London, Ont.’s Alan McLean is in the CanOpen, having won a playoff for the fourth Monday qualifying spot at Hidden Lakes yesterday. If you don’t know who McLean is, check out this story I wrote in the National Post earlier this year. McLean is a long hitting South African who played Nationwide Tour. He hits the ball farther than anyone I’ve ever played with and seems primed to potentially have a good week — having made some decent finishes on the Canadian Tour recently. He’s also played on the European Tour, but money has long been hard to come by. Let’s hope that’s changing this week.
That said, talented Chris Baryla has pulled out of the Canadian Open to continue playing the Nationwide Tour. [photopress:weir.jpg,full,alignright]Baryla finished fourth in Cleveland this past week, meaning he gets immediate entry to this week’s tour stop. He’s been playing his way into Nationwide stops by Monday qualifying and now sits 60th on the money list, which is pretty remarkable. Still, there are 15 Canadians in the field, including Mike Weir. The lefty took batting practice with the Blue Jays over the weekend before throwing out the first pitch at yesterday’s game.
