American Xander Schauffele clinched the Olympic men's golf gold medal on a nail-biting final day that ended with a seven-way play-off for the bronze medal.

CT Pan of Chinese Taipei finally claimed it on the fourth knockout hole, with Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Great Britain's Paul Casey eliminated earlier.

The drama continued as Pan pipped Open champion Collin Morikawa to bronze in a play-off that also included McIlroy, Casey, Japan's Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama, Chile's Mito Pereira and Colombian Sebastian Munoz.

Schauffele led by one shot heading into the final day and stretched that advantage to three strokes with a birdie-birdie start, adding two more before the turn.

Schauffele took a penalty drop on that hole after leaking a drive into the bushes and then caught a branch on his downswing, escaping with just the one dropped shot as he went on to complete a final round of 67.

The 27-year-old spoke before the Games about how his father and swing coach, Stefan, was a former German decathlete whose own ambitions of competing at an Olympics were ended when he was left blind in one eye after a car accident.

There was a nervy, errant drive on the final hole but the world number five held his nerve to sink a gold medal-clinching par putt.

A seven-way play-off is extremely rare at the highest level of golf and unprecedented to decide who finishes third.

Britain's Casey was the first to drop out after failing to recover from a wayward drive, with home favourite Matsuyama also falling at the first hurdle.

The final pair headed back to the 18th but when Morikawa found a bunker it opened up for Pan and the world number 208 made his par to take bronze.

Justin Rose won gold for Britain in Rio five years ago and Casey was in contention for a medal all week before his hopes ended in the play-off.

GB team-mate Tommy Fleetwood posted a fourth successive under-par round of 70 that included an eagle, four birdies and five bogeys to finish tied 16th at 11 under.