Bits

It’s very hard for a golf fan to get more excited than he or she does during Masters week. Augusta National has a stranglehold on us all and that rite of spring element about it is real and warming to the soul. But it’s still third on my golf pecking order. Give me the Ryder Cup, then give me the Open Championship, then give me the Masters. Love the links, the weather, the unknowns, the brownness, the firmness, the early morning watching, the unpredictability and the history of the Open. Can’t wait to see what Carnoustie has in store for us this time ×× My pick: Tommy Fleetwood. He’s played only twice since his runner-up at the U.S. Open — a T59 at the BMW International Open and a missed cut at the French Open — but he seems to rise to the occasion in big championships. Buying into the well-rested theory ×× I should write this with more regularity but because it’s so geographically close to me this week, a PSA for golf fans in the Greater Toronto Area to get up to Osprey Valley in Caledon for the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada’s Osprey Valley Open. Great golf, awesome course ×× Still can’t see how at least one of those putts coming home didn’t fall for Brooke Henderson Sunday at the LPGA Tour’s Marathon Classic, where she had the lead alone on the back nine but ultimately finished third, one shot out of a playoff. Two downhillers missed on the high side that surely should have peeled right. Let’s see how she bounces back ×× You can see where a shoring up of her short game and wedge game — with the help of a good teaching pro — would do Henderson a world of good. Can’t teach her athleticism, her aggression, her intensity, her grit, her spirit and her hunger but some technical tutelage from inside 100 yards seems prudent.

Bites

Eight days until the unveil of SCOREGolf’s 2018 Top 100. Get your knives sharpened ×× A week out, it seems very odd that we haven’t heard anything about RBC Canadian Open sponsor’s exemptions. I know of two pros who have been awaiting word for some time ×× Speaking of the Canadian Open, Glen Abbey looked as good as it ever has to these eyes when I saw it a few weeks back. Couple of new strategically placed bunkers on the course as well, including one the right side of the first fairway ×× Love this anecdote from last week’s Staal Foundation Open on the Mackenzie Tour: The father of eventual winner Ben Griffin, Cowan Griffin, flew from North Carolina to Minnesota, rented a car and drove eight hours to Thunder Bay so he could see his son in contention on Sunday. Ben saw him after making the turn, at which point he trailed leader Riley Wheeldon, and then made three birdies in a row. He closed with two more birdies to win by one. Great story ×× Speaking of great stories, nice to see Wheeldon playing so well this year, having earned conditional status at a Mackenzie Tour Q-School in the spring. The Comox, B.C., native has had some ups and downs in his career but may be playing his best golf ever ×× Chalk up another victory for NHL referee Garrett Rank, who captured the Ontario Amateur last week at the superb St. Thomas G&CC. Rank built up a big lead and then played defense in the final round, just as he did to win the Ontario Mid-Amateur a few weeks back. Playing well with the lead. Hmm. Guess Rank didn’t officiate too many Toronto Maple Leaf games the last two years.

Barbs

Lest you think this is a Canadian golf writer sticking up for a Canadian tour pro, read the Bites section of this February 2016 blog for my thoughts on Bernhard Langer’s post-anchoring-ban putting style that was under heavy scrutiny at the time and, really, continues to be questioned by some observers today. Same thing applies to David Hearn, who caught the golf world’s attention/ire last week at the John Deere Classic by employing a putting style that looks like it could have the handle of his long putter touching his mid-section. (He’d been using it before but only raised eyebrows last week because he played well and received TV time.) To both rules officials and social media trolls, Hearn very confidently and defiantly maintained that the putter is not anchored to his body and that it is simply brushing his shirt.