Canadian Adam Hadwin narrowly missed getting his PGA Tour card.
Symaptico launched a Saturday feature a month or two back and my second attempt has just gone live. For this one I spoke with Mike Weir, Adam Hadwin and David Hearn about the state of Canadian golf. Six PGA Tour pros from Canada started the year — only Hearn finished in the Top 125, though Weir, Ames, DeLaet, and McQuillan (for at least some events) will be back next year.
Here’s a taste to get you interested in the entire column:
“I see a lot of potential – but that’s all it is right now.”
That’s the response from Canadian Adam Hadwin when asked about why Canada hasn’t emerged as one of the best golfing nations in the world when it comes to producing golf professionals. After all, Australia pulled it off – just ask Adam Scott, Aaron Baddeley or Jason Day. And Sweden made it happen – look at Robert Karlsson, Peter Hanson, or Fredrik Jacobson.
In Canada Hadwin is tops. That despite the fact he has only played five events on the PGA Tour this year, and though he made all five cuts – including a tie for fourth at the RBC Canadian Open in July – still spends most of his time on the Canadian Tour. Regardless, the Abbotsford, BC native is in at No. 222 on World Golf Rankings, followed by Brantford, Ont.’s David Hearn, who retained his PGA Tour playing status for next year and is at 237.
Once upon a time Stephen Ross, then executive director of the Royal Canadian Golf Association – which is now the National Sport Organization for Golf in this country – predicted we’d have 10 golfers amongst the Top 200 in the world by 2010. We didn’t make that one – and now there aren’t any Canadian golfers in those ranks at all. In contrast, Mike Weir spent 110 weeks in the Top 10 in the world and once climbed as high as No. 3. After two dismal injury-plagued years, he’s now No. 709.
