As Nick Taylor’s 72-foot eagle putt dropped to win the RBC Canadian Open a who’s who of Canadian golf charged the green with bottles of champagne to spray him.
Mike Weir, Corey Conners, Adam Hadwin, and Golf Canada officials ran toward Taylor to celebrate as thousands of fans surrounding the hole came unglued in the pouring rain.
After a 69-year drought a Canadian had finally won the men’s national golf championship.
“To break that curse, if you want to call it that, is … I’m pretty speechless,” said an emotional Taylor. “I don’t think it’s going to sink in for quite some time what happened today.”
The lengthy putt ended a dramatic four-hole playoff with England’s Tommy Fleetwood. They had been tied at 17-under after 72 holes to top the tightly packed leaderboard at Oakdale Golf and Country Club. Both players birdied the first playoff hole and then picked up consecutive pars before Taylor’s stunning clincher on No. 18.
The last Canadian to win the event was Pat Fletcher in 1954 at Vancouver’s Point Grey Golf and Country Club. Most of Canada’s professional golfers refer to the Canadian Open as their fifth major and have been aching to end the drought for years.
When Taylor was asked what the win meant to him and Canadian golf as a whole a fan in a nearby grandstand shouted an answer for him.
“I heard someone shout out there, ‘everything,’ and I don’t know any other word to use other than that,” said Taylor. “I think it’s a tournament that we’ve circled on our calendar since probably junior golf.
“Ever since I’ve been on the PGA Tour this is one that we want to do as well as we can in, and the crowd support was the most unbelievable thing I will probably ever experience in my life.”
Fleetwood has yet to win on the PGA Tour but was gracious in defeat.
“Nice moment for Nick and the fans here,” said Fleetwood, who birdied Nos. 17 and 18 to force the playoff as Taylor watched on TV in the clubhouse. “It’s great to be a part of that Sunday and that playoff.
“I had my chances, really. It wasn’t to be this time. Congratulations to him.”
The wild celebrations included Hadwin, who’s also from Abbotsford, getting tackled by a security guard as he rushed onto the green to congratulate Taylor. Hadwin insisted he was too filled with adrenalin to even feel the blow.
“It’s incredible. I mean, what do you say to one of the greatest moments of Canadian golf history?” said Hadwin. “I think we all predicted that this was going to happen.
“I’m not sure that any one of us predicted a 72-foot eagle putt in a fourth hole playoff to get it done, but what a way to go.”
There have been other close calls, including a dramatic three-hole playoff in 2004 when Fiji’s Vijay Singh beat Weir at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont., in 2004.
“My heart is pumping for him still,” said Weir on the 18th green as Taylor’s celebration continued nearby. “That’s just an amazing finish.”
This year’s edition of the Canadian Open was the one to end the drought.
With next week’s U.S. Open on the west coast at the Los Angeles Country Club, most of the top-ranked players stayed away from Toronto to rest ahead of the third major of the men’s golf season.
No. 12 Sam Burns was the highest ranked player on the FedEx Cup standings at Oakdale and he missed the cut on Friday. No. 13 Rory McIlroy saw the weekend, as did No. 16 Tyrrell Hatton.
The fact that eight Canadians made the cut — the most since 2002 — was also promising.
When the third round began on Saturday morning, Taylor was a long shot to win. He had struggled to a 3-over 75 in the first round and then squeaked into the weekend with a 67 to sit at 2-under.
But he rocketed up the leaderboard on Saturday with 9-under 63 to set a new course record at Oakdale and head into the fourth round in a tie with England’s Aaron Rai for eighth at 11-under.
Taylor’s gallery grew with each hole on Sunday as word spread that he had taken the lead. Fans serenaded him with “O Canada,” called out “Let’s go Canada!” and chanted his name — sometimes in a cruder, rhyming version.
“It was the most incredible atmosphere I’ve ever been a part of and it’s not even close,” said Taylor, who finished second at the notoriously boisterous WM Phoenix Open on Feb. 12. “I think even walking the first tee today, walking to the first green, there’s ovations on every single tee and green.
“When Tommy would miss and they would cheer I kind of felt bad for him. But I knew just how pumped they were and they were trying to put every ounce of energy into it to help me pull it through.”
Third-round leader C.T. Pan, Hatton and Rai tied for third.
Controversy threatened to overshadow the Canadian Open earlier in the week. The PGA Tour announced Tuesday that it had struck a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the European-based DP World Tour to create an as-yet unnamed global men’s golf organization.
The new accord ended an acrimonious year between the PGA Tour and PIF, which owns the upstart LIV Golf, that saw the two sides battling in the headlines and in court.
Founded in 2021, LIV Golf was meant to challenge men’s golf’s traditional power structure, offering huge guaranteed contracts to some of the biggest names in the sport. Events were team-based and supposed to have a more lively atmosphere than the staid PGA Tour.
Last June, several former world No. 1s or major champions announced that they were moving from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf. Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcis, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Lee Westwood were some of those marquee golfers to jump ship, playing in the first-ever LIV event running in direct opposition to the 2022 Canadian Open.
McIlroy was sharply critical of LIV Golf ahead of last year’s Canadian Open, and again found himself in the spotlight after the news that the PGA Tour would now be working with PIF.
“I feel bad for RBC and the Canadian Open,” said McIlroy on Wednesday. “To think about what went on this time last year and then the bombshell that was dropped.
“I feel bad because (RBC) being such a great partner and having this stuff dropped on you two years in a row is very unfair.”
But Taylor’s triumph cleared those clouds of controversy and set a new target for all Canadian golfers on the PGA Tour: another major championship, to match Weir’s Masters victory in 2003.
“That’s the next step,” said Taylor. “Hopefully, I’ll be in a lot more of them. I haven’t been in enough as I would like over my whole career.
“I think next week (at the U.S. Open) there’s seven of us there, so hopefully we can do the same thing.”
——
With files from Joshua Clipperton.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2023.
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
