Only 21 players broke par on a beauty of a day at Shaughnessy GC. Consider that it rained a little early to make the greens reasonably receptive, but this could have been the best day for scoring.
As I mentioned in yesterday's preview, US Open style rough, narrow fairways, small greens, par 4's over 460 yards, only 2 par 5's and par of 70 makes this Doug Carrick redesigned Shaughnessy course a stern test for our national championship..
Kristoffer Douglas Blanks has a 1 shot lead at -3. His Dad was in the Air Force so he has lived all over the US, he'll be 39 in November, 3rd year on tour, wife Tamie is from just south of Vancouver and is a golf pro now at Hilton Head and he has no wins on this tour. Oh yes, he was named after Kris Kristofferson the actor/singer?? because his mum thought he was cute
1 33 Kris Blanks -3 1:20pm color info 67 67
T2 51 Jimmy Walker -2 1 E color info 68 68
T2 59 Paul Goydos -2 1* E color info 68 68
T2 172 Brett Quigley -2 12:20pm color info 68 68
T2 102 Ernie Els -2 12:40pm* color info 68 68
T2 83 Bill Lunde -2 1:00pm color info 68 68
T2 152 Kevin Kisner -2 1:30pm color info 68 68
T2 115 Matt McQuillan -2 2:00pm* color info 68 68
T2 132 Ben Martin -2 8:30am color info 68 68
T2 137 Aron Price -2 9:00am* color info 68 68
For a full list of tee times click on http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/r032/tee-times.html
For a full leaderboard click on PGA Tour. In the bunch at -2, Matt McQuillan from Kingston who MC in his first 10 events while changing his golf swing from a low hook to a high fade, T3 last week at the John Deere and is obviously playing with confidence.
"I’m pleased with the whole day,” McQuillan said. “I executed my game plan well with fairways and greens and made the odd putt. It’s a real privilege to play in our National Championship. Just really excited to get off to a good start.”
He has a late tee time today and starts off on the tough back nine that starts with a 453yd and a 485yd par 4's that are so narrow they have to walk down the fairway in single file. Not quite but the old Lee Trevino quip fits around this course..
Scores for the 17 Canucks.
T2 – McQuillan, Matt, Kingston, Ont. 35 - 33 – 68 (-2)T22 – Hearn, David, Brantford, Ont. 37 – 33 – 70 (E)T36 – Taylor, Nick, Abbotsford, B.C. 35 – 36 – 71 (+1) T36 – Fritsch, Brad, Manotick, Ont. 35 – 36 – 71 (+1)T50 – Ames, Stephen, Calgary, Alta. 38 – 34 – 72 (+2)T50 – Hill, Matt, Bright’s Grove, Ont. 35 – 37 – 72 (+2)T50 – Hadwin, Adam, Abbotsford, B.C. 36 – 36 – 72 (+2)T66 – Sloan, Roger, Merritt, B.C. 36 – 37 – 73 (+3)T66 – Wallace, Darren, Langley, B.C. 40 – 33 – 73 (+3)T90 – Wong, Eugene (a), North Vancouver, B.C. 36 – 38 – 74 (+4)T90 – Weir, Mike, Bright’s Grove, Ont. 38 – 36 – 74 (+4)T90 – Baryla, Chris, Vernon, B.C. 37 – 37 – 74 (+4)T90 – Choi, Albin (a), Toronto, Ont. 38 – 36 – 74 (+4)T114 – Risdon, Dustin, Calgary, Alta. 36 – 39 – 75 (+5)T148 – Bunker, Dave (a), Woodbridge, Ont. 39 – 40 – 79 (+9)T148 – Evanecz, Mitchell (a), Red Deer, Alta. 39 – 40 – 79 (+9)T148 – Hutton, Brian, Burlington, Ont. 41 – 38 – 79 (+9)
Many of you who may have tuned in to see Mike Weir for the first time will have been shocked at how far this poor guy has fallen from the #3 player in the world in 2004.
He simply is lost off the tee, hooks it right, blocks it left and only a superb wedge game and a few lucky bounces kept him from being worse than T90, +4, 74.
World #1 Luke Donald battled back from 2 double bogey's to finish T22 E70..
David Hearn started on the back nine and shot E,70 . "this particular golf course is as hard as we're going to get at the Canadian Open."
Ernie Els is also at -2, playing as part of Team RBC,and with a wonky back I might add and he was asked about the course and the tough rough.. "You know, it's Canada's National Open, and I've played many a national open and Scottish Opens, British Opens, South African Opens. You know, this is the way a national open should be played. It should be played as tough as possible on a very stern test, and that's what you've got here" He has former NHLer Dan Quinn on the bag this week.
Senior British Open
If you were wondering why Mark Calcavecchia is not at Shaughnessy defending the title he won there in 2005, he is leading the British Senior Open at Walton Heath in England after round 1, with round 2 now in progress.
Here is the AP story
WALTON ON THE HILL, England - Rod Spittle carded a bogey-free round of -2,70 on Thursday to sit two shots off the lead at the Senior British Open.
The Niagara Falls, Ont., golfer birdied the par-3 fifth and par-5 11th and trails Mark McNulty, Australia's Mike Harwood and Mark Calcavecchia who defied the afternoon rain to shoot bogey-free -4, 68's.
Bidding to become the fourth player to win both the Open Championship and the senior version, the 51-year-old Calcavecchia had two birdies on either side of the turn before parring the final five holes.
“The weather moved in when we were on No. 11—it wasn’t horrible but it made it tougher for sure,” said Calcavecchia, one of three players not to drop a shot in their first rounds. “Not making any bogeys was nice, so it was a good score, a good start.”
The Zimbabwean-born McNulty (68) marred an otherwise flawless round with a bogey on the par-4 No. 18, while Harwood (68) in the following group - made seven birdies but dropped shots at Nos. 16 and 17 in the tough closing stretch.
Unheralded Scot Albert MacKenzie, a club professional playing his first round on the senior tour, was a shot behind (69) along with South African David Frost (69) Defending champion Bernhard Langer (70) of Germany was among a cluster of players on -2 which included Spittle.
Next I will post Stevie Williams transcript on how he has wasted 2 years of his life standing by Tiger through his scandal only to be fired at Tiger's AT&T recently
Bryan Angus also on twitter@mummmbles
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