Vijay Singh will be teeing it up just one week after withdrawing from the Deutsche Bank Championship due to a back injury. Singh hurt his back while playing table tennis with his son. He was scheduled to defend his title last week, and the same can be said about the Canadian Open this week. Singh comes into the week ranked second in the world rankings behind Tiger Woods. He is also second on the PGA Tour money list behind Tiger. Singh has four victories on the PGA Tour in 2005 and will be the odds-on favorite this week as well.
Last year at the Bell Canadian Open, Vijay defeated Canada’s own Mike Weir on the third playoff hole to earn the event win. Weir had plenty of chances and missed numerous putts down the stretch on his way to a runner-up finish. Singh finished the event with a final-round 69 to finish at -9 overall. Joe Ogilvie finished in third place, with Tom Lehman, Justin Rose, Hunter Mahan, and Stewart Cink finishing in a tie for fourth.
Last year’s event was played at Glen Abbey, but this year the event will be played at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club. Some of the PGA Tour’s best players, including Singh and Weir, recently played the course and had nothing but good things to say about it. The course sets up a lot like a U.S. Open venue, and it will be very interesting to see where the scores end up when the tournament is over.
Vijay Singh will be the odds-on favorite this week, but there is no doubt Mike Weir will be the crowd favorite. For Weir, this event marks his national championship, and he came so close to winning it last year. He will be trying to become the first Canadian-born golfer to win the Canadian Open in 50 years. Weir hasn’t had a very good year, but this could be the week he gets his game back on the right path.
Chris DiMarco and Scott Verplank will also be teeing it up at the Canadian Open this year. DiMarco was in the group of players who tested out the golf course recently. DiMarco has had a very good year, but he has yet to pick up an event win in 2005. Nonetheless, he is seventh on the money list and eighth in the world rankings. The master of the claw grip finished in a tie for 24th at last year’s event.
Scott Verplank has also played well in 2005, including four top-ten finishes. Like DiMarco, however, Verplank still hasn’t won an event this season and will be looking to do that this week north of the border. Verplank has fond memories of the Canadian Open after winning it in 2001. He should definitely be a factor this week as well.
Other notables in the field this week include Stuart Appleby, Fred Funk, and Ben Crane. Appleby won the season-opening Mercedes Championship, but he has been inconsistent since then. Fred Funk won The Players Championship and currently ranks 10th on the money list. Crane won the U.S. Bank Championship a little over a month ago, and he will be looking for his second victory of the 2005 season.
Ryan Moore, Jason Gore, and James Lepp all have their own unique stories this week in Canada as well. Moore, the former amateur phenom, has had a tough time since turning professional after the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Since turning pro, Moore has missed two cuts in the four events he has played. The other two finishes were a T51 and T71, respectively.
Jason Gore will be teeing it up for the third time since earning the promotion to the PGA Tour last month. His first two events resulted in a T73 and T60, respectively. Gore started off last week on a good note, but he had an awful weekend to slip down the leaderboard. James Lepp, the 2005 collegiate national champion from the University of Washington, hasn’t played a PGA Tour event since last year’s Canadian Open. Lepp has a lot of talent, and it will be interesting to see how he handles the pressure of playing with the big boys.
Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club is going to get a lot of attention this week as well. There are high hopes for the course because it’s one of the highest-rated in Canada right now. The golf course measures 7,010 yards and par is 70. It isn’t as long as Firestone or Baltusrol (both par 70s as well), but it’s still going to provide a tough test for the golfers. There isn’t a lot of information about the golf course on the internet, but the finishing hole looks pretty intimidating on paper. It is a 472-yard par 4 that should provide some excitement all week.
Last week, I picked Tiger Woods to win the Deutsche Bank Championship, and he finished in a tie for 40th. I think I am putting the jinx on some of these golfers, but at least Woods made the cut. This week, I’m going with Mike Weir. It might be a sentimental pick, but I think he can get the job done this time around. Weir faced the pressure last year, and he will overcome it this year. For my “sleeper” pick, I’m going with James Lepp. I already talked about him winning the national championship this past season, and I think he has all the tools to contend at a PGA Tour event.
The weather forecast for the week looks decent. The conditions will probably be a little cloudy for the tournament, but the chances of precipitation are fairly low. The highs for the week will be in the 60s and 70s, which is much different than what the players have been faced with as of late. The golfers might need to pull out the sleeves for this event.
The field will be playing for an overall purse of $4.9 million, with $756,000 going to the winner. The Canadian Open is also the second event on the PGA Tour’s Fall Finish. The event was very exciting last year, and the crowd was really into the Weir/Singh battle to the finish. I expect much of the same this time around. All four rounds of the Bell Canadian Open can be seen on ESPN at the following times:
Thu 3:00-6:00pm ET ESPN Fri 3:00-6:00pm ET ESPN Sat 3:30-5:30pm ET ESPN Sun 3:00-6:00pm ET ESPN
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