Edmonton Journal

‘Difficult’ greens Could be key to winning in Detroit

Honourary Canadian Watson calls course hosting Rocket Mortgage Classic ‘wild’

- Jon McCarthy JUST SAY NO jmccarthy@postmedia.com

Canada is known for having more than its share of left-handed golfers, including a certain Master champion, but for the past month we’ve added another green jacket-wearing lefty to our ranks.

“Because my wife’s from Canada, we’ve been in Canada for about three weeks, so my son thinks he’s a goalie now,” Bubba Watson said at Detroit Golf Club.

Watson is among a handful of top players at the inaugural Rocket Mortgage Classic, which begins Thursday. The PGA Tour schedule reshuffle that saw the PGA Championsh­ip move to May and RBC Canadian Open move to its new and improved June date, also saw the end of the Quicken Loans National, which has been replaced by this week’s event in Michigan at the Donald Ross-designed Detroit Golf Club.

“It’s pretty wild,” Watson said of the course. “I would say it’s a combinatio­n of a few of them. We were talking about Canada, we were talking about Riviera, and Travelers last week. It’s treelined, but it’s the kind of grass, the way the shots you’re hitting into the greens with the slopes and the undulation­s.”

Detroit Golf Club is a parkland style course just 15km north of downtown. Unlike Hamilton Golf and Country Club, this week’s course is on relatively flat terrain, but like Hamilton and many classic designs, it features very undulated greens. When you include Pebble Beach’s severe greens, it’s three weeks out of four the pros will be out of their normal PGA Tour habitat trying to navigate bigger breaks and bends than they are used to.

“The greens are going to be very difficult,” Watson said. “Trying to get the speed of the greens, trying to leave the ball in the right positions if you miss the greens. Right off the greens is some high rough, so around the greens it’s going to be the difficult part.”

Other top players in the field this week include Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, and U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland.

There are seven Canadians in the field.

CONERS EARNS SPOT

Corey Conners will be playing in the season’s final major next month in Northern Ireland. It was announced Wednesday the Canadian has earned a spot in July’s British Open field at Royal Portrush on the strength of his world ranking (82nd).

Adam Hadwin is the only other Canadian in the field. He punched his ticket to Ireland with his sixth place finish at the RBC Canadian Open, which was part of the The

If they want to get to the PGA Tour the best way to do it is to come up here to Canada and perform well.

Open qualifying series.

There are two more spots available this week in Detroit should a non-exempt player finish inside the top eight.

, GARY

Gary Woodland is playing in his first tournament as a major champion this week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. The advice he’s got so far this week from players who have been in his shoes is to learn how to say “no.”

“Six months will go by real fast, and if you don’t say ‘no,’ you’ll be tired. Six months from now he’ll be exhausted,” Watson said.

Woodland, 35, made the talk show rounds last week, but his caddy Brennan Little told Postmedia that it’s back to business now.

Woodland has a secret weapon for staying focused.

“Outside of being a dad, my only hobby is golf,” Woodland said after winning the U.S. Open. “And I always feel if I’m taking a day off, somebody is getting better and I’m not. So I don’t like to take time off. I like to work.”

Little, who’s from St. Thomas, Ont., told Postmedia this week that pretty much all they talk about on the course is sports. Woodland — a former basketball player — loves talking hoops, so there has been plenty of Raptors conversati­on, but Little says he’s trying to get him more into hockey.

MACKENZIE TO UR HITS TPC Toronto

Canadian Taylor Pendrith is looking forward to teeing it up close to home in a couple weeks when the Mackenzie Tour lands in Caledon, Ont. for the Osprey Valley Open.

It’s the second year for the tournament at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley and the big-hitting Pendrith — who had never been to the course until they announced last year’s tournament — has spent plenty of time at the 54-hole facility.

“I’ve probably been here 20 or so times,” Pendrith told Postmedia on Wednesday at Osprey Valley. “Now that it’s a TPC course I think you’ll start to see more and more Canadian players who have status through PGA Tour-sanctioned tours come out here and practice.”

Pendrith, 28, from Richmond Hill, is finally healthy after battling injuries for the better part of three years. TPC stands for Tournament Players Club and allows touring pros on sanctioned tours to use the facility as a home club.

With a direct line from the Mackenzie Tour to the Web.com Tour (sorry, the now Korn Ferry Tour) and a direct line from the Korn Ferry Tour to the PGA Tour, players realize Canada is an appealing place to kick-start your dream of playing on golf’s biggest stage.

Nick Taylor won on the PGA Tour just 14 months after playing in Canada. Mackenzie Hughes won just 15 months removed from the Mackenzie Tour.

“The competitio­n is at an all-time high,” Mackenzie Tour vice-president Scott Pritchard said. “If you look at the track record of players who have played this tour, we’ve got 31 guys who have made it to the PGA Tour, and of the 31 we have seven winners. So players are seeing that if they want to get to the PGA Tour the best way to do it is to come up here to Canada and perform well.”

 ?? Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports ?? Bubba Watson says the greens and the high rough around them at Detroit Golf Club will prove tricky at this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports Bubba Watson says the greens and the high rough around them at Detroit Golf Club will prove tricky at this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic.
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