Blogs The Hole Truth

Adam Hadwin is the low Canadian after two rounds at the RBC Canadian Open and the Canadian Tour regular is enjoying the spotlight at St. Georges. He’s four back of the lead set by Tim Clark and Dean Wilson after a 66 today.

He took advantage of the perqs offered up for the players and did so in down-to-earth Canadian fashion.

Here’s the transcript from his post-round interview today.

Q. You’re going to probably have a later tee time tomorrow.

ADAM HADWIN: Yeah.

Q. Obviously some of the guys are going to have to come back and finish tomorrow morning. What are you going to do with yourself now?

ADAM HADWIN: I’m going to the Argos game tonight.

Q. Are you?

ADAM HADWIN: Oh, yeah. Lions are in town. I gotta go cheer for my Lions. I talked to player services. I got tickets, and I’m going to the game tonight.

Q. So a couple of beers?

ADAM HADWIN: Might have a couple, yeah. I am legal age here right? Okay. I just want to make sure.

Q. You were able to get tickets?

ADAM HADWIN: Yeah. I got an extra one if you want to come. (Laughs). No, I’m just going to enjoy my night.

Q. Are you staying in town?

ADAM HADWIN: Yeah. I’m actually staying with a very nice family, the Durans. They’re just down the straight, and a member from my golf course back home, it’s his brother, so they invited me in their home, and I can’t thank them enough for that.

Q. Will you sleep easily on this?

ADAM HADWIN: I’ve slept well the last two nights. That’s one thing I’ve really never had an issue with is sleeping.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m pretty lazy, and it’s a pretty comfortable bed, so once I hit the pillow, I’m usually out.

Interesting to hear today Tiger Woods is switching out putters for the British Open, dropping the Scotty Cameron model he has used since 1999 and to win 13 of his 14 majors.

Woods is going to put Nike’s Method putter in his bag at St. Andrews, his belief being the putter will help him cope with the slow greens (running less than 10 feet on the Stimpmeter, apparently).

I had a chance to go to the Nike R&D facility in Fort Worth, Tex., in January – where the Method putter was developed – and heard the engineers talking about how Woods told them they made a great putter – it just wasn’t better than his Cameron.

In an awkward moment, one of the engineers compared Woods switching putters to a divorce (this was, of course, after hell had broken loose after his car accident).

The Method’s story is a grooved face that has polymer extruded through the face and trimmed. The edges of the grooves, so the theory goes, grips the ball and gets it rolling quicker, eliminating the skid that dogs all putts in their early stages.

Woods seems to think that will help this week on St. Andrews’ slower surfaces.

Paul Goydos, one of my favourites on the PGA Tour for his self-deprecating humour and sideways view of things, shot 59 today at the John Deere Classic.

He had eight birdies and a par on the back nine for a 28…that one par must have felt like a double.

He just said most golfers look forward to shooting their age.

He said he shot his height.

The play is underway at the U.S. Women’s Open at Oakmont and there’s a pretty good Canadian representation in the field.

Ten Canadians equals the most in the field in the history of the event.  Veteran pro Lorie Kane is one of them as is Alena Sharp, Canada’s highest-ranked player.

What’s encouraging for the future is five members of both Canada’s national team and its developmental squad are in the field which indicates we’ve got some talent on the way up.

Rebecca Lee-Bentham, from B.C., reached the semifinals of the British Women’s Amateur. Jennifer Kirby and Sara-Maude Juneau made it to the quarterfinals.

Kirby, Juneau and Nicole Vandermade are the members of the national team while Lee-Bentham and Christine Wong are members of the developmental squad. Amateur Nicole Zhang of Calgary also earned her way into the tournament.

Also interesting to note is that Sharp, Kirby and Vandermade all play out of the Brantford Golf and Country Club. Other clubs should be taking a look at Brantford’s junior program.

Rounding out the Canadian contingent are pros Samantha Richdale of Kelowna, B.C., and Kirby Dreher of Fort St. John, B.C.

The last time there were this many Canadians in a U.S. Open field was 1998.

Mike Weir will tee off in the second-to-last group at the U.S. Open this morning (10:35 a.m. EDT), an afterthought in the tournament after tieing his high-round in a major tournament with an 83 Saturday. That came after a 79 in the second round Friday to make the cut on the number, save by the “everybody within 10 shots of the lead” rule.

Weir was only saved by having to play by himself this morning because Pablo Martin – also tied for last with Weir –  came in after him and the rule among tied players is “first in, first out.”

I’ve always been a guy to give Weir the benefit of the doubt in the face of some fans which make the argument Weir has been over-hyped and was lucky to win the 2003 Masters when all the big guns disappeared and he was left to beat Len Mattiace in a playoff.

Weir has had the best career of any Canadian pro. He needs one more win to give him nine which will be the most by a Canadian. But I think it’s fair to wonder if he’s ever going to get that win now. He’s is clearly struggling after abandoning the Stack and Tilt approach and going back to old coach Mike Wilson. He’s not getting any younger.

But I still think Weir has at least another win in him. He’s a hard worker and, with his first round 70 Thursday, showed he can still put it together. His problem is doing it for four rounds.

I’m not ready to write him off yet.

You?

I think tomorrow’s U.S. Open is going to be decided in those first seven holes at Pebble Beach.

Those holes have been playing the easiest on the course so far, so I think whoever gets off to the best start there will wind up winning the tournament. That is where Tiger Woods needs to make his move his to close the gap on leader Dustin Johnson. If Johnson, the big hitter, can match his challengers on those first seven holes, I think he will be able to hang on for victory.

Once the players get by those first seven holes, it just becomes a battle of attrition and tough for anybody to make up ground.

One of the interesting things to do in the lead up to the U.S. Open is breaking down the pairings for the first two rounds.

The first one is the threesome that used to be known as the “p—k pairing,” the three guys nobody liked, didn’t want to play with and wound up together. They don’t do that anymore since folks got wise to reading the USGA tea leaves.

•There is the “All Quote” group with Stuart Appleby, Rory Sabbatini and Calgary’s Stephen Ames.

•There are  the one major wonders (they all have one major, the British Open): David Duval, Tom Lehman and Ben Curtis.

•Playing right behind them are three of the best players never to have won a major: Sergio Garcia, Steve Stricker and Paul Casey.

•Then there are the kids Ryo Ishikawa (18) and Rory McIlroy (21) with Tom Watson, 60, who could be their grandfather.

•There is Down Under group (all Australians): Adam Scott, Geoff Ogilvy and Robert Allenby.

•Playing right in front of them is the All-Short group: Tim Clark, K.J. Choi and Mike Weir, all guys who are less than 5-foot-9.

See any others that stand out?

Robert Garrigus, who is leading going into the final round of the St. Jude tourney on the PGA Tour, is going after his first PGA Tour win.

But he’s got some inspiration this week.

He’s a huge Chicago Blackhawks fan.

“If figure if Blackhawks can win the Stanley Cup, I can win a PGA Tour event,” said the 32-year-old native of Nampa, Ind.

Plus, you’ve got to like a guy whose favourite movie is “The Hangover.”

I’ll be rooting for him Sunday.

Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey, ex-Big Break participant, won for the first time on the Nationwide Tour today.

Interesting to see a player from the Golf Channel’s reality show have a breakthrough like this since most of the players who have been on the show look like they’d have trouble winning the A Flight at your club.

Two Gloves is the rare exception who has improved and accomplished something.

From The Sports Network:

Tommy Gainey closed with a six-under 65 Sunday to pick up his first Nationwide Tour win at the Melwood Prince George’s County Open.

Gainey finished the event at 17-under-par 267.

Frank Lickliter II (66) and third-round co-leader Jin Park (69) shared second place at minus-16.

B.J. Staten, who shared the third-round lead with Park, stumbled to a six-over 77 on the University of Maryland Golf Course to tumble into a share of 30th at minus-eight.

He just said so. On the sixth tee at Augusta.
So much for not getting too high or too low, eh?