Swafford proves his point at Glen Abbey

Fires 7-under 65 to share lead at Canadian Open

When Hudson Swafford described Glen Abbey Golf Course on Thursday as “gettable,” it sounded like he had just made up a word.

But, there it was in the Merriam-Webster. Gettable: “capable of being got.”

Swafford, it turned out, was quite correct. Morning rains softened the Abbey considerably for the first round of the RBC Canadian Open, on top of what has already been a damp spring and summer in these parts. With little to no wind in the air, the course was defenceless. It was, indeed, capable of being got. Swafford made five birdies in a row on the way to a 7- under 65, part of a large group tied at the top. Another whole mess of players were a shot back at 66. Mackenzie Hughes had the best score among the 17 Canadians in the field, at 67. Graham DeLaet shot a 4- under 68, while David Hearn and Nick Taylor were at 69.

Swafford made five birdies in a row on the way to a 7- under 65, where he was joined by Brandon Hagy. A whole mess of players were at 66 among early starters, with the afternoon flight still to complete play.

“It’s about as gettable as I’ ve seen this golf course, but it’ s in great shape ,” Swafford said. “The greens are perfect. So you can make some putts. I was just trying to give myself as many chances as possible.”

This is the third year in a row and 29th time overall in which the men’s national open has been played at Glen Abbey, which at 7,253 yards is short by PGA Tour standards. The past two years the course has been firm and fast, which takes driver out of the equation on a number of the shorter holes because players don’t want their ball to run through the fairways, which have a lot of angles and corners. But, not so on Thursday.

“I hit driver I think every- where except the last hole, No. 9,” said Bubba Watson, who began his round on the back nine and shot what l ooked l i ke a pedestrian 6- under 66. “Just trying to have short irons in here. The rough’s not too high, so it’s a little bit easier than British Open rough. So it was good.”

Watson’s round was an example of the degree to which a Tour pro, especially a longhitting one, can overwhelm a course like Glen Abbey when the weather dulls its teeth. There are three par-5s on the final six holes, none longer than 558 yards.

On the 13th, Watson hit a 310-yard drive and a 225-yard approach to the left greenside rough, then a short pitch to six feet for a birdie. On the 16th, he hit a wayward drive left, could only advance the ball 150 yards, and still hit his third shot, an 86-yard wedge, to six feet for a birdie. On the 18th, Watson bombed a drive and hit his second shot to 30 feet from the pin, then lagged an eagle putt and converted the short birdie attempt. This is not the golf that Jack Nicklaus had in mind when he designed Glen Abbey 40 years ago.

So, Bubba, was it as easy as it looked?

“No,” said Watson, who played in the final group here with Brantford’s David Hearn in 2015 when Jason Day won with a Sunday charge. “It’s always — it’s golf. In my head it was very difficult,” Watson said.

Some of Watson’s colleagues acknowledged that it wasn’t all that difficult.

“Hopefully, the wind picks up a little bit and starts drying out the golf course, because I know the course can play fiery,” said Smylie Kaufman, who also had a 6- under 66.

“It played very soft today and I definitely took advantage of having some wedges into holes and getting it close to holes and making some birdies.”

The unfortunate thing about Tour golf today is that, unless an event is played at one of the monster U.S. Open venues that measure 7,700 yards or longer, or at somewhere unusually tight, modern equipment and balls in the hands of the legions of pros who can rip it off the tee will bring very low scores in favourable conditions.

It’s a fact that, among other reasons, makes it difficult for Golf Canada to move this tournament around the country. There are all kinds of great courses in Canada, but not many that can rein in the power of PGA Tour hitters. Glen Abbey was specifically built for that purpose, but on a day like Thursday it can end up being thoroughly pantsed.

Hagy, the leader in driving distance on Tour this season with an average bomb of 318 yards, said that in the practice rounds he felt like he would not be able to hit drivers without running through a lot of those corners.

“But, with that rain it definitely creates some softness where you could land it and control the ball,” he said after his 65, tied for the co-lead. “It definitely gave me a little bit more freedom to bomb it out there and if I was in the rough, I knew I was still going to be able to stop it.”

On the 16th hole, Hagy made birdie by rather unconventional means. He pushed his drive deep and right, but the ball hit a spectator squarely in the back and kicked back into the fairway.

“I’m like, ‘ Oh, geez’,” Hagy said. “I’ve never really had that happen before, but signed a ball for him and was able to make birdie.”

There are, as the saying goes, no pictures on the scorecard.