When I last ran into London, Ont.’s Alan McLean, he was coming off the 18th green at the Canadian Open, having missed the cut by a single shot. He was pretty upset about it, especially since he thought he’d hit the ball better than his playing competitors, but the pair were heading to the weekend, while McLean was packing.
Packing indeed — and flying all the way to Moscow for the European Tour’s event in the city. I suspect it is a tough thing to do — one would always be worried that you’re heading such a long distance only to fall flat, miss the cut and spend a lot of cash in the process.
Well, McLean made the best of the situation, shooting 64 on the second day of the event (event a poor opening 73) to fire his way up the leaderboard. After some more strong play on the weekend, McLean ended up in third, $135,000 richer and now 117th on the European Tour money list. I haven’t spoken to him, but I suspect this means he’ll spend the rest of the year in Europe trying to nail down his tour card.
However, that also likely means a trip home, and back to Europe in two weeks for the Scandinavian Masters. Either way, McLean’s best finish on the European Tour (where he played in 2004) has come at timely point in his career.
