LORNE RUBENSTEIN
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA | Golf
isn’t Canada’s national game but the
country’s golf fans hunger for a native
son to win their national championship.
Adam Hadwin, a 23-year-old Canadian
Tour player who is advancing rapidly in the
game, provided fans at the Shaughnessy
Golf and Country Club in Vancouver, and
across the country, with a thrill when he
tied for fourth at the RBC Canadian Open.
Hadwin finished at 2-under-par 278 after a
final-round 72 on the treacherous course,
two shots behind Sean O’Hair and Kris
Blanks. O’Hair won in a playoff.
www.globalgolfpost.com JULY 25, 2011 9
Adam Hadwin
ed for double-bogey on the par-
3 eighth – an instance when
his putting wasn’t so beautiful.
But he didn’t let it get to him.
Hadwin knew Shaughnessy
was playing very difficult, and
that he could still challenge for
the lead if he got himself back under
par for the day and tournament.
“I’m extremely proud of how I played,”
Hadwin said. “I kept telling myself all that
time (while he was slipping behind in the
last round) that you’re not as bad as you’re
showing.”
Hadwin played hard. His tee shot on
the par- 3 12th hole landed an inch from
the cup and finished three feet away. He
made that and followed with birdies on
the next two holes. Hadwin was like a rock
star out on the majestic Shaughnessy
course with its shadows from the gigantic
trees framing every hole, making for quite
a show. He wore sunglasses that put one
in mind of the great George Knudson, who
never won the Canadian Open although
he finished in the top 10 four times. Pat
Fletcher is the last Canadian to win the
national championship, having done so in
1954 just up the road from Shaughnessy,
at the Point Grey Golf Club.
Fifty years later, in 2004, Weir took a
two-shot lead into the last three holes of
the Canadian Open at the Glen Abbey Golf
Club in Oakville, Ont. But Weir lost the
lead and Vijay Singh beat him in a playoff.
The country’s golfers were deflated, but
now Hadwin has given them some hope
again that a Canadian will one day come
through.
