FRANCE, — Victor Perez of France repeatedly pumped his fist over his head before the opening tee shot Thursday, celebrating the start of Olympic golf before a large and raucous home crowd.
And then Hideki Matsuyama quietly went about his business for an 8-under 63 and a two-shot lead at Le Golf National. Right behind was a familiar figure — Xander Schauffele, 10 days removed from his British Open title and playing as though he hasn't missed a beat.
The surprise was outside the ropes — nearly 20,000 spectators in stifling heat, traipsing across rough terrain and seeing unusually low scoring from overnight rain that softened the course.
Matsuyama, who lost in a seven-man playoff for the bronze in the Tokyo Games, had six birdies through 10 holes and kept a clean card with a 15-foot par save on the 17th.
“Fortunately, I was able to keep the ball in the fairway and left myself with a number of chances to score,” Matsuyama said. “So in that regard, I'm satisfied with the end result. But also still a number of things I could improve on. Definitely off to a great start and hopefully I can keep the momentum going for the rest of the week.”
The opening round slowed at the end when storm clouds approached, causing two delays because of lightning in the area. Schauffele had to leave the course while on the 18th tee, returned to make par and then another delay settled in.
Carlos Ortiz of Mexico was challenging for the lead amid the stop-and-start action. He hit his tee shot into the water on the par-3 16th for a double bogey and then a bogey at the end. He had to settle for a 69.
Joaquin Niemann of Chile, Emiliano Grillo of Argentina and Tom Kim of South Korea were at 66, with Masters champion and tournament favorite Scottie Scheffler at 67.
Niemann is among seven players from Saudi-funded LIV Golf in the field, with no guarantee of being in the majors next year. An Olympic gold medal gets him into all four of them next year.
Any Olympic medal would be big for the 22-year-old Kim, because it would exempt him from mandatory military service in South Korea. He would still have at least one more Olympic chance, though he said it's not on his mind.
“It doesn't worry me at all,” Kim said.
Scheffler's family was in full force, including 3-month-old son Bennett, who was wakened by the loud cheer when he birdied the opening hole.
“I didn't really know what to expect. The last couple days it's been pretty quiet around the course,” Scheffler said. “But it was nice to play in front of a good crowd — big crowd. It was a lot of fun. Definitely more people than I expected.”
As for his golf, Scheffler felt he could have posted a lower score but had few complaints. He played alongside Rory McIlroy and Ludvig Aberg, who each shot 68.
That was the marquee group early, and the fans stood eight deep around the first green and down the second hole, with children on their father's shoulders, everyone with phones out to capture whatever they could.
They saw good scoring, with 41 players from the 60-man field under par.
But the biggest takeaway was outside the ropes.
“The first tee wasn't quiet a Ryder Cup, but way more than a normal tournament for sure, and way more than you would ever see on a Thursday,” Collin Morikawa said.
He played with Matthieu Pavon, the other French player in the field. The gallery began singing “La Marseillaise” when they saw him on the bridge leading to the first tee box, and they cheered so wildly for Pavon that players could hear it from two or three holes away.
Pavon birdied the first hole and it got even louder, though he had only one other birdie for the day in his round of 72.
Schauffele was in the group in front of Pavon.
“When they were chanting Matthieu's name and it was kind of echoing around the corner there, it was like, ‘This is pretty special,’” Schauffele said. "For me, Tokyo was really special, obviously, but there were no fans. The city was closed. I was stuck in my hotel room.
“Going out to eat dinner, seeing people everywhere, seeing fans everywhere chanting, it feels like I’m here for the first time.”
Schauffele posting a 65 was a good start for someone aiming for another gold medal. It was harder than it looked. He chipped in for birdie on the first hole. He had to get up-and-down for par on the next. He missed the fairway on the par-5 third and still had a good look at birdie.
“It wasn't sort of the dream, stripey start that you envision as a golfer,” he said. “But I’m happy to sort of ride the ship in and get away with what could have been worse. I missed a few putts coming in. But it's Thursday. I'm not really sweating it too much.”
