In pics: Olympic legend at Le Golf National ahead of golf tee off, Tom Kim welcomes him

Tom Kim welcomed Olympic legend Michael Phelps as a spectator at the Le Golf National. The men's golf competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics has commenced in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. Phelps was seen cheering on the golfers at the quadrennial Games.

Phelps was wearing sunglasses and a green caddie bib over a navy blue polo shirt with red accents on the sleeves. He was sporting a beard with his hair tied back in a bun at Le Golf. The official X (formerly Twitter) handle of Olympic Golf shared his pictures and wrote:

"This wins the gold medal for best selfie."

The official handle of the PGA Tour also shared of Phelps with Kim on X and captioned the post:

"Big @OlympicGolf fan @MichaelPhelps | @JoohyungKim0621"

Phelps shared the starting tee-offs of Tommy Fleetwood, Wyndham Clark, Jason Day, Scottie Scheffler, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg, Rory Mcllroy, Scottie Scheffler, and Kim on his Instagram Stories.

For Phelps, golf isn't a new sport, as he's regularly seen around golf courses after his retirement in 2016. He played at the 2022 Icon Icon Series golf tournament.

In a January 2024 interview with Golf.com, the 39-year-old talked about becoming a scratch golfer. He said:

"I know that to get to a scratch golfer, that’s going to take time. It’s going to take practice. It’s going to take a lot of energy. And that’s something that I’m excited to do, because that’s what I did in order to accomplish the goals that I did in the sport of swimming. So it kinda gives me that competitive focus and a way for me to channel that energy nowadays."

Even before his retirement, Phelps registered a record to his name for sinking the longest putt televised from 159 feet at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

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How is Tom Kim performing at Le Golf National at the Paris Olympics 2024?

Tom Kim started strongly at Le Golf National. The Korean player is paired with Sepp Straka (AUT) and Jason Day (AUS) for the first round of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Kim notched four birdies, on the 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 8th holes, on the front nine. After nine holes, he had an aggregate score of 4-under 32. At the time of writing, he is tied for third with Joaquin Niemann and Ryan Fox.

Hideki Matsuyama of Japan is on the top of the leaderboard at the 2024 Olympics with a score of 6-under 37 in 11 holes. He is tied with Matthias Schmid of Germany in the second position with a score of 6 under 50 in 14 holes at Le Golf.

The top 15 players and ties on the leaderboard at Le Golf, at the time of writing, are as follows:

• T1. Matthias Schmid: -6 (14)
• T1. Hideki Matsuyama: -6 (11)
• T3. Joaquin Niemann: -4 (13)
• T3. Ryan Fox: -4 (12)
• T3. Tom Kim: -4 (10)
• T3. Sami Valimaki: -4 (6)
• T7. C.T. Pan: -3 (14)
• T7. Tommy Fleetwood: -3 (11)
• T7. Jason Day: -3 (10)
• T7. Scottie Scheffler: -3 (9)
• T7. Rory McIlroy: -3 (9)
• T7. Ludvig Åberg: -3 (9)
• T7. David Puig: -3 (6)
• T7. Byeong Hun An: -3 (3)
• T15. Alejandro Tosti: -2 (13)
• T15. Emiliano Grillo: -2 (12)
• T15. Corey Conners: -2 (12)
• T15. Zecheng Dou: -2 (7)
• T15. Nicolai Højgaard: -2 (4)
• T15. Xander Schauffele: -2 (3)
• T15. Viktor Hovland: -2 (3)

More updates on the men's golf event at the Paris Olympics will be available as the event progresses.