Tuesday morning twosomes..

Rory's weekend play wasn't close to matching his start at the BMW PGA Championship, Corey Connors and Ben Silverman had solid weeks in Texas, the Women's US Open goes this week while the men are at Shinnecock Hills next month, with former champion Justin Rose in great form heading into it.

This and more in my Tuesday twosomes..

* Today is National Golf Day in Canada, with courses encouraging all people to play at low cost, mostly at off peak times. $20 walking is not uncommon. Yesterday my pal Kevin Thistle and his PGA of Canada team were lobbying MP's and Senators on Parliament Hill. By the way Mark Patterson from Saskatchewan is their President for this year.

* Rory McIlroy's 67 65 start to the BMW PGA had us all "blinded by the light" as it turns out. He was at his mercurial best on Thursday and Friday, making this game look so easy, when we all know it isn't. After finishing second to a very worthy Francesco Molinari after fighting his game all weekend he told us " My game isn't quite there yet, it's very close, but there were enough loose shots even on Thursday and Friday to make me realize that. The changes in my swing we've been tweaking need more than a weekend's practice to imbed them, and it showed this weekend."

* In my last post I chronicled Corey Connors career best 63 on Saturday at the Fort Worth Invitational. That propelled him to a -1 69 on Sunday and his first ever PGA Tour top 10, T8 -9. More good news, he is now 109th in Fed Ex Cup standings

* Ben Silverman finished strongly with a -5 65 and just missed at top 10 of his own, T11 -8 (he shot a 29 front nine!). He is now 124th on the Fed Ex list.

* Justin Rose won the US Open in 2013 and his winning performance over the weekend at the Colonial makes him one of the favourites for this year's event at Shinnecock Hills next month. Justin who missed the first 23 cuts when he turned pro away back when, thrives on straight driving and a strong iron game, When his putter gets hot is when he wins. He is now world #3 and with a win this week he can become #1.

* Brooke Henderson (#16th) and Alena Sharp (#133rd) took last week at the Volvik Championship off, but this week they are in the Women's US Open field in Alabama at Shoal Creek, along with amateur rookie Celeste Dao.

* This week it's Jack's tournament, the Memorial at Muirfield Village with Adam Hadwin and Mac Hughes in the field. Jack won the Open Championship at Muirfield in 1966 where the rough was so high, they cut it and sold it as a hay concession after the event so the members could play their course ! He named Muirfield Village in honour of that win.

* As many of you know I spent the better part of 20 years at the Fan590 and a pal of mine Doug Smith, the fine sports writer for the Star, mainly basketball, was a regular on all of our shows, always entertaining and insightful. He had a hectic schedule and may not taken the best care of his health, and had a massive heart attack at the ACC back in April. It was with great joy I caught his blog a few days ago and he chronicles the absolutely unbelievable work this city's heart doctors do on a daily basis to save our lives. Doctors my father never knew gave him another 25 years with us until he passed at 97.

Welcome back Smitty, as the old saying goes "You never appreciate your health til you lose it"

* I caught a little of Gail Graham on my old Fairways show on the Fan590, now called the Golf Show with Scott Metcalfe still showing up on Saturday mornings (when are you ever going to retire Scott). Gail wasn't our best female pro, but she was a stalwart in the Canadian game, as a player, coach, administrator and broadcaster so tip of my cap as she gets inducted to the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame this summer.

Bryan Angus