This great country of Canada is 152 years young today, July 1st 2019, and amongst all our triumphs and tragedies, good times and bad we have all faced adversity, and one way or another have overcome it, to carry on.
Two of this week's winners faced adversity in their lives and this morning they are champions, Nate Lashley on the PGA Tour and Christian Bezuidenhout on the European Tour.
Here are their stories and final scoreboards, along with Canadian results.
European Tour Andalucia Masters final leaderboard http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2019/tournamentid=2019056/leaderboard/index.html#/results
South African Christian Bezuidenhout mistakenly drank rat poison when he was only two and the effect was so profound that he developed a serious stammer, which led to anxiety and a loss of self esteem. He found refuge in the relative silence of golf and became an excellent amateur player.
In 2014, the beta blockers he was prescribed, had him failing a drug test at the Amateur Championship and he was suspended for two years, later reduced to nine months forcing him to miss his chance to represent his country at the Eisenhower Trophy.
Five years later after two top 3 finishes he has his first championship after 57 attempts, winning the Andalucia Masters by 6 shots (66 68 69 71 -10) and securing his place at the Open Championship in Northern Ireland in three week's time.
PGA Tour Rocket Mortgage Classic final leaderboard https://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard.html
Nate Lashley is 36 years old now, you haven't read or heard his name much over the years, he's ranked 353rd in the world, and has been kicking around the game's minor pro leagues after quitting the game all together after his parents and girlfriend had their lives taken away after a plane crash in 2014.
This week the University of Arizona alumni, was allowed into the field as an alternative, went out and caught lightning in a bottle with rounds of 63 67 63 70 -25 263 to lead from the get go for his first ever PGA Tour title, the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
Apart from the $1m payday, he is fully exempt for two years, and will play at the Masters amongst all the other perks.
Canadians: Mac Hughes 66 70 72 67 -13 T21, Roger Sloan 70 68 69 68 -13 T21, Nick Taylor 69 70 69 70 -11 T35.
Mike Weir, Corey Connors, Adam Svensson and Ben Silverman all missed the cut.
LPGA Tour Walmart NW Arkansas Championship final leaderboard https://www.lpga.com/tournaments/walmartnwarkansaschampionshippresentedbypg/results
Sung Hyun Park birdied the par-5 18th to win the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship for her second victory of the season and seventh overall.
She shot 63 66 66 to finish at -18 at Pinnacle Country Club. She beat Danielle Kang, Hyo Joo Kim and Inbee Park by a stroke and will move back to world #1 this week.
Canadians: Brook Henderson 69 69 66 -9 T41, Jaclyn Lee and Brittany Marchand missed the cut.
PGA Tour Champions Senior US Open final leaderboard https://www.pgatour.com/champions/competition/2019/u-s-senior-open-championship/leaderboard.html
Stephen Ames had a good week at the US Senior Open Championship, T6 70 67 66 72 -5.
Steve Stricker, now 52, continued the week's trend of lopsided wins, posting 62 64 66 69 -19 to beat David Toms and Jerry Kelly by 6 strokes on the Warren GC at Notre Dame, Indiana. It was his Senior US Open debut and he broke the scoring record by 3 shots.
The course played easily for the first 3 days with 99 rounds under par, but the wind stiffened on Sunday and Stricker was only one of 14 under par. This was his second major of the year.
Next week all the attention in the men's game heads across the pond for the next 3 weeks, for the Irish, then Scottish Opens followed by the Open at a sold out Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
Bryan Angus
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