Golf-Weir still carrying Canadian hopes for home grown winner (Reuters)
July 21, 2010
By Steve Keating
TORONTO, July 21 (Reuters) – The burden of carrying homegrown hopes at the Canadian Open is starting weigh a littlemore heavily on Mike Weir’s slender shoulders.
For almost two decades the diminutive lefty has been thestandard-bearer at the national championship but this year,battling tendinitis in his right arm, Weir might find it harderto wave the flag.
The early storyline ahead of this week’s Canadian Open -and every other Canadian Open since Pat Fletcher lifted thetitle in 1954 – is a well-worn and familiar one: when will thenational championship produce another home grown winner.
Since winning the 2003 U.S. Masters and returning home anational hero, many are looking for Weir to end the 56-yeardrought.
Weir has never shied away from the challenge of winning athome and despite the nagging aches and pains will be on thefirst tee Thursday morning at St. George’s Golf Club.
“I can’t see myself withdrawing, I’ll play through it,”Weir told reporters after cutting his Pro-Am round short onWednesday. “I just got tendinitis in my arm… Started buggingme a little bit last week at the British Open.
“I put a little brace on it Monday when we played, and thatseemed to do the trick pretty well.
“I mean, that’s part of getting older, I guess. You getlittle aches and pains,” laughed Weir, who just celebrated his40th birthday.
It has not been a vintage year for Weir, who owns a nearbyNiagara winery.
After opening the season with a sixth-place finish at theBob Hope Classic, Weir has not had a top 20 result, missing thecut in four of his last six events, including the BritishOpen.
But a classic tree-lined St. George’s layout, where thereis premium on course management and accuracy, will play toWeir’s strengths.
While Weir remains the undisputed fan favourite, Canada’sbest hope for a home grown winner might be a 28-year-old PGATour rookie, who grew up in Saskatchewan idolizing the lefty.
Graham DeLaet has been riding a rookie roller-coaster,missing more cuts than he has made.
But he has a third place finish at the Houston Open on hisyoung resume and was in contention last week at the Reno-TahoeOpen, matching the course record before imploding with afinal-round 78 to finish in a tie for 31st.
Coming on the heels of the British Open, the Canadian stophas struggled to attract a top field but there will be noshortage of quality contenders.
South African Tim Clark, at world number six is the highestranked player, and compatriot Retief Goosen, who lost theCanadian title in playoff last year, could follow countrymanand British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen to the winner’scircle this week.
Briton Paul Casey, arrives in Toronto riding the momentumof a third place finish at St. Andrews while American SeanO’Hair, who has finished third twice in Canada, is carryingsuperb form finishing 12th or higher in five of his last sixstarts.
(Editing by Steve Ginsburg)
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