Friday, August 03, 2018
Dustin Johnson Wins the Canadian Open
With almost
surgical precision, Dustin Johnson carved up the course at Glen Abbey
in Oakville to win the RBC Canadian Open. The Canadian Open is the
third oldest national open golf championship, established in 1904.
The Open, in Great Britain, of course, and the U. S. Open are
slightly older.
The
tournament moves to Hamilton next year to the Hamilton Golf and
Country Club, and is scheduled to start in early June in the week
before the U. S. Open. This is a significant change for golfing
aficionados, as there was always a slight conflict in previous years.
As you will recall, The Open took place last week in Scotland, and
many of the touring pros skipped the Canadian Open annually, because
it took place too soon after The Open.
To his
credit, the # 1 player in the world decided to put the Canadian Open
on his list for this year. He now has more than one million reasons
for thinking that was a good idea.
There is not
a lot that phases Johnson as he prowls along a golf course. He
entered the final round tied for the lead with three other players:
Kevin Tway, Whee Kim, and Byeong Hun An.
Johnson
birdied the first two holes. He added four more birdies on the back
nine to secure the victory. “It was definitely good to get off to a
fast start,” he said after the round. No kidding.
As they say,
he is engaged to Wayne Gretzky's daughter, Paulina. With Brantford
not too far down the road, the galleries were crowded with Johnson
fans all week. He knew they had his back: “It was a lot of fun out
there this week. I thought I had a lot of support. It's a lot of fun
to play out there for a big crowd”.
Top Canadian
in the field was Mackenzie Hughes. He ended up in a tie for 8th
place, his best finish thus far this year. He was awarded the
Rivermead Cup, which he called “a pretty good consolation prize”.
Several
people from this area made the trek to Cooperstown this past weekend.
It was reported that more than 50 000 people crowded the village for
the Hall of Fame weekend. I have been there several times, but never
on the Hall of Fame weekend. With Mariano Rivera likely heading that
way next year, I am supposed to accompany the New York Yankee fan
that I live with to the ceremonies.
Congratulations
to these players entering the Hall this past weekend; Chipper Jones,
Vladimir Guerrero, Jim Thome, Trevor Hoffman, Alan Tramell, and Jack
Morris. Guerrero paid tribute to Montreal, and Morris to Toronto,
where they played, respectively.
A final
baseball note. Francisco Arcia, a Venezuelan, is 28 years old. He has
been playing minor league baseball for twelve years!
Last weekend he got a call to play for the Angels. In his first two
games, he had ten runs batted in. He is the first player in Angels
history to homer in his first two games. He was batting .244 in the
Minor League this year. Go figure.
James
Hurst
July
30, 2018
# posted by James Hurst @ 7:56 AM 
