SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France >> British golfer Tommy Fleetwood is on familiar turf and chasing another gold trophy at Le Golf National, this one an Olympic medal instead of that 17-inch Ryder Cup trophy.

The medal chase in men’s golf began to take shape Friday with Fleetwood sharing the 36-hole lead with defending Olympic champion Xander Schauffele and Hideki Matsuyama, giving another sellout crowd plenty of star power at the top.

Schauffele was slowed by ants in the rough and posted a 5-under 66, tying the 36-hole Olympic record he set at the Tokyo Games. He was joined by a pair of sloppy finishes. Fleetwood took bogey from a fairway bunker for a 64, while Matsuyama went from rough to water for a double bogey on the 18th and a 68.

They were at 11-under 131, two ahead of Jon Rahm (66).

Schauffele appears to be on auto-pilot at times, not missing a step from winning the British Open for his second major of the year.

Fleetwood, however, has the experience on this track. He won the French Open at Le Golf National in 2017 and then starred in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory a year later, going 4-1 in his matches.

“You’re always better off coming to a course where you have good feelings and good things have happened. So I’ll definitely draw on those,” he said. “But again, I have to stand up there tomorrow and hit the golf shots. Nothing that’s happened in the past is going to do it for me.

“It’s better having good feelings than having a course that’s battered you to pieces.”

Schauffele had three straight birdies around the turn and was making it look easy until one bad drive on the 13th and one weird lie. The ball was buried so deep a marshal stuck his finger in the tall grass to show him where it was. Schauffele noticed something else — ants.

He was trying to position his club when he saw something behind his golf ball.

“It was a pile of ants, an ant pile, whatever you want to call it,” he said.

There is free relief from a dangerous animal — fire ants are cited in the rules — but these weren’t the dangerous variety. One official said Schauffele could scrape it away with his club, only Schauffele wasn’t sure about that. A second official said he could use his tee to scrape away the pile. All that for a shot that he could only hack out some 50 yards, leading to a bogey.

That was the extent of his drama for the day.

“Five under is a good score on this property,” he said. “Overall, sitting in a good spot coming into the weekend.”

Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player, shot 31 on the back nine for 69 and was five shots behind.