So the Canadian Open field was fully announced on Friday, though according to [photopress:canadian_open.jpg,full,alignright]the Toronto Star, the RCGA had some sort of computer glitch that complicated the process of getting all the names that have entered.
Canadian Open tournament director told the Toronto Star that he was “happier now than I was 12 to 15 months ago. Certainly you would want a lot of other people in the field, but I like the challenge and we’ve got a good field.”
Indeed, I think I’d call the field basically average to poor, and with the exception of Vijay Singh and Jim Furyk, I would call it pretty short on stars. It would be an exaggeration to call it strong. And Davis Love III, the fellow who reworked Angus Glen’s North Course for the tournament made his unofficial maybe official — he’s not coming, despite missing the cut at the British Open.
Given a cursory look at the list of players (and noting past winner Scott Verplank — 2001 — isn’t in the field), there are only two players in the Top 10 in the World Golf Rankings (Furyk and Singh) and only five total from the World Top 50 (including Ames, Weir and John Rollins). That’s actually a pretty weak field and in line with what the Greater Milwaukee Open (the event that has historically followed the British Open) has received in the past.
So much, I guess, for the great support the FedEx Cup was going to generate. The new event, with its $10-million payoff, was supposed to bring players to events like the Canadian Open. In truth, this might be the weakest field in recent memory. Imagine if Furyk hadn’t won and Singh didn’t have a corporate commitment in PEI the Monday following the Canadian Open. Imagine if we didn’t have two Canadians in the Top 50? Then your best player would be John Rollins, and he’s certainly a crowd pleaser.
Of course there are some interesting players in the field who haven’t played well lately, including Bob Tway, Steve Elkington, Justin Leonard and John Daly (as if anyone still cares). But there aren’t many young guns (no Anthony Kim, for example), and apparently very few intereted in scooping up the supposedly important FedEx points.
Interestingly PGA Tour exec Ty Votaw said we could talk about the role of the FedEx Cup once the Canadian Open was announced. but otherwise it was too early to consider the Canadian Open in trouble. I think it is time to have that chat.
From a Canadian perspective, apparently the exemption committee at the RCGA doesn’t pay much attention to the World Rankings list. Otherwise they may have looked at the Canadian list and offered recent Telus Edmonton Open winner Dustin Risdon an exemption — as he’s ranked 10th among Canadians on the list and ahead of the likes of James Lepp and David Morland, both of whom were offered places in the tournament. He has the right to be pissed, in my mind anyway. And what about Rick Gibson? I bet he would have come for an exemption and he’s currently our fifth ranked player in the world.
Which does make one wonder about the wisdom of handing out exemptions to Andrew Parr and Richard Scott, though I’m actually happy to see them both in the tournament.
According to the World Golf Rankings, here are the best players in the field (if I’m missing anyone, please let me know). According to my calculations, there are 18 of the Top 100 in the world in the field. And that’s not good.
Here’s the list of top players:
*Stephen Ames 34
Calcavecchia 63
Furyk 3
O’Hair 73
Dimarco 58
Nathan Green 87
Hunter Mahan 77
Rocco Mediate 93 (though he didn’t even have playing privleges on tour earlier this year)
Pat Perez 91
Brett Quigley 79
Bubba Watson 78
Jeff Quinney 97
John Rollins 46
Vijay Singh 6
Snedeker 92
Villegas 99
Mike Weir 40
Dean Wilson 81
So are any of these players enticing you, as a spectator, to come and see this year’s Canadian Open? Anyone out there fearful at what next year’s field might look like?
Here’s the entire field:
Steve Allan
Michael Allen
*Stephen Ames
Billy Andrade
Ryan Armour
Tommy Armour III
Eric Axley
Briny Baird
Rich Barcelo
*Chris Baryla
Cameron Beckman
Adam Bland
Craig Bowden
Michael Boyd
Michael Bradley
David Branshaw
Jeff Brehaut
D.J. Brigman
Mark Brooks
Olin Browne
Bart Bryant
Andrew Buckle
Tom Byrum
Mark Calcavecchia
Alex Cejka
Daniel Chopra
*Victor Ciesielski (a)
Gavin Coles
Kris Cox
John Daly
Brian Davis
Marco Dawson
Glen Day
Brendon de Jonge
*Graham Delaet
Bubba Dickerson
Chris DiMarco
Jason Dufner
Ken Duke
Steve Elkington
Bob Estes
Brad Faxon
Steve Flesch
Harrison Frazar
*Brad Fritsch
Jim Furyk
Robert Gamez
Robert Garrigus
Brian Gay
Brent Geiberger
*Derek Gillespie
Mathew Goggin
Jason Gore
Jeff Gove
Paul Gow
Nathan Green
Mike Grob
Mathias Gronberg
Scott Gutschewski
Bill Haas
*David Hearn
*Wes Heffernan
Bob Heintz
Matt Hendrix
Ryuji Imada
Tripp Isenhour
Lee Janzen
Richard S. Johnson
Tom Johnson
Kent Jones
Steve Jones
Craig Kanada
*Danny King
Cliff Kresge
Doug LaBelle II
Stephen Leaney
*Ian Leggatt
Justin Leonard
*James Lepp
Spencer Levin
Frank Lickliter II
Craig Lile
*James Love
Steve Lowery
Jarrod Lyle
Hunter Mahan
John Mallinger
Steve Marino
Daisuke Maruyama
Shigeki Maruyama
Troy Matteson
Bob May
Parker McLachlin
Alan McLean
George McNeill
Rocco Mediate
John Merrick
Larry Mize
Bryce Molder
*David Morland IV
Sean O’Hair
Joe Ogilvie
Jeff Overton
Greg Owen
Ryan Palmer
Jesper Parnevik
*Andrew Parr
*Bryn Parry
Corey Pavin
Pat Perez
Craig Perks
Tom Pernice, Jr.
Tim Petrovic
Dicky Pride
Ted Purdy
Michael Putnam
Brett Quigley
Jeff Quinney
Kyle Reifers
Tag Ridings
John Rollins
*Jim Rutledge
Jason Schultz
*Richard Scott
Paul Sheehan
Michael Sim
Joey Sindelar
Vijay Singh
Jeff Sluman
Jerry Smith
Brandt Snedeker
Kevin Stadler
Paul Stankowski
Darron Stiles
Chris Stroud
Chris Tidland
D.J. Trahan
Bob Tway
Omar Uresti
Bo Van Pelt
Jaco Van Zyl
Camilo Villegas
Johnson Wagner
Duffy Waldorf
Charles Warren
Bubba Watson
*Mike Weir
Steve Wheatcroft
Charlie Wi
Dean Wilson
Mark Wilson
A bestselling author and award-winning columnist, Robert Thompson has been writing about business and sports, and particularly golf, for almost two decades. His reporting and commentary on golf has appeared in 
The Canadian Open is being played on a second rate golf course the week after the Open. Why would anyone expect top ranked players to enter when we don’t even do them the courtesy of hosting the event on a world class course – of which there are a number in the GTA let alone across Canada.
Hope that the new leadership at the RCGA have the initiative to ensure that the Open is played at our best courses – not just the usual suspects.
I am surprised that Love isn’t professional enough to show up at the course he took money to set up. This must be a new low in PGA self-centredness.
I know of people who turned down corporate ticket offers to the Open this year. Their responses are typically along the line of ‘why would I go through the hassle to watch second rated players playing a second rated event on a second rated golf course’?
What about Mike Mezei as well…He just won on the CanTour like Risdon…Come on RCGA a former National team member and #1 ranked amateur in the country at one point…GET IT RIGHT FOR ONCE…
The sad part is there will be some outstanding golf played at the Canadian Open that many will not see. Sure, it will not have the best players in the world but there are guys playing in the tournament that have beaten or can beat the best in the world. The talent is there although the relatively low intensity of the event may not bring out their best.
As to the people that turned down corporate tickets for the Canadian Open event…sure sounds like they do not understand or appreciate quality golf…hmmm, turn down free tickets, probably free booze all because many top names are not playing? I wonder if they appreciate the level of golf played by the guys that are showing? Obviously not as demonstrated by their actions which in turn reflect their ignorance…
People should go see Bubba Watson play. A few years ago, I was travelling on business and had only an evening dinner meeting scheduled. I went to watch the Nationwide Tour event that was on in Calgary. I followed Bubba for seven holes, saw him hit the the farthest, most crooked shots that I had ever seen. He was five over when I left to go to my dinner. I was thinking, “This guy is going to shoot 85!”.
Later, when I got back to my hotel, I found myself on the same elevator as Bubba (who must have just got back after some post-round practice). He was carrying his giant PING bag and I asked him if he was playing in the Nationwide event (he did not recognize me). He said that he was and when I followed up with a question about “how did you do?”. His answer was 67! He was ten under on the 11 holes after I left. Go see Bubba hit it. It is worth it.
RT:
See the article from your colleague Lorne Rubenstein from the Globe and Mail on taking a positive stance on the Canadian Open field…reinforces some of my comments from above.
http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070724.wsptrube24/GSStory/GlobeSportsGolf/home
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