Brush with history
Jared du Toit runs out of magic at Open,
When Jared du Toit checked into an Oakville emergency room late Saturday night, he was seeking a remedy to help him breathe.
Maybe it was just a coincidence that the 21-year-old amateur from B.C. was due on the first tee at Glen Abbey Golf Club in a little more than 14 hours, when he would tee off in the final group of the final round of the RBC Canadian Open sitting a shot behind third-round leader Brandt Snedeker.
Playing in front of all those people for the chance of becoming the first Canadian to win the national championship since 1954 — let’s just say the experience had taken the wind out of more than a few compatriots who’d come before him.
But du Toit wasn’t pleading nervous breathlessness. He’d been battling what he thought was a cold for a couple of weeks. But his symptoms had gotten worse as his first week on the PGA Tour got better, going from first-round curiosity to championship contender. On Saturday night at the emergency room he was diagnosed with bronchitis, prescribed an inhaler and sent back to his hotel around midnight to convalesce.
“(At the hospital) I was thinking, ‘Get me out of this gown,’ ” du Toit said. “I kind of felt not 100 per cent all week. But you know the old saying, ‘Beware the sick golfer.’ I think that’s true.”
In the end, after du Toit high-fived his way through a memorable day of rah-rah patriotism at the Abbey, the sick golfer didn’t win.
That honour went to Venezuelan pro Jhonattan Vegas, who began the day in 15th place before shooting a final-round 64 that brought him to 12 under par for the tournament. That was good enough to edge out a second-place trio that included world No. 2 Dustin Johnson, Scottish pro Martin Laird and du Toit’s former Arizona State University teammate Jon Rahm.
Du Toit, battling a wayward tee game to go with the expected nerves, still managed to shoot a one-under-par round of 71 to finish tied for ninth at nine under.
This was not a case of the final-round flu.
That’s the affliction that rendered, say, a Masters champion named Mike Weir suddenly allergic to the bottom of the hole in 2004, when he missed a trio of putts that could have won him the open at the Abbey. Amateur winners are extremely rare on the PGA Tour, where pressure-hardened pros almost always rule the leaderboard.
In 107 playings of the Canadian Open, an amateur has only Open once — 60 years ago this month, when a 22-year-old Florida insurance salesman named Doug Sanders beat the pros and became one shortly thereafter. And it had been more than 25 years since a non-professional had managed a victory on the tour. He was Phil Mickelson, the now 46-year-old great of the game who went on to prove that his breakthrough as a 20-year-old student at the 1991 Northern Telecom Open was no fluke. Mickelson, like du Toit, was attending Arizona State during his big moment. And Mickelson, like du Toit and all amateurs who enter tour events, was not the recipient of prize money for his impressive labours. The other ninth-place finishers earned $159,000 (U.S.) apiece.
Still, a victory would have posed an interesting problem for du Toit. While he wouldn’t have cashed the winner’s cheque, he would have been granted the winner’s privileges — specifically a two-year full exemption to tour events. The kicker, though, was this: He would have had to accept the invitation to join the tour within 60 days, a prospect that would have nixed his plan to play his upcoming senior season at Arizona State. For players who aspire to pro careers, though, two-year exemptions aren’t to be turned down. It would have been difficult to fathom a scenario in which du Toit didn’t immediately turn pro.
In any event, as du Toit said after it was over: “It was nice to see I could compete out here with the guys. You see ’em on TV all the time, you think they’re gods. I thought all of them were gods growing up. But to see I could compete with them — it’s an unbelievable experience.”
Du Toit said he’ll return to Arizona State for his senior season. But for most of the tournament, he looked every bit a pro. He punctuated Saturday’s third round with a 40-foot eagle putt on the 18th hole that lifted him within a shot of the tournament lead, this before he was serenaded with a greenside rendition of “O Canada.” And come Sunday he was nobody’s picture of a cowering mess. He seemed to embrace the moment, actually, slapping hands with the throngs as he walked between holes, making polite conversation with fans along the fairway.
More than once he chatted with Snedeker as they made their way around Jack Nicklaus’s 40-year-old design.
“You going to the PGA?” du Toit asked his playing partner. Snedeker replied that, yes, he was going, and that the tournament was at Baltusrol in New Jersey, where none other than Mickelson claimed victory the last time the PGA Championship was contested there back in 2005.
But du Toit wasn’t on his ballstriking game from the get-go. He plopped his opening tee shot into a bunker — the first of too many dalliances with sandy hazards. He ended up plugged near the lip of a greenside trap on the birdie-able No. 2, where he had to chip out sideways and settle for par. On a day when the conditions were docile and red numbers were rampant, he bogeyed two of his opening six holes and didn’t make his first birdie until the eighth.
But many of his pro brethren also struggled to seize the moment all week. Canada’s biggest names, among them Graham DeLaet, David Hearn and Weir, all missed the cut. Snedeker, who won here in 2013, shot one under par on Sunday to finish tied for fifth. Tour veteran Steve Wheatcroft, needing a birdie to force a playoff on No. 18, sculled a greenside bunker shot into the water en route to a bogey that sunk his chances.
Said du Toit, after he doffed his cap to an appreciative crowd: “To not have my best stuff and still shoot one under par in the final round of the Canadian Open — it feels pretty good. I think it’s safe to say this has been the best week of my life — so far.”