Today is Sunday, a large group of players are still playing the Canadian Open, but there were plenty of top players on the course, in fact, a guy by the name of Tiger woods was in the group two holes in front of us.
We had a pretty simple day, taking it easy to prepare for the big week ahead of us. It’s so easy to over do it prior to the tournament starting.
Internally the narrative can be that it is just another event, but it is hard when there are massive grandstands, TV Towers and people everywhere. The reality is it isn’t just another event, heck Tiger Woods who is potentially the greatest player to walk the planet is playing two groups in front of us! This is one of the greatest events in the history of golf, it’s a major!
We were lucky enough to run in to Ryan Fox as we arrived and then joined him around the front nine. This was a nice way to get into it, having Foxy, Jordy (Foxy’s Caddy) and Marcus Wheelhouse (Foxy’s Coach). A perfect low-key kiwi feel to the day and Foxy provided some nice insights on “Major Golf”.
Dan was a medallist at the 2018 US Amateur at Pebble Beach and said the course is very different. The 8th hole was a classic example of this, it is a blind tee shot and he hit it exactly where he thought the middle of the fairway was. When we got to the ball it was about 2m from the left rough. Last year when he was there, that was the dead centre of the fairway and he would have had about 15m left of where he was before the rough encroached.
The rough is as you would expect, long and very lush, but what I found incredibly surprising was how small and slopey the greens are. If you miss them, you are either in the deep stuff, or you will face a bunker shot from one of the many deep greenside bunkers.
All in all, it was what you expect from a major championship. Tomorrow we are playing the back nine at 8:35 am, then we will do some work on the range and around the green. Finishing the day off with a relaxing recovery afternoon, getting ready for the excitement ahead.
As I said it is really important that the mind and body are in equally good shape on Thursday morning as his game. With that in mind, tomorrow Dan will make use of the free massage therapy, which he will have in the player’s lounge, where there is every food you can imagine on offer. Oh and he needs a haircut but fear not, there is a barber shop in the locker room this week, all of this is of course complimentary!
