RIO DE JANEIRO -- The face of defeat is, in this case, not at all ugly but rather strikingly beautiful. A USA visor partially shields it, which is helpful for American golfer Gerina Piller because at the moment, she is unable to contain her tears or answer any more questions.
There are no real answers anyway. "Golf is golf," said Piller's mother and anyone who has ever picked up a club or glimpsed the game, can understand, even where the greatest players in the world are concerned.
And so the improbable journey of a 31-year-old woman having the greatest week of her life and the worst came to an end Saturday on the Olympic Golf Course when Piller went from a tie for second through three rounds to a tie for 11th.