Rory McIlroy shot a final day round of 67 to finish on -15 with six other players and throw the Olympic bronze medal place into a seven-man play-off in the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Tokyo.
Six birdies and two bogeys in his round left McIlroy tied for third place as American Xander Schauffele won the gold medal and Slovakia's Rory Sabbatini took silver following a Games record of 61.
All eyes then turned to the seven-man play-off for the bronze medal as Shane Lowry fell away after a disappointing final round of 71 that left him tied in 22nd place at 10-under par.
McIlroy with CT Pan, Collin Morikawa, Mito Pereira, Sebastian Munoz, Hideki Matsuyama and Paul Casey then went down the 18th hole, a fourball and a three ball with McIlroy playing with Casey and Matsuyama.
All of the players in the fourball made par and remained in contention with McIlroy recovering from his drive into a fairway bunker to also make par as Matsuyama and Casey faltered with bogey and were eliminated from the field.
That left five players, McIlroy, Pan, Morikawa, Pereira and Munoz to go down the Par 3 10th hole. Again nobody could make birdie and the five marched towards the third play-off hole, the par 4 11th.
This time McIlroy’s approach to eight feet could only give him par and he too was eliminated with CT Pan going on to win the bronze medal for Taipei on the fourth play-off hole.
“I’ve being saying all day I’ve never tried so hard in my life to finish in third place,” said McIlroy afterwards. “It makes me even more determined going to Paris and trying to pick one (medal) up.
“Disappointing, going away here without any hardware. But it’s been a great experience. Today was a great day to be up in contention for a medal.
“It certainly had a different feeling to it to what I expected. As I said I’m looking forward to three years time trying to go at least one better but hopefully three better.”
Lowry was bitterly disappointed and knew his slow start had played him out of contention on the front nine. He went out in 39 and then recovered somewhat with three birdies after the turn to come back in 32.
“It just never got going. I’m disappointed, I am. I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know how I’d feel,” said Lowry.
“I fought hard all week. I fought hard today but I just wasn’t good enough. I am disappointed. I’m very disappointed. I felt I’d a great chance of going out and doing something special today. It would have taken some nice golf. Hole a few putts and then all of a sudden you’ve a chance to do something unbelievably special.
“Look I’m really disappointed. I never thought I would be this disappointed at something like this. It’s amazing when you are here what a big deal it is and how big it feels. It has been a tough day. When you are over after nine holes, it’s tough you are playing for pride then.”
Both Lowry and McIlroy now head to Memphis in the USA for the St Jude Invitational.
Collated final scores & totals in the Men’s Individual Stroke Play, Kasumigaseki Country Club, Tokyo, Japan (Par 71):
266 Xander Schauffele (USA) 68 63 68 67
267 Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 69 67 70 61
269 Chengtsung Pan (Tai) 74 66 66 63 (won Bronze at the fourth extra play-off hole), Collin Morikawa (USA) 69 70 67 63, Guillermo Mito Pereira (Chi) 69 65 68 67, Rory McIlroy (Irl) 69 66 67 67, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 67 69 66 67, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 69 64 67 69, Paul Casey (Eng) 67 68 66 68
270 Cameron Smith (Aus) 71 67 66 66, Sepp Straka (Aut) 63 71 68 68, Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 70 69 66 65
271 Corey Conners (Can) 69 71 66 65
272 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 69 69 66 68, Viktor Hovland (Nor) 68 69 71 64
273 Thomas Pieters (Bel) 65 76 64 68, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 70 69 64 70, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 68 70 68 67, Alexander Noren (Swe) 67 67 72 67, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 66 70 70 67, Scott Vincent (Zim) 73 67 66 67
274 Thomas Detry (Bel) 70 67 68 69, Shane Lowry (Irl) 70 65 68 71, Sung Jae Im (Kor) 70 73 63 68, Patrick Reed (USA) 68 71 70 65, Justin Thomas (USA) 71 70 68 65
275 Matthias Schwab (Aut) 69 69 70 67, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 66 73 67 69, Sami Valimaki (Fin) 70 70 68 67, Renato Paratore (Ita) 71 70 67 67, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 64 71 72 68
276 Ashun Wu (Chn) 72 71 67 66, Guido Migliozzi (Ita) 71 65 68 72, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 68 71 70 67
277 Romain Langasque (Fra) 69 70 69 69, Hurly Long (Ger) 70 70 70 67, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 73 67 68 69
278 Carl Yuan (Chn) 69 68 70 71, Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den) 73 68 66 71, Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn) 71 68 73 66, Adria Arnaus (Spa) 68 69 74 67
279 Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 67 72 68 72, Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 65 67 69 78, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 70 72 73 64
280 Kalle Samooja (Fin) 75 68 70 67, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 68 69 73 70, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 73 69 67 71, Henrik Norlander (Swe) 68 73 72 67, Gunn Charoenkul (Tha) 71 71 71 67
281 Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 69 72 65 75
282 Marc Leishman (Aus) 70 71 72 69, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 72 71 69 70
284 Kristian Krogh Johannessen (Nor) 72 70 71 71, Garrick Higgo (Rsa) 71 71 70 72
285 Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 66 73 76 70
287 Udayan Mane (Ind) 76 69 70 72
288 Gavin Green (Mal) 74 72 70 72, Rafael Campos (Pur) 73 73 70 72
289 Jorge Campillo (Spa) 70 75 69 75
294 Ondrej Lieser (Cze) 72 77 73 72
