Attribution to Jhansen23 – Own work

There are a couple of sporting events that I will only watch when Canadians are involved, those being tennis and golf. An example would be Bianca Andrescu when she won the US Open a few years back. Injuries have hampered her, ever since.

The Canadian Open was held at the Oakdale Golf and Country Club, i Toronto this past weekend. I did not watch any of it Thursday and Friday Following the scores. After Thursday I noted that sentimental favourite, Mike Weir had a nice round. Looking at the standings if any Canadian had a shot at winning the championship, it would be Connors or Hadwin. This Nick Taylor guy had a 75, or three over. Meh.

Then Saturday came around. Followed a bit of it. Taylor had an early tee off time and shot an amazing nine under 63, to total at 11 under par. He held a lead actually for most of the day until later tee-off time golfers caught up and passed him. He was three strokes back, at the end of the day. Connors, who I thought had a decent chance was four strokes back.

Sunday comes around. Connors falls back, but this Taylor guy is hanging around. Taylor actually takes the lead. So, I start paying more attention. He bogeyed the 16th hole and lost his lead. Figures. Then he birdies both 17 and 18 and takes the lead. There are still other golfers on the course and he ends up being tied with Tommy Fleetwood at 17 under par.

Taylor has the opportunity to be the first Canadian, in 69 years, to win the Canadian open. The gallery is a home country gallery. On one hole they would sing Oh Canada!, every time a Canadian golfer teed off at the hole. Taylor himself is calm and cool, actually talking to the broadcasters while walking from one hole to the next. There was one cringeworthy moment when one of the US broadcasters actually said “Canadians are so polite” Enough already!

The playoffs was a pure classic. Both Taylor and Fleetwood had a mix of great shots and loser shots. It took four rounds to decide. It started raining too. In the fourth round, on the 18th hole, Taylor had a 72 foot putt to win. And he sunk it. Of course, the crowd goes wild.

All-in-all it was a nice feel-good story. Enjoy your Monday.