It was mid morning as I sat in my spot in the press room ( the converted curling rink) at St George's on another perfect day for scoring at the 2010 RBC Canadian Open. The course was left defenceless thus far with no wind, soft greens and already the stroke average for the field was under par. The tournament record of 62 had already been matched by Brent Delahoussaye on Thursday and Kevin Sutherland on Friday
When you cover a tournament you generally watch anyone of a few scoreboard sources to see who is doing what and on this day it turned out to be the eventual winner, journeyman Carl Pettersson who was born in Sweden, then moved to England before immigrating with his family to North Carolina when he was 15.
I noticed a lot of red numbers going up consecutively beside his name. In fact he was playing in the third group of the day after making the cut by a stroke with rounds of 71 and 68, and he ended up making two eagles, seven birdies and a bogey
He told us in the scrums afterwards that a few Canadian beers made all the difference. On Friday night he made a 10-foot par putt at No. 18 and was well back of the lead when he and his caddy headed to the clubhouse unsure if he'd be booking a flight home.
"I walked in the locker-room and Jay Williamson had all the (cut) scenarios written out, and he's like, `Grab a beer,"' said Pettersson. "Before you know it, I'd had seven beers. Made the cut. And my caddie had to drive me home." That settled me down, I think. Maybe that's what did it."The buzz was now going around the media center for those of us who were there, and we knew by the time he reached 18 he needed birdie for 59, so I ran up to the empty stands at 18 to watch him come in. 18 at St George's is a tough par 4, uphill with a undulating green.
I remember he hit a mediocre approach that landed on the front fringe about 30 feet away.
I hit a pretty good 6-iron in there, but the wind sort of got it," Pettersson said. "And you can't go past the hole because then you got no chance. And it was actually a difficult putt to get to the hole because it was very steep uphill.
"I hit a good putt. I told myself, 'You cannot leave this short. You got to give this a chance.' And I hit a solid putt and it was just hovering right on the left side. ... With 6 inches less pace it probably would have gone in."
5 feet from the cup I thought it was in !!
Still he shot a 10-under 60 to break the RBC Canadian Open record and finished the day at -11 a shot up on Dean Wilson and Tim Clark. He would catch and beat Wilson on Sunday to become our champion.
He was was trying to become the second player in 2010 to shoot a 59 on the PGA Tour. Paul Goydos, remember him, did it in the John Deere Classic and of course the others were Al Geiberger (1977 Memphis Classic), Chip Beck (1991 Las Vegas Invitational) and David Duval (1999 Bob Hope Classic). Earlier in Japan Japan Tour, Ryo Ishikawa shot a 58 -- the lowest score ever on a major tour -- to win The Crowns and veteran Aussie Stuart Appleby did it later to win at the Greenbrier Classic.
Looking back I'm glad I got up and out there early because like Carl said afterwards " I don't know if I'll ever have a chance at 59 again"
Next #7, Louis Oosthuizen's magical week at St Andrews..
Bryan Angus
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