Leaderboard packed with plotlines
Johnson, Singh (!) and two homebrews well within range
With a purse of $6 million and a winner’s share of $1.08 million (all figures U.S.), it’s fair to say the stakes are inherently high at the RBC Canadian Open.
But as the tournament moved toward its scheduled Sunday conclusion at Oakville’s Glen Abbey Golf Club, with Martin Flores holding the 36-hole lead at 12 under par, the stakes were also very different for different players — massive for some, minimal for others.
Those in the “massive” camp were mostly wearing the national colours in Friday’s second round. It was Red and White Day, with all 17 Canadians in the field encouraged to comply with the suggested dress code. And if it was a harmless enough detail, maybe it was also another reminder that Canada’s pro golfers, it can be argued, are at a distinct disadvantage on Canadian soil.
For the reigning princes of this rich man’s sport, most of whom hail from the United States, our national championship is, after all, simply another stop on an endless travel loop. And maybe there’s something freeing about the relative lack of attention and scrutiny the tournament receives.
For Dustin Johnson, the world No. 1, maybe this week is a chance to re-find the form that’s abandoned him since a back injury he suffered falling down a hardwood staircase in stocking feet at his rental home at the Masters. Maybe Johnson’s respectable beginning — eight under par after two rounds — means he’s finally getting the kinks out.
For Vijay Singh, the 54-year-old golf hall of famer who finds himself two shots out of the lead heading into Saturday, maybe it’ll be a demonstration of incredible endurance. The last time he won on tour, after all, was 2008.
Still, when it comes time to write the story of their careers, in all likelihood the events of this week won’t feature prominently.
If things go well for Canada’s best pros, the same will certainly not be true. Every Canadian golf fan knows a Canadian hasn’t won this tournament since Pat Fletcher circa 1954. And if the weight of that history gets a smidgeon heavier every year — well, that’ll make an eventual home-soil win even more impressive. Heading into Saturday’s third round, Graham DeLaet and Mackenzie Hughes represent the latest best hope at a long-sought breakthrough. DeLaet’s Friday 68 put him eight under par for the championship.
That’s four shots off Flores’s pace and tied with Hughes, who shot a Friday 69.
“We’re all here to try to (break) the curse — the Pat Fletcher curse, if that’s what we’re going to call it now,” said DeLaet, speaking for his countrymen. “We all want to hoist the trophy.”
That dream won’t come true for Ryan Williams, the 36-year-old Vancouver veteran of the domestic professional scene. He counted himself among the 15 members of the 17-man Canadian field who missed the 36-hole cut of four under par. (As grim consolations go, it’s worth noting that five Canadians, among them PGA Tour regulars David Hearn and Nick Taylor, only missed out on playing on the weekend by a single shot.)
None of that changed the fact that for Williams, the 108th edition of Canada’s national open also happened to be a seismic personal milestone. Williams has been described as one of golf’s ultimate grinders. He is, to use baseball parlance, a career minor leaguer, recently logging his 99th start on the awkwardly named Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada. Now, there’s nothing wrong with playing on what used to be called the Canadian Tour. Mike Weir, no less than Canada’s greatest golfer (and who, at age 47, finished at one over par for the tournament) spent years there, too. So have plenty of future PGA Tour winners.
A former Junior-A hockey player, Williams didn’t compete in golf as a kid. He didn’t play college or amateur golf, either, unlike the vast majority of his peers in the pro game. Upon retiring from hockey in his early 20s, he soon gravitated to golf, becoming a teaching pro before dabbling in competition. It’s been more than 10 years since he committed to working his way through golf’s professional ranks. So before the tournament began on Friday, Williams was understandably beaming.
“It’s pretty cool to be among the game’s best. It’s a dream come true,” Williams said. “But it is just golf.”
It’s just golf, sure. But golf is a mental game. And maybe the fact that Williams didn’t play as well as he would have liked here — following up a Thursday 78 with a Friday 77 to miss the cut — had something to do with the nature of his personal stake in this particular moment.
“More than anything, you realize that if you play well, it could change your career around,” Phil Jonas, Williams’s longtime coach, said this week. “And the issue is, when you’re 20, it’s a lot easier to play in that predicament. But when you’re 30 or 35, you start thinking, ‘How many chances am I going to get to turn my career around?’ And it becomes difficult.”
It’s never easy. You can be sure Flores, a 35-year-old Texan who has never won a PGA Tour event, will have to battle his own mental bugaboos if he’s to triumph. He may not be playing for the home team, but he’s essentially playing for his job, currently sitting 151st in the FedEx Cup standings and looking to find his way into the coveted top 125, which comes with full 2018 playing privileges. And given the softness of the greens and the lowness of the scores, Flores pointed out that whoever wins this thing is going to need to put together another two stellar rounds.
“You’ve just got to keep attacking,” Flores said.
DeLaet, who’s been a PGA Tour regular for eight years, is going for his first win, too. But this one wouldn’t be just any victory.
“I think there’s added pressure (being Canadian),” DeLaet said. “There’s pressure no matter what when you’re coming into the weekend in contention, but you want to play well, more, this week, because it is your national open. It means a lot to you. I think that’s the key, is to try to treat it as another golf tournament.”
That promises to be a formidable mind trick for anyone who contemplates this weekend’s stakes and feels the butterflies inside.
Said Hughes: “I wish there were 17 Canadians eight under or better. It would have been really fun to get a bunch of guys in the mix. But yeah, it’s nice to have (DeLaet) in there and not to be the Lone Ranger going out there on the weekend. I’m excited about the challenge ahead and hopefully it can get exciting.”