Thoughts From Day 1 of Canadian Open Week

I spent yesterday afternoon caddying for Alan McLean from London, Ont. at Rattlesnake Point GC in Milton, Ont. Alan’s round was derailed by a wayward tee shot on the fifth hole, and though Alan got it together on the back nine — making five birdies against no bogeys — it was too late to make a run at that point (yes, the fifth was that bad). The qualifying event seemed haphazard. Our 2:18 tee time was pushed back by an hour, and tee times for some golfers were moved apparently at their request when they couldn’t make it for morning rounds after a tournament in Winnipeg. There was plenty of bitching on the practice range about that. This meant the playoff of four golfers for three spots was played in near dark. But beyond that, the course was set up short and easy — which doesn’t make sense to me, when those that qualify will face a long and nasty Glen Abbey … Good to see Todd Halpen from Calgary make it through, shooting 66. He took an odd route to the Canadian Open. With a good job in the oil industry, he worked and made enough money to finance his own run at pro golf … The Score Awards went off last night, with many luminaries from Canadian golf showing up. I managed to get there for a Coors Lite to shake some hands before heading home … Lesson learned from the Score Awards: Turns out that most in the golf industry go home early and apparently aren’t big fans of mild alt-country, or maybe they just don’t like Jim Cuddy … Interesting to see Andrew Parr get offered an exemption into the Canadian Open when Wes Hefferman qualified his way into the tournament. Parr is playing some good golf at the moment Edit: I had initially thought Bradford was skipped for Parr, but it is now clear that wasn’t the case. The CanTour entrants are John Ellis, Daniel Im, Adam Bland, George Bradford, Dustin Risdon … Notah Begay was supposedly trying to qualify for the Canadian Open yesterday. I didn’t see him, but who knew he still played pro golf? Oops, 24 times on the PGA Tour in the last three years. Remember when this guy was one of the better players in golf who putted from both the left and right side depending on the break? … Lots of talk about the chances of Mike Weir winning at Glen Abbey. Chances of him pulling it off this year? Always some hope, but I wouldn’t wager on it … Wonder how they’ll set up Glen Abbey? It rained all weekend and more rain is scheduled for today through to the end of the week.

Tomorrow: At Glen Abbey for the Pro-Am and media interviews