Shaughnessey Golf Club, scene of this year’s RBC Canadian Open on the PGA Tour, proved a tough nut to crack for the majority of players during the first round of the event with just 21 players out of the 156-strong field managing to break par.
The tight, tree-lined Shaughnessey course had been hit with some overnight rain which made the already-penal rough even more demanding when players strayed off the straight-and-narrow and players likened the rough as U.S Open standard.
As the dust settled on day one, Krish Blanks stood atop the leaderboard after carding a best-of-the-day 3-under par 67; helped in no small measure by an eagle at the par-5 7th hole – Blanks’ third-last hole – courtesy of a hole-out bunker shot from a greenside sand-trap.
Blanks also put together some impressive first round stats, keeping the ball in play for the most part – which proved a real secret for success. Blanks’ round saw him hit 11 of 14 fairways, leading to an impressive stat 15 of 18 in Greens in Regulation.
Behind Blanks, eleven players finished collectively on 2-under par, including Ernie Els and Bo Van Pelt.
“This is the way a national open should be,” said Els afterwards, who is bidding to arrest a run of form that has seen the multiple Majors winner miss four cuts in five events, including at last week’s Open Championship, while he is also searching for his first top-10 this season. “It should be played as tough as possible on a very stern test.”
Kevin Na went as far as describe the rough as being the worst he has encountered in two years, but he still managed to post a 1-under 69, and join eight other players on the same mark. That group also included Golf Boys duo, Rickie Fowler and Ben Crane as well as Lucas Glover and Anthony Kim. They might have been joined by a third member of the Golf Boys – Hunter Mahan, who was also 1-under par playing the last but a bogey dropped him back to level-par for his round.
The final member of the Golf Boys quartet, Bubba Watson, is competing in Europe at the Nordea Scandinavian Masters, where he opened with a 1-under par 71 at Bro Hof Slott, Sweden.
World number one Luke Donald was happy to close his round level par, after getting off to a torrid start. Beginning his round at the 10th hole, Donald opened with two double-bogeys in his first four holes before clawing back two shots to turn in 2-over par.
Remarkably, Donald continued to claw back the deficit and got into under-par figures with a run of three straight birdies before finishing bogey-par for a level-par round of 70.
After a tough day at the office, Donald commented on his performance:
“It was a good grind back after a tough start,” he said. “They’re not the widest fairways and the penalty for missing them is very severe. The rough is as thick as we’ve seen all year and that adds a little pressure on the tee because you know you have to hit the fairway to have a chance to reach the green.”
US Masters champion Charl Schwartzel opened with a 1-over par 73, but former Open champion Louis Oosthuizen – who passed the Claret Jug to Ireland’s Darren Clarke last week at Royal St. Georges – struggled to a 5-over par 75.
After starting with birdies on two of his opening three holes, England’s Paul Casey’s troubles continued as he posted a 6-over par 76, which featured back-to-back double bogeys and six other bogeys, as well as back-to-back birdies late on in his round.
Defending champion Carl Pettersson opened the defence of his title with a 4-over par 74.
