The Limerick Summary: 2016 Olympic Men’s Golf

Medals: Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson, Matt Kuchar

Around the wider world of golf: Clariss Guce won the Decatur-Forsyth Classic on the Symetra Tour; Mackenzie Hughes locked up his PGA Tour card by winning the Price Cutter Charity Championship on the Web.com Tour; Ryan Moore won the John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour; and the final round of the US Senior Open has been postponed till Monday after two inches of rain fell over the weekend.



It wasn't what anybody expected, that's for sure. While Henrik Stenson was an early favorite going into the week, Justin Rose was something of a question mark after a back injury earlier this year knocked him off-form, and Matt Kuchar was expected to put up consistent but probably unimpressive scores.

What they actually did slammed the door on all the "what will we do without the stars?" talk:

• Rose put on a ball-striking exhibition that rivaled Stenson's last few weeks. After posting a hole-in-one during the first round -- the first hole-in-one in the new Olympic golf history -- he never looked back.
• Stenson continued his own stellar play, scrambling like mad when his normally impeccable ball-striking began to stray. He posted no worse than a 68 in any round.
• And Kuchar started the final round seven strokes off the lead but shot the lowest score of his professional career -- a 63, tying the new Olympic record set on Thursday by Marcus Fraser -- and nearly contended for the silver medal.

To be honest, this may turn out to be even better than a shootout between the young stars who didn't come. Those young stars have been off their games a bit this year and had their Olympic performances followed suit, the men's competition may have been anticlimactic. Instead, two international major champions staged a battle royale for the top two medals and one incredibly excited bronze medal winner provided the glowing excitement that US golf needed to see.

This week, the women will likely provide the "young vibe" that most hoped the men would bring. After all, their young stars have not only come to Rio but likely brought their games with them since three of this season's major winners are there. But in the meantime, the men get a Limerick Summary -- appropriately decked out in gold, silver and bronze, of course:

In a shocker, Matt Kuchar took bronze.
Though his final round screamed, “Bring it on!”
Henrik Stenson hung tough—
But for gold, not enough;
Tee-to-green, Justin Rose was too strong.

The photo came from this page at PGATOUR.com.