Weir sentimental favourite at Canadian Open
Affable veteran tamed Tiger in last trip to Royal Montreal
It was 1:15 p.m. on this perfect Thursday summer afternoon when Canada’s Mike Weir was announced on the first tee of Royal Montreal.
The gallery was horseshoed a few deep around the tee box and continued behind the ropes on both sides down into the lush fairway, these fans enthusiastically patriotic but also politely welcoming the two others in Weir’s group: Luke Donald of England and Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland.
This gathering in no way resembled the lunatics on the fringe — and that is said in the nicest way — that Weir had last played for at Royal Montreal. That would have been Sept. 30, 2007, a heavymetal concert performed on a stage of grass, sand and water.
It was at the 2007 Presidents Cup that professional golf was transformed into madness on Île-Bizard, mosh pits nearly formed when Weir went head-to-head in a finalday singles match against Tiger Woods. No one at Royal Montreal that day, or in this country perhaps ever — before or since — could say they had witnessed a more thrilling 18-hole duel.
Weir would beat Woods 1-up — by a single hole over 18 holes — on the final day of the event pitting Weir’s International side against the U.S., featuring Woods.
But a nail-biting score typed almost seven years after the fact can’t capture even a hint of the atmosphere at Royal Montreal that autumn afternoon, roughly 30,000 spectators living and dying with every swing of the homeboy’s left-lofted clubs.
Weir is playing his 24th RBC Canadian Open this week, his third on the historic Blue course. He missed the cut on his first try in 1997, then tied for 34th in 2001.
His scorecard Thursday showed four birdies and four bogeys for an even-par 70, six strokes off the lead jointly held by Americans Michael Putnam and Tim Petrovic.
Truly remarkable was the seven-birdie 5-under 65 fired by 23-year-old amateur Taylor Pendrith, the best of 19 Canadians in the field.
Currently No. 18 on the world amateur ranking, the Richmond Hill, Ont., native was granted an exemption last week to play in his first Canadian Open and he’s pounced on the chance, just one shot off the lead.
David Hearn of Brampton, Ont., was the best of Canada’s pros, shooting a 3-under 67.
Weir has come close in the Canadian Open, losing a three-hole playoff to Vijay Singh at Glen Abbey in 2004, the year after he’d won the Masters. But Weir has missed the cut four times in his nine visits since, his best finish a tie for fifth in 2008.
The personable, 44-yearold native of Brights Grove, Ont., clearly is a sentimental favourite this week, no matter that he’s ranked only 258th in the world, well back of countrymen Graham DeLaet (38th), who shot 1-under Thursday, and Hearn (93rd).
It’s been 60 years since a Canadian has won this championship, former longtime Royal Montreal pro Pat Fletcher turning the trick at Point Grey in Vancouver in 1954. Fletcher’s win was the first by a Canadian since Karl Keffer cashed a $100 firstprize cheque in 1914.
“It’s going to end at some point,” Weir said of the drought, speaking on the eve of this tournament. “Hopefully, if it’s not myself, another Canadian gets it done this week. It would be a nice streak to get over so we don’t have to talk about it anymore.”
I first sat with Weir in 2001 at Royal Montreal, throwing 20 mostly irreverent questions at him for a Q&A interview, and his sense of humour was delightful.
How often had he blamed a caddy for a rotten shot? “I can’t count that high,” he replied with a laugh. “The No. 1 rule for a professional golfer is, ‘It’s never my fault.’”
Song he’s most likely to sing in the shower? “Usually it’s Chevy Chase in Caddyshack, when he’s drunk at the piano singing ‘I Was Born To Love You’ to Lacey Underall.”
Most embarrassing moment in golf? “The first time I qualified for the Canadian Open, in Monday qualifying. I was 18 and I stood on the first hole at Glen Abbey and on the first shot I ever hit in this tournament, I duckhooked it right into the corporate tents.”
Weir began Thursday’s round with another hook, but a much gentler one on a 258-yard drive into the light rough that he lifted beautifully to the green for a twoputt par.
His gallery swelled through the afternoon, and expect it to be of generous size Friday and through the weekend, should he make the cut.
Many strolling Royal Montreal this week will be pulling for Weir to play 72 holes, recalling his brilliant showing on this real estate in the Presidents Cup. Often lost in the romance of it is the fact that he was a captain’s pick to the International squad, an arbitrary selection of Internationals captain Gary Player that often was criticized as the event neared.
All that Weir had done was lobby heavily to bring the event to Canada, promote it constantly, battle to be considered for the Internationals and then become his team’s best player, featured in its most electrifying match.
The U.S. would hammer the Internationals 19-1/2 to 14-1/2 points, the Americans clinching the title in another match while Weir and Woods were walking up the 18th fairway.
The Internationals needed to win 10 of 12 Sunday matches to score a seemingly impossible victory, and they gave it a shot, winning seven. But to the delirious gallery, Weir’s slaying of Tiger was worth a dozen Presidents Cup team victories.
Fans owed the duel to captains Player and Jack Nicklaus, the latter in charge of the U.S. With the scoreboard going into the final day as lopsided as it was, Weir and Woods could have been matched against 11 other men in situations of far less attention. Instead, Player and Nicklaus put the host nation’s hero against the world’s most popular player in a dream matchup.
Weir would take a 3-up lead and there he sat through 10 holes, when Woods mounted a dazzling comeback that put him up by one on the 15th.
Weir drained a 10-foot birdie on No. 17 to even the match, the entire course holding its breath but for the one yahoo who bellowed, “We’ll love you even if you miss it, Mike!” an instant before the putt was stroked.
So down to No. 18 it came, and Woods dunked his 295-yard drive into the drink on the left, taking a one-stroke penalty. His third shot was 62 feet short, while Weir’s second settled 15 feet from the pin.
Woods chipped to within a half-foot and conceded Weir the hole and the match, and Royal Montreal trembled like Caddyshack’s Bushwood Country Club when assistant superintendent Carl Spackler detonated his subterranean dynamite in the final scene.
Weir didn’t indicate Thursday that he’d make the earth move like Bushwood this weekend, but his pedestrian opening round did little to diminish his star quality.
There were still thank-yous coming during Mikey’s walk for his stunning performance his last time here, the day he beat Tiger and the unthinkable pressure that had given him every reason to lose.