A vintage Mickelson appears on Day 1 at PGA

After an exhilarating week at the Masters it’s time to exhale and enjoy the (s)Low Country lifestyle of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina for the RBC Heritage. Pete Dye’s Harbour Town Golf Links in the Sea Pines Plantation will provide the backdrop, as it has done every year except 2011. The family-friendly atmosphere of resort life doesn’t mean easy by any means. Pete Dye’s tiny Bermuda greens, tree-lined fairways plus the coastal breezes makes this event anything but a hit-and-giggle. The pros love this test as the Par-71 (7,099 yards) doesn’t suit the bomb-and-gouge faction. Rather it requires decision-making, shot-shaping and the ability to navigate the winds that are usually ever-present this time of year. The “rough” won’t catch or slow down errant tee shots so playing out of the tress will be necessary and possible. The closely mown areas around the greens will provide a platform for plenty of chip-ins this week as well. Also, at less than 7,100 yards, finding the fairway will result in more wedges and lofted irons from premium attacking positions. Some of the smallest greens on TOUR won’t run white-hot because of the undulation and potential for wind so expect well-hit putts to roll in and Satoshi Kodaira returns and will look to join Boo Weekley as the only players to defend their title this century. The field of 132 is playing for a purse of $6.9 million with the winner’s share $1.242 million plus 500 FedExCup points. Need more Course Info? Check Rob Bolton’s Power Rankings, The First Look and Course Preview. Recent Winners Satoshi Kodaira (2018, -13): Making only his 15th TOUR start and his first at HTGL, the Japanese defeated Si Woo Kim on the third playoff hole to win the 50th edition. He began the day six back of Ian Poulter’s 54-hole lead and five back of Kim before he posted 66 on a blustery morning. Kodaira continued the trend of Masters participants winning here (only seven since 1982 have not played the week before) as he was T28 the week prior at Augusta. He also made it six consecutive winners who have overcome three or more shots in the final round. #PlayAll72. Notables: Led the field in proximity and continued the streak of winners to hit the top seven in Strokes-Gained: Tee-to-green. … The last four winners have been T2 or better in Par-4 scoring. … Bryson DeChambeau (T3) fired 64 in Round 2 to lead by one after 36 holes. … Poulter was looking to win for the second time in three weeks (Houston Open) but crumbled with 75 in the breeze (T7). Over 50 years the average winning score is 11-under. Wesley Bryan (2017, -12): Making only his 18th start on TOUR, the South Carolinian became the first native to lift the trophy. Like Kodaira, it was also his first time in the event so course history won’t be a dominant angle this week. Bryan only hit 40 GIR, the worst ever for a winner, but led the event in scrambling. Notables: Bryan made up four shots as Jason Dufner couldn’t make his 54-hole lead stand up. … Poulter began the day three back before 73 knocked him to T11. … First time the cut was under-par in 49 editions (-1). … Bryan, one of the seven not to play the week before, is not in the field this week as he recovers from a torn labrum. Branden Grace (2016, -9): The South African began the streak of first-time TOUR winners. Luke Donald led Grace by three entering the final round but finished T2 with Russell Knox, two back. Grace holed plenty of putts but he was also third in scrambling and second in Strokes-Gained: Tee-to-Green; also finished T7 in 2015 and T11 in 2017. Notables: Bryson DeChambeau made his professional debut and collected T4 cash. … Only five shots separated T30 thru T5. Key stat leaders Golfers around the top 25 in each statistic on the 2018-19 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. This is the 26th event of the season. * – Finished inside the top 10 since 2010 Strokes-Gained: Tee-to-Green  2  *Byeong-Hun An  5  Dustin Johnson (T16, 2018; first appearance since ’09)  6  Tommy Fleetwood (first appearance)  7  Corey Conners 10 *Patrick Cantlay 11 *Matt Kuchar 12 *Jason Kokrak 13 Lucas Glover 15 Xander Schauffele 17 *Luke List (T3, 2018) 19 *Jim Furyk 20 Sungjae Im 21 D.J. Trahan 22 Keith Mitchell Scrambling  1  Lucas Glover  2  Jonathan Byrd  3  *Aaron Baddeley  5  Tommy Fleetwood  6  *Jim Furyk  7  *Webb Simpson  8  D.J. Trahan 10 Ernie Els 11 Anirban Lahiri 12 Dustin Johnson 14 *Patrick Cantlay 15 Denny McCarthy 16 *Graeme McDowell (only top 10 is 2013 win) 17 *Si Woo Kim 18 Ryan Armour 19 *Brian Stuard 21 *Marc Leishman 23 Francesco Molinari 24 *Russell Henley Bogey Avoidance  1  Lucas Glover  2  Dustin Johnson  3  Charles Howell III (best finish this decade is T22)  4  *Jim Furyk  5  *Matt Kuchar  6  *Webb Simpson  7  D.J. Trahan  8  *Patrick Cantlay  9  Ernie Els 10 Jonathan Byrd 11 Xander Schauffele 12 *Aaron Baddeley 17 Tommy Fleetwood 18 Sungjae Im 21 *Graeme McDowell 22 Abraham Ancer (first appearance) 24 *Si Woo Kim  Par-4 Scoring  1  *Patrick Cantlay  1  Jonathan Byrd (1 top 25 in 14 starts)  3  Charles Howell III  4  Lucas Glover  7  Dustin Johnson  7  Jason Kokrak  7  Abraham Ancer  7  Xander Schauffele  7  *Jim Furyk  7  Ryan Palmer  7  *Si Woo Kim  7  *Webb Simpson 21 *Graeme McDowell 21 Scott Piercy 21 Rafa Cabrera Bello 21 *Matt Kuchar 21 D.J. Trahan (first start since 2012; 1 top 25 in nine previous) 21 *Aaron Baddeley Levels of Confidence Frequent Flyers Matt Kuchar: This is the 16th-consecutive appearance and he’ll be looking to make the weekend for the 15th-straight time. The 2014 champ is 42 under and has collected T23 or better over the last five editions. Jim Furyk: When healthy he was the winner in 2010 and 2015 with a pair of top-10 paychecks squeezed between. He’s healthy again! Webb Simpson: Solo second (2013) and T5 last year highlight eight consecutive starts that have finished on Sunday. Kevin Kisner: Aiken, S.C., native has rattled off P2, T11 and T7 in three of his last four starts and is 45 under during that stretch. Patrick Cantlay: Making his third start after a combined 20 under par the last two years (T7 2018, T3 2017). Bryson DeChambeau: He’s won five times on TOUR and has gone close twice here (T3 2018, T4 2016). Metal Detected Ian Poulter: Never missed in eight tries and has been all around it the last two years until Sunday. Kevin Streelman: Rattled off six straight with bookend top-10 paydays (T3 2013, T7 2018). Luke Donald: In the last decade he’s cashed T2, T3, 2, T37, T3, 2, T15, T2, 2 and MC in 2018. Aaron Baddeley: 2006 champ has cashed 10 of 14 and has seven inside the top 25.

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HAMILTON, Ontario – When Mackenzie Hughes was 14, he caddied during a practice round at the 2004 RBC Canadian Open and was fortunate enough to walk with a group that also included Mike Weir. The day was amazing for Hughes … but not so much for the player whose bag he was carrying. “I just remember that day picking (Weir’s) brain the entire time but being the worst caddie of all time,â€� Hughes recalled with a laugh. “I had no idea where my golfer was. I was just like, ‘Mike Weir is over here, I’m going to walk over here.’ “It was the best day ever for me.â€� Weir would go on that week to lose in a playoff to Vijay Singh, coming ever so close to become the first Canadian since Pat Fletcher in 1954) to win his country’s national open. Still, Weir was at the height of his popularity and success in Canada. He had been ranked No. 3 in the world and inspired a generation of Canadian golfers to pick up the sport, thinking that if a small guy from a small town could beat the world’s best, why couldn’t they? RELATED: Power Rankings | Expert Picks | Conners on home turf in Canada | Tee times Fast-forward 15 years, and Hughes is still standing next to Weir asking questions – this time as a peer, a fellow winner on the PGA TOUR. Hughes, who captured The RSM Classic in 2016, is part of a contingent of Canadians who are finding success on the PGA TOUR, and beyond, at an unprecedented clip. Currently, there are 10 Canadians with TOUR membership, the most since 1970 when records were kept. Eight of those players are active most weeks: Hughes, Corey Conners, Adam Hadwin, Nick Taylor, Roger Sloan, David Hearn, Ben Silverman and Adam Svensson. The other two are Graham DeLaet, who is on a Major Medical exemption following microdiscectomy surgery and hopes to return later this year; and Weir, who has played mostly on the Web.com Tour this season (next May he turns 50 and will eligible for PGA TOUR Champions). Of the active Canadians, five are inside the top 125 of the FedExCup standings; only Australia (six) has more among the non-U.S. members. Conners and Hadwin are in the top 20 of the International Team standings for this year’s Presidents Cup and hope to make a big push down the stretch this season. And this week, 25 Canadians are scheduled to play at Hamilton Golf and Country Club, a healthy showing that includes established TOUR pros, up-and-comers and the country’s only major winner, as Weir makes his fourth TOUR start of the season. He’ll play the first two rounds at Hamilton with countrymen Taylor and Hearn. All in all … “Canadian golf is probably in the best place it’s been, ever, on the female and male side,â€� Hughes said. “It’s really cool to be a part of it, to be one of those guys who has a chance to compete and to win on the PGA TOUR.â€� There’s been a robust group of Canadians who have won TOUR-sanctioned events in the last five years, and that doesn’t include everything Brooke Henderson has done on the LPGA Tour. Just 21, she’s already won eight times. Her win total is tied for the most ever (with Weir, for one) LPGA or PGA TOUR titles by a Canadian. A sampling of the recent success: Hughes, Conners (2019), Hadwin (2017), and Taylor (2014) have all won on the PGA TOUR. Sloan (2014), Silverman (2017), Svensson (2018), and Michael Gligic (2019) have all won on the Web.com Tour – along with Hadwin in 2014 (twice) and Hughes in 2016 – and all will be in the field this week at the RBC Canadian Open. Not bad for a nation whose golf season is only about six months long – and that’s being generous. Some of the biggest names on the PGA TOUR, including 2017 FedExCup champion Justin Thomas, has recognized the success of the Canadians. Thomas, playing the Canadian Open for the first time (in fact, he had never been to Canada before this week) knows Conners from living near each other in Jupiter, Florida. He said Tuesday he was impressed at Conners’ mettle as he came down the stretch to win his first TOUR event. Conners “flushes it,â€� according to Thomas. Canadians are everywhere on TOUR, said Thomas. “There’s a lot of great past and a lot of great history,â€� Thomas said. “It seems like it’s only getting better and better each year.â€� Much of the recent Canadian success can be pined on Golf Canada and its national and developmental team program. It’s unique; even the United States doesn’t have something like it. The provincial organizations help identify star players – Canada has produced Drive, Chip, and Putt National Champions in two different age groups the last two years, for example – and they get recruited into a program that helps with on-course coaching and off-course development. Jeff Thompson, the Chief Sport Officer for Golf Canada – akin to the United States Golf Association – said with a laugh that “unfortunatelyâ€� other countries are starting to pick up on the developmental program idea that started 15 years ago. “We can see it at international events. Those players from countries like Scotland, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and Denmark are getting better,â€� he said. But not everyone was part of the team. Silverman was never part of the program. Hearn attended a few camps at the beginning of his career but wasn’t as involved as some others. Raw talent will always be the thing that separates the “pretty goodâ€� from the “really special.â€� And right now, Canada is going through a special time in professional golf – with more in the pipeline. Jared du Toit, for example, played in the final group of the 2016 RBC Canadian Open as an amateur. There are a handful of Canadian amateurs this week, including three who are part of Golf Canada’s national squad – Joey Savoie of Quebec, Josh Whalen of Ontario, and Chris Crisologo of B.C. (last year’s Low Amateur at the Canadian Open). “Those amateurs can really play,â€� said Gligic, on track to earn his PGA TOUR card for next season. “You’ve seen Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners climb those (amateur) ranks and now they’re PGA TOUR winners. I’m pretty confident those amateurs will do well. They’ve played well in the past and they’re all good players and you can expect them to do good things.â€� Last year, Gligic was the Canada Life Canadian Player of the Year on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada – another example of how development has been impacted on Canadian soil. The Tour, brought under the PGA TOUR umbrella in 2013, has produced such notable alums as both Conners and Hughes (the 2013 Player of the Year) along with helping to groom non-Canadian stars such as TOUR Rookie of the Year Aaron Wise, Tony Finau, and others. Most weeks on the Mackenzie Tour, you’ll see Canadian amateurs and professionals mixing it up with some of the biggest names in golf who are just getting their careers off the ground. This week will showcase the impact of Canadian golf at the highest level. “We used to feel that it would be nice to see a Canadian on the leaderboard,â€� Thompson said, “but it’s changed now, where we expect it.â€�

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