Hideki Matsuyama leads, Xander Schauffele lurking and more from opening round of 2024 Olympic men's golf competition

The first round of the 2024 Olympic men's golf competition is in the books.

Golfers took advantage of scorable conditions Thursday at Le Golf National, torching the Olympic venue after early-morning rains hit Paris. Combined with low wind, the soft golf course yielded plenty of birdies, and numerous of the biggest stars in the game took advantage.

Of the 60 golfers in the field, only 13 shot over par on the opening day. The leader, Hideki Matsuyama, shot a bogey-free 8 under to sprint out to an early lead. There was also a weather delay that began at 4:26 p.m. Paris time and lasted 39 minutes. Another one followed about 45 minutes later, but play was completed for the day.

The top 13 players on the leaderboard are from 12 different countries.

Here's what else you need to know from the opening round in Paris.

Hideki likes Olympic golf

Hideki Matsuyama came oh-so-close to donning a bronze medal in his native Japan three years ago in the Olympic games. He was one of seven players in the playoff for bronze, which C.T. Pan eventually won.

Well, in his latest Olympic round, it was arguably Matsuyama's best.

The 2021 Masters champion opened with a bogey-free 8-under 63 on Thursday at Le Golf National, putting together a masterful performance on the greens to put himself in contention. Matsuyama gained nearly three strokes on the greens in the first round, second in the 60-player field.

"Today's result was good, so I'll take that as a positive," Matsuyama said after his round. "My putts went in the cup well today. My shots went into the fairway, too. So I had a lot of chances, so I'm happy."

Xander starts gold medal defense strong

Xander Schauffele is arguably the hottest golfer in the world right now. He's also the defending gold medalist.

Not a bad combination to have at the Olympics. And once again, Schauffele is near the top of the leaderboard at one of the biggest events of the year.

The 2024 PGA and Open champion opened in 6-under 65 at Le Golf National, playing a near-perfect round until a poor tee shot on the par-4 17th led to his lone bogey of the day. He's in second, two behind Matsuyama.

Stellar crowds so far in Paris

One of the things missing from golf's return to the Olympics was major fan support. Not in France.

When golf returned in 2016, it did so in Rio de Janeiro, a place where golf is not a popular sport. So, there weren't many fans at the Olympic venue that year. Then three years ago in Tokyo, fans weren't allowed due to the COVID pandemic.

But in Europe, and Paris more specifically, an estimated 30,000 fans showed up at Le Golf National on the first day of play.

"The environment and the atmosphere was certainly a little more energetic than I was expecting, which is cool," said Rory McIlroy, who finished T-4 in Tokyo.

Not only were there day-to-day golf fans roaming the fairways on Thursday, they were clad in their country's colors and provided a big boost of energy that isn't there for many events throughout the year.

"Not that," Jason Day said of what he expected from the crowds." "Definitely not that. I heard the crowd when I was on the putting green, screaming over there, and you go down the stairs, going from 1 to 2 to 3, it was impressive. It's amazing how this week, this last week and a bit, it's impressive to see how much sport brings a lot of people together."

Every player raved about the atmosphere during the opening round, even those from countries that many consider rivals to the hosts.

"This is a real Olympic crowd and a lot of supporters that might not have watched the sport before," Tommy Fleetwood said. "We had a lot of Great Britain supporters out there and that was really nice, even the fans from this country, as well, from France, being part of Europe as well helped me.

"A lot of people are on my side, and it was a great atmosphere to play in front of. We're all surprised how many people were on the first couple holes when we set out playing. The Olympics is cool. It really is."

So much for the "golf doesn't belong in the Olympics" crowd.

An emotional opening tee shot

Host France has two players in the men's golf field, Victor Perez and Matthieu Pavon. Perez had the honor of hitting the opening tee shot.

As if hitting your first shot in a tournament wasn't difficult enough, try doing it in your home country in the Olympics.

"It's never the easiest place for a golfer to be. Nobody enjoys the first tee, I think ever," Perez said. "I told myself on the range, I told my caddie, James, let's be there the full ten minutes before and really soak it in all in. It's definitely a once-in-a-lifetime. I'll never hit this tee shot again, opening games in Paris and being French and having all the home support. I wanted to be there. There wasn't going to be more pressure whether I was there tore ten minutes or four minutes.

"So I was like, you might as well just try to be there and take it all in and enjoy the people. It was great. I managed to hit a good shot, actually."

Perez opened in a respectable 1-under 70, while Pavon, who won the PGA Tour's Farmers Insurance Open earlier this year, shot an even-par 71 on Thursday.

Checking in on other notables

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler opened in 4-under 67, the same score as Fleetwood and Jon Rahm. Rory McIlroy and Ludvig Aberg both shot 3-under 68, with McIlroy having four bogeys on his card in addition to five birdies and an eagle.

As for the rest of the U.S. contingent, Wyndham Clark shot 4-over 75 while Collin Morikawa signed for a 1-under 70.

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Hideki Matsuyama leads, Xander Schauffele lurking and more from opening round of 2024 Olympic men's golf competition