RIO DE JANEIRO -- Unless some unknown cellphone video shows up, we are unlikely to ever see the putt Henrik Stenson made Friday morning -- the one he may look back on as a big factor in winning an Olympic gold medal.
Television cameras were focused on a ruling taking place in a bunker on the third hole at the Olympic Golf Course when Stenson, seemingly miles from the cup, rolled in his putt for an unlikely par. On the previous hole, in horrid weather to begin the second round, he made a 40-footer for birdie.
By the end of the round, the sun was out in Rio and a smile was on Stenson's face. He wasn't leading, but he had put himself right in the thick of the Olympic golf tournament.
And he was still a bit amazed about that long putt dropping in.
It was so long that tournament computer information that pegged the putt at 108 feet was deemed to be inaccurate.
"No, (the computer is not) broken,'' Stenson said. "I tell you, it's not broken. I mean, I felt broken at the time.''
Stenson, 40, is bidding to win Olympic gold a month after capturing the Claret Jug at Royal Troon. His 3-under-par 68 left him 2 strokes back of leader Marcus Fraser of Australia, with Belgium's Thomas Pieters between them.
It didn't seem that things would end up so well for Stenson earlier, when he began his round in cool, wet conditions. A steady rain greeted players for the first few hours of the day, and Stenson got caught in the worst of it.
"Our group and the groups around us probably got three of the toughest holes in those conditions there right at the start,'' said Stenson, who estimated his tee shot into the wind on the second hole went just 250 yards, leaving him a 220-yard 4-wood to reach the green.
And he holed a 40-footer for birdie on No. 2. Then, at the third, his drive went into the water, and after a drop he managed to get a 4-wood to the very front of the green.
"You're just standing there praying for a 2-putt bogey,'' he said. "Before I know it, I think it found the bottom of the cup. That's the longest putt I've made in my career, I would say. First of all, it's hard to get a putt that long on any green in the world, maybe St. Andrews on a double green, you can find one.''
Stenson finished his round with two bogeys and three birdies over the final five holes and lamented some missed opportunities.
But given some of the problems he found on an otherwise off day, he was quite pleased to be in this position.
"There's a lot of golf still to play,'' he said. "I've said before, I always prefer to be two ahead than two behind. If you're not there at the halfway turn, you've got more to make up for the next two rounds. But 36 holes, if you're playing good, you can obviously make up quite a few shots.''
This has become normal for Stenson of late. He won the BMW International in Germany early last month, had a good tournament at the French Open, and then dazzled at Royal Troon, where he had the best round on each of the last three days, including a major-tying 63 in the final round to beat Phil Mickelson by 3 at The Open.
Two weeks later, he contended at the PGA Championship, and then set his sights on the Olympics, never putting down the significance of a victory here.
"He's the man to beat, I reckon,'' said England's Justin Rose, who is tied for fourth, 4 strokes off the lead. "He's in good shape, obviously ice-cold, and we all know when he gets into a rhythm as we saw at Troon, he's a pretty special player.''
It doesn't hurt that he's chasing a couple of golfers who are far less accomplished. Fraser, 38, has just three European Tour victories in his career. Pieters, 24, who played college golf at the University of Illinois, has two European titles.
"Well, you know he's going to shoot a good score,'' Pieters said. "He's a top-class player, No. [5] in the world. You know he's going to make a lot of birdies, so you have to just play your own game.''
That has worked pretty well for Stenson of late. And it's impressive -- even if that long putt was fortunate.
"I did my homework,'' Stenson said of figuring out that putt. "It wasn't like you could read every break. I just had to look kind of straight, a bit of left to right, coming back at the end, and you just kind of go with that feeling and hit it.
"The scary thing was that it was like 30 feet out and looking like it is stone dead. My caddie was attending the pin and he felt the same. It was just like tracking. He thought it was going to be a tap-in and just, like, came up and took a little dive into the cup -- which I wasn't against.''
