Canadian national open Golf

It may be a truism in golf that half the players on any given day of a PGA Tour event hate the way the course is set up - usually the half that aren't playing worth a damn.
But give Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club credit: this week at the RBC Canadian Open, you can't find anyone who likes the rough. In fact, if you conducted a mass interview of all those players who caught the Golf Canada national open Golf charter flight back to Vancouver from the Open Championship at Royal St. George's on Sunday night, this might be the average comment: "Define easier," Goydos said, sounding a lot like the substitute school teacher he once was. "Worrying about what Paul Goydos thinks of the rough is just silliness.

"I don't know if it should be a one-shot penalty for a guy who lands his tee shot in the fairway and two-bounces into the rough. It's one of those courses that every shot - tee shot, approach shot, first putt - if you don't hit a good shot, you're going to struggle to make par. Tommy (Two Gloves) Gainey hit just five fairways and shot 65. If I hit it in the rough on a par-4, I immediately start thinking par-5. If you miss it, then whatever.
The golf course, at 36 holes, is starting to identify the best players in the field. Richard Zokol knows all about that pressure having played the country’s national golf tournament 26 times. Weir once called the chance of a Canadian winning the Canadian Open the equivalent of “lightning in a bottle. Zokol agrees.
“It is tough to play well on that one week you need to play well. Weir is one of five regulars playing on the PGA Tour this year, all posting very mixed results. Others in the field include Canadian national open Golf Mid-Am champ Dave Bunker, a high school gym teacher when he’s not playing golf. Former amateur standouts Matt Hill, from Bright’s Grove, Ont., and B.C.’s Nick Taylor, both currently playing Canadian Tour, are also back this year.
Among those late qualifiers to the field are former Canadian national open Golf Amateur champion Darren Wallace, a native of Langley, B.C., who know plays on the Canadian Tour, along with veteran Brad Fritsch of Manotick, Ont. and Mitch Evanecz, a member of Canada’s men’s amateur national team from Red Deer, Alta.
Top amateur golfers Albin Choi of Toronto, and Eugene Wong of Vancouver, who missed the cut at last year’s Canadian national open Golf, are also teeing it up at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club this week, while Canadian PGA Club Pro champ, Brian Hutton of Burlington, Ont., rounds out the list of Canadians. Truthfully Canadian professional golf, at least on the PGA Tour level, seems to be in a state of transition.
Matt McQuillan might very well be the hottest Canadian golfer right now. SCOREGolf: You’ve had two big weeks in a row.

U.S. Open record

On a record day for scoring at the U.S. Open, 12 players posted better scores than Rory McIlroy's Sunday 69, including two 66s and four 67s. On the second hole, he holed a nervy six-foot par putt, adding more of the same.

McIlroy broke or tied 12 U.S. Open records. His total of 268 breaks by four strokes the 72-hole scoring record held by four players. Player after player, in their post-round interviews, confessed their amazement at his perfect play—honestly, since Friday, there hasn't been any other real story. "The way he plays golf, it's a different golf. It's close to perfect," said Martin Kaymer, world No. 3 and the reigning PGA champion.

Until McIlroy wins more majors, it's too early to anoint him as golf's next breakout superstar. But none of the other young contenders have the same rare combination of enormous talent, calm temperament and balance in life that McIlroy has.

McIlroy's father, Gerry, made the trip from Northern Ireland to be here for Father's Day, and the look they exchanged across the 18th fairway, before McIlroy made his final (superb) lag putt, spoke eloquently about the depth of their relationship.

It was Tiger Woods of 11 years ago," Ian Poulter said.

McIlroy, the sympathetic figure at the Masters, was as close to perfect as golf allows Friday during a stunning assault on the record book. McIlroy went 17 holes without missing a green. He went 35 holes without making a bogey.

Not since Woods destroyed his competition at Pebble Beach in 2000 for a record 15-shot victory has anyone made golf look this easy, at least for two rounds.