Round 4: RBC Canadian Open
July 24 2011
7:41 pm
With O’Hair’s win…
Sean O’Hair shot a 2-under 68 on Sunday to come from three strokes back to force a playoff with Kris Blanks, who he beat on the first extra hole with a bogey. For O’Hair, the victory gives him 500 FedExCup points and his first win in two years.
O’Hair also …
… Won his first playoff on the PGA TOUR.
… Got his fourth career victory, which came 46 starts since his last, the 2009 Wells Fargo Championship.
… Moved from No. 147 to No. 43 in the FedExCup standings.
… Becomes the 11th player in his 20s to win on TOUR this season.
7:31 pm
Bunker does in Blanks
In a word, Kris Blanks was “pissed,” as he said following his playoff loss to Sean O’Hair Sunday the RBC Canadian Open.
Specifically, Blanks was upset with the bunker shot he hit on the first hole of sudden death. His ball came out of the greenside bunker hot and rolled through the green and onto the fringe. His chip shot then skidded a good 5 feet past the hole and he missed the bogey putt. Game over.
“It’s funny, the one in regulation, it was heavier than I wanted it to be,” Blanks said of the same shot he faced in regulation. Only he converted that one, getting up-and-down for par. “Thought I hit it pretty good. It just was a bit too far. Got down there and obviously it rolled down against the grass. There was a little tuft of grass behind the ball. I chipped and I didn’t get it up-and-down.”
With Blanks’ ball having too much grass behind it on the fringe, he had no choice but to hit a wedge shot from the fringe — “I couldn’t get a putter on it,” he said.
He’d also three-putted three times from just off the fringe earlier in the round. That’s not exactly a confidence boost when the tournament is on the line.
“The more I think about it, the more I’ll probably get upset at the shots I gave away today,” Blanks said.
If there was an upside for Blanks, it’s that he all but sewed up his card for next year.
”It was definitely the week I needed,” Blanks said. “Definitely makes the whole rest of the year a lot easier.”
7:10 pm
Daly takes plenty of positives
For John Daly, success doesn’t necessarily come in winning. At least it didn’t at the RBC Canadian Open, where he got his first top-10 finish since 2005 with a tie for ninth after a 72 on Sunday.
”It’s been a struggle,” Daly said of his last few years. “You cannot play good golf out here when you’re hurt.”
Daly said his groin bothered him this week but that overall everything felt pretty good. That’s especially true of the positives Daly will take from the week.
“Oh, a ton, a ton,” he said. “There’s no doubt about it. I love the way I chipped the last two days. Under the heat today, I know I was kind of out of it there with four or five holes to go. But I made one heck of a par on 15, 17 and 18.
“I got them down a lot today. Probably in the past I would have shot an 80 or 82 today.”
Instead, Daly played well enough to finish at even par for the week — something he’s done only three other times in 13 previous starts this season.
6:50 pm
Hadwin’s hopes, not spirit dashed
Adam Hadwin’s tie for fourth Sunday at the RBC Canadian Open was bittersweet.
Trying to become the first Canadian in more than 50 years to win his country’s national championship, those hopes were quickly dashed when Hadwin made two bogeys and a double bogey in his first eight holes. Hadwin charged back, however, with three straight birdies on the back nine only to finish two strokes out of a playoff.
“I can’t put words to it,” Hadwin said. “I felt like I was playing for my country out there. Got off to a rough start, and brought it back on the back side and gave them something to cheer about coming in.”
While Hadwin didn’t get the win, he did get into the field for next week’s Greenbrier Classic thanks to a top-10 finish. He also gave the fans plenty to cheer about after overcoming a four-putt on the eighth hole.
“I had basically one goal for the whole day and that was have fun,” Hadwin said. “I kept telling myself just enjoy it. Everybody’s cheering for you. Just have fun out there, and things turned around there on the back nine.”
That turnaround also gives Hadwin, a two-timer winner on the Canadian Tour, the confidence that he can play with the best.
“This is my first final group on the PGA TOUR,” he said. “It was kind of exciting. Big crowds all day, lots of cheers. You know, to finish on the back nine like I did was something special.”
6:23 pm
Congratulate O’Hair on his win
Sean O’Hair got his first victory in two years with Sunday’s playoff win at the RBC Canadian Open. Share a note of congratulations with him here and we’ll pass it along.
6:20 pm
O’Hair makes bogey, wins playoff
It won’t go down as the most gracious of wins, but Sean O’Hair’s first victory in two years wasn’t any less deserved or emotional on a difficult day of scoring at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club.
Perhaps it was appropriate O’Hair beat Kris Blanks with a bogey on the first hole of sudden death. The lead, after all, went backwards a stroke after Bo Van Pelt began the final round at 5 under and O’Hair and Blanks ended it tied at 4 under.
It wasn’t pretty with both O’Hair and Blanks both finding the rough off the tee and both coming up short of the 18th green in the playoff, and neither played very good third shots, either. But O’Hair managed to save bogey with a two-putt, while Blanks, whose chip from the fringe scooted a good 5 feet past the hole, wasn’t able to save his.
With the win, O’Hair not only gets his first victory since 2009, he earns 500 FedExCup points to move to 43rd. Blanks, meanwhile, moved up to 54th.
6:09 pm
Playoff play-by-play: O’Hair wins
Kris Blanks is looking for his first career victory, while Sean O’Hair is looking for his first win. Here’s a play-by-play of their playoff:
18th hole: Neither Blanks or O’Hair found the fairway off the tee. As a result, neither one of them was able to hit the green on their second shots, either. On O’Hair’s third, he came up woefully short of the hole on his pitch shot. Meanwhile, Blanks sent his bunker shot sailing past the hole and off the green onto the fringe. O’Hair two-putted for bogey, but Blanks wasn’t able to get up-and-down and made double bogey to give O’Hair the win.
5:46 pm
Two-man playoff upcoming
On another day of tough scoring, the lead went backwards a stroke with Kris Blanks and Sean O’Hair each finishing at 4 under. The two will now head to the 18th hole for a sudden-death playoff.
Blanks is trying to win for the first time in his career, while O’Hair is looking for his first victory since 2009. Neither has played in a playoff before.
Andres Romero had a chance to join the playoff, but he bogeyed the 18th hole after missing the fairway and then hitting it into a greenside bunker.
4:50 pm
Another impressive outing for Cantlay
Four starts, four top-25s. Those numbers are impressive when you take into consideration the fact they come from Patrick Cantlay, the 19-year-old amateur who will be a sophomore at UCLA this fall and on Sunday closed with a 69 to finish his week even par.
It all started at the U.S. Open, where Cantlay was the low amateur tying for 21st. A week later at the Travelers Championship, he held the 36-hole lead after a course-record 60. He struggled the last two rounds, but he still finished in a tie for 24th.
Then at the AT&T National in what was his fifth straight week of competitive golf going back to the NCAA tournament, Cantlay tied for 20th.
In Vancouver, Cantlay closed with rounds of 68 and 69 for what will be his best finish of the year. Not a bad way to spend a summer vacation.
4:30 pm
Lead going backwards
Bo Van Pelt has been flirting with disaster pretty much all afternoon and on the 13th it caught up with him. He hit an errant tee shot that forced him to punch out and when he didn’t get to the green on his next shot, he wasn’t able to get up and down to save bogey. Instead, Van Pelt made a double bogey and is now one shot off the lead.
That lead now belongs to Sean O’Hair and Kris Blanks. O’Hair held it by himself briefly, but he bogeyed the 14th to drop back to 3 under, which is two strokes back of where the lead was at the start of the day.
It’s been two years since O’Hair’s last win and he’s gone through a stretch of some less than great golf to say the least, which led him to parting ways with his longtime swing coach Sean Foley. Can O’Hair hold on and win for the first time since 2009? We’ll find out in the next hour or so.
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