show.

Expect it all to happen again on Sunday. For the week, the 15th, 16th and 17th have all played over par, while only the very reachable third hole has played easier than the 18th, which was converted to a par-5 for the women’s competition. Seven of the 11 eagles recorded on the course for the week have been at the 18th hole. There also have been 13 scores of double bogey or higher.

All that sounds fairly amazing for a par 5 that, depending on the tee position, could be the shortest played on the LPGA Tour this year. But at the same time, it’s all as cruelly obvious as a guillotine, given the water lurking at every shot on this hole, including the flickiest of wedge shots. Fortunately, the hole will be setup for fireworks in the final round with the most accessible back-center pin position that exists on the property.

Especially intriguing will be the par-3 16th, where the hole location will bring both tragedy and holes-in-one into the picture. The course, which has played almost four shots harder for the women than for the men thanks to firmer conditions and unpredictable gusts in the 20-mile per hour range, was softened by a little water on the greens prior to the third round. A calmer day seems in the forecast, but only in terms of the meteorology. In real terms, expect as many nightmares as dreams coming true.

As Ko said, “To be in this kind of position is awesome. I'm excited to embrace all of this.”

The only better position might be as a spectator.