Canadian Open Final Rounds Wrapup
There must be something in Jim Furyk’s Canadian maple syrup.
For the second consecutive year Furyk won the Canadian Open and was the first golfer to do so in over 50 years.
Furyk started the day 3 strokes behind 54-hole leader Vijay Singh but managed to close that gap quickly...a hole-in-one usually helps.
After posting two birdies in his first three holes, Furyk stepped up to the 209 yard par-3 4th. His 5 iron bounced onto the green and ended up in the hole (prior to Sunday Furyk was 3-under on the par-3--after Sunday he was a combined 5-under on that hole for the tournament).
On the other hand, Singh was stagnant on the opening nine holes. He started the day with a one stroke lead over Steve Allan and John Mallinger, but that lead was gone after Furyk’s ace. He failed to record any birdies on the front nine and shot a 1-over 37.
Furyk further padded his lead with consecutive birdies on the 10th, 11th and 12th holes. Likewise, Singh got out of his front nine funk and birdied those same three holes to get some momentum for a potential back nine charge.
Both Furyk and Singh added birdies, Furyk on the 15th and Singh on the 16th, but Singh could not cut into Furyk’s two stroke lead.
On the final hole, Furyk recorded his only three-putt of the tournament as he made his first bogey in 35 holes. This opened up the door for Singh. He was on the par-4 18th in regulation and gave himself a slippery 25 foot downhill putt to force a playoff. Singh ran the putt five feet past the hole and Furyk had won for the 13th time in his career.
With his win on Sunday, Furyk has notched a win in nine of the last ten seasons on the PGA Tour.
But this was the Canadian Open...with few Canadian players contending. Only four out of the 20 Canadian participants made the cut. Stephen Ames, who publicly criticized Angus Glen earlier in the week, was the low Canadian finisher at 7-under par. Canada’s lone golf star, Mike Weir, barely made the cut on Friday but came back with a 67 on Saturday--he finished at 5-under for the tournament. No Canadian has won this event since Pat Fletcher in 1954.
Check-in with hookedongolf.com next week when the PGA Tour is in Lake Tahoe for the Reno-Tahoe Open.
