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SINGAPORE — Justin Rose speaks with a golden glint in his eye when the topic turns to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. In 2016, Rose, representing Team Great Britain, claimed the gold medal as golf made a welcome return to the Olympics after a 112-year absence. Rose edged Sweden’s Henrik Stenson by two shots following a memorable final-day duel. Matt Kuchar took the bronze for Team USA after rallying with a closing 63, then shed a tear on the podium signifying the enormity of the moment, not just for himself but for the game of golf in the larger scheme of things. With Tokyo preparing to host the 2020 Olympics this summer – the men’s first round at Kasumigaseki Country Club is less than 200 days away — all three golf stars are coincidentally in the Far East for the SMBC Singapore Open this week, with their medals in tow for promotional activities at Sentosa Golf Club. The $1 million (U.S.) tournament is sanctioned by the Asian Tour and Japan Golf Tour. RELATED: TOKYO OLYMPICS: Current qualification list Although the field won’t be finalized for the men until the end of the qualification period on June 22, Rose currently is projected to be part of the 60-man as the top-ranked golfer from Great Britain. “Tokyo is a huge priority for me,â€� Rose said Wednesday. “There’s no given right to be back there. Defending is obviously my goal, to play well this year and to make as many points as possible to secure my position in Team GB is very much on the top of my list. “Honestly, it’s been probably the biggest gift of my career (winning the gold). I think it’s really lasted so much longer than any other tournaments that I’ve ever won. Obviously the time cycle is four years and no one really knew what golf in the Olympics meant until now. It’s really been a fantastic thing and the fact it links me to so many other great athletes in other sports, it’s something very, very cool.â€� With the men’s golf competition scheduled to begin July 30, it will coincide with Rose’s 40th birthday, adding to the impetus to ensure a successful gold medal defense. “It’ll be a nice birthday present,â€� Rose said. “Maybe just a slice of cake that evening but I’ll be deferring celebrations till much later. My 40th is a milestone event but at the same time, I’ve got to be able to keep my focus on the job at hand.â€� A 10-time winner on the PGA TOUR and holder of 11 victories on the European Tour, Rose revealed he truly soaked in the Olympics experience in Rio. He exchanged views with fellow Team GB tennis star and double gold medalist Andy Murray, and saw up close how the rugby seven’s players trained and pushed themselves to be stronger, faster and better. He also met Queen Elizabeth and the U.K. royal family, who honored the athletes after the Games. “It gave me the opportunity to meet with so many different athletes from different sports and go about in understanding their business,â€� Rose said. “I’ve never met Andy Murray before and we had an opportunity to sit and chat for an hour during Rio. “Andy was really interested with how much golfers pay attention to technique and the sense I got from him is that he doesn’t really focus much on technique … he focuses on the strategy of the game and playing the opponent. The actual technique of the groundstrokes and the serve, it seems like he didn’t obsess over that whereas golfers can obsess over technique quite a bit. It was interesting to hear his mindset on that. “I also trained in the gym with the rugby sevens team and it was fun to watch. The camaraderie they have amongst themselves, really pushing each other to be better and stronger, that was cool to watch.â€� Stenson is eager to have another crack at gold in Tokyo. In Rio, he led by one shot with five holes remaining but was overtaken by Rose, his close friend and Ryder Cup teammate, down the stretch. “It’s obviously a big goal to both be there and to be ready to perform like the last time,â€� said Stenson, who also is projected as part of the field as the top-ranked Swedish player. “Everyone goes with the main goal of getting a gold medal and one of us got it. We got second and third place and we all look back at the great memories from Rio and want to make some new ones in Tokyo.â€� The Swede, who has six wins on the PGA TOUR, plans to arrive in Japan well before the golf competition to participate in the opening ceremony with Team Sweden. “Being part of the opening ceremony in Rio … it was a proud moment,â€� the 43-year-old said.  “Growing up, I watched the winter and summer Olympics a lot and it’s not something that you think one day I want to play there as golf wasn’t in the Olympics for a long time. And once golf was in, it became a goal to be there and to really experience the Games as an athlete and seeing it from the inside was something very special.â€� Stenson’s silver medal has suffered a few scratches and even a dent as it has been used at charity events, media activities and brought for “Show and Tellâ€� in school by his children. “At the time, I was the reigning Open champion and silver medalist and those two travelled together and I don’t know if the Claret Jug started being annoyed with the silver medal and banged it up,â€� laughed the Swede.  “It was a lot of tournaments, a lot of media and a lot of charity events. It went everywhere. It went to my kids’ schools … my daughter wanted it for ‘Show and Tell’ and she’s a bit more careful than my son is. Since I promised her, my son wanted to take it too and he dropped his backpack with the medal in it and there’s a big dent at the bottom now. “It’s not in the best of state … maybe I should just get a matching gold one (in Tokyo).â€� The Swede believes golf’s return to the Olympics after that 112-year lapse has greatly impacted the growth of the sport around the world. “We’re reaching out to a broader audience and certainly back home in Sweden, there were many more people watching me go head-to-head with Justin for the gold medal than seeing me win the Open Championship,â€� he said. “It’s great for the growth of the game on a worldwide scale. All the NOCs (National Olympic Councils) are getting the support to grow the game in their respective countries and areas where golf might not be as strong as it is in other parts of the world. “We had messages afterwards from people saying ‘I’ve never tried golf and never really watched it but I watched the Olympics and I want to go out now to try the game’. I think these are some of the key moments for us being part of it. It is a special event, being once every four years. Winning major championships is huge in our sport but you can only be Olympic champion once every four years.â€� Kuchar squeezed into the Team USA in 2016 following the withdrawals of several higher-ranked Americans, then took advantage of the opportunity with both hands, producing a herculean final day effort to secure the bronze. He recalled how he teared up when the medal was placed around his neck. “Man, the medal ceremony … finishing up on 18 green and having the medal presented, it brought tears to my eyes,â€� Kuchar recalled. “To go out and have to shoot a great round to get a medal in the Olympics, I got out there and had some good things going. I kept pushing and was able to secure the third place. What a thrill that was.â€� A regular visitor to Japan, the 41-year-old American believes the sport will benefit with Tokyo playing host to the stars of the game. “I think everybody sees golf as being a great addition to the Olympics, in particular in Japan. Knowing the culture there and the love that they have for golf, to have golf being part of the Olympics, I think it’s going to be a huge success,â€� Kuchar said. He is prepared to fight for his spot in Team USA in the coming months which currently has 12 Americans ahead of him on the Official World Golf Ranking which is used to determine the 60-man field for the Olympic Games. “I’m going to need to be playing really well to make the U.S. team. You have to be up the rankings and be in the top-four on the American list,â€� said Kuchar, who is presently ranked 24th in the world. “It’s a tough team to make but it’s a goal of mine.â€�

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Quick 9: New Augusta chairman won’t forget Bobby Jones

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OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — From back-to-back eagles to back-to-back shots in the water, Bryson DeChambeau had a little bit of everything Saturday in the BMW Championship, a wild ride at Caves Valley that ended with him tied for the lead with Patrick Cantlay. RELATED: Full leaderboard | FedExCup update: Rory McIlroy keeps FedExCup and BMW Championship dreams alive Right went it looked as though DeChambeau would use sheer power and a remarkable touch with the putter to run away from the field, his blunders on the back nine made him settle for a 5-under 67 and still looking like the player to beat. Cantlay’s classic style worked just fine, too. He didn’t drop a shot until a tee shot into deep rough on the 18th that led to bogey and a 66. The action at the top was so furious that DeChambeau went from a one-shot deficit to a three-shot lead in two holes on the front nine, and Cantlay went from a four-shot deficit to a one-shot lead in two holes on the back nine. Cantlay ran off three straight birdies early on the back nine that allowed to make up so much ground so quickly, mostly due to DeChambeau hitting into the water on the par-5 12th (bogey) and the par-3 13th (double bogey). They were at 21-under 195, and Sunday had the trappings of a two-man race. Sungjae Im birdied his last two holes for a 66 and was three shots behind. The group four shots back included Rory McIlroy, who had a bogey-free 65 and only made up two shots on the lead. Crisp-hitting Abraham Ancer of Mexico (66), Sam Burns (65) and Sergio Garcia (67) also were in the group four shots behind. The biggest disappointment belonged to Jon Rahm, the world’s No. 1 player, who had three bogeys and no birdies over the last six holes and shot 70. He fell five shots behind. That’s not typically a massive deficit, it just seems like one on a course where birdies are available to everyone at any time. Rahm was doing his best to keep up, three shots behind, when he missed the 13th green to the left for bogey, missed the fairway to the right on the 14th for another bogey and had to settle for par on the par-5 16th. He closed with a bogey from the fairway bunker. On this course, on this day, that meant losing ground quickly. Then again, momentum and position changed without notice. Cantlay was one shot ahead early and all it took was two holes for him to fall three behind without doing anything wrong. This was all about DeChambeau, who charged up the sun-baked gallery with a 25-foot eagle putt on the par-5 fourth hole and then drove onto the front of the green on the 322-yard fifth and made a 55-foot putt that looked good when it was halfway to the hole. At that point, it looked like a runaway on a Caves Valley course suited perfectly to him with soft conditions and wide fairways. Even the errant shots turned out well. He hit one drive so far left down the hill at No. 8 that DeChambeau had to walk some 30 yards back to the fairway because he couldn’t find a sprinkler with a yardage on it. He hit that to 30 feet and made the birdie, stretching his lead to four shots. And then it all changed. The mud on his ball contributed to a wild shot to the right and into the water, turning certain birdie on No. 12 into bogey and a two-shot swing when Cantlay got up-and-down from just off the green for birdie. DeChambeau’s tee shot on the par-3 13th found the water, which led to double bogey and a three-shot swing when Cantlay holed a 35-foot birdie putt. Sunday has more than just the trophy at stake. The top 30 in the FedExCup advance to the final event at the TOUR Championship next week. Garcia was poised to moved into the top 30 with Hudson Swafford and Erik van Rooyen among those lurking. Patrick Reed was home in Houston recovering from bilateral pneumonia. He needed a lot to go right to stay in the top 30 and has a more reasonable chance than at the start of the week. As for the Ryder Cup, Tony Finau and Xander Schauffele dropped out of the top 30 at Caves Valley, and Cantlay could grab the sixth and final automatic spot only if he were to win.

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