TOUR Insider: Canadian golf in its ‘best place … ever’

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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