Mike's Blog - RBC Canadian Open

It's great to be back in Canada!

There's no other way to say it.  I just love coming back home, especially to the RBC Canadian Open.  This is one of the best weeks of the year for me as I get to see a lot of family, old friends, and meet lots of new fans (and I Get to have some real Molson beer!).  For a Canadian golfer, this is the biggest event on our calendar.

Monday was a great way to kick things off with my first Charity Classic. Ever since this idea started to come together, I've been excited about it. It's a great way to get more involved with the Open and to raise funds for charity.  As we got things more and more organized, and more and more guests agreed to play, I thought it would be a pretty big event, but I never expected it to be as big as it was today.  I don't think I've ever seen Glen Abbey as busy on a Monday.  There was a ton of media and lots and lots of fans.

We had such a great lineup of athletes and celebrities and I'd have to say that Michael Jordan probably had the biggest gallery.  I never think of Canada as a big basketball country, but I've changed my mind after seeing the fans following MJ.

Of course there were all sorts of great actors, hockey players and golfers who took time to make today a success.  I know a lot of these folks have busy summers and for them to take time to travel here and play is wonderful.  I can't thank them enough for coming out to support our day.

As for my golf, I continue to play well.  Today at Glen Abbey, I shot eight under on the back nine with four birdies and two eagles.  I hope I can do that when the tournament starts!  I really feel as though I'm hitting the ball solid.  I felt as though I played well last week, except for one bad hole. 

I had a very good first round but on the seventh on Friday, I tried to lay up short of some fairway bunkers but the ball ran into one of the little pot bunkers.  I thought I could get it out of there easily but didn't and that ended up costing me.  Of course, as you can get at the Open, I played in some pretty severe weather too but there's nothing you can do about that. You have to deal with that, almost expect it, at the Open.

While it was unfortunate to miss the cut, the benefit was that I managed to get back here earlier.  Stephen Ames and I jumped on a plane and flew to Toronto so I had more time to deal with the jet lag. That's important because this is also probably the busiest week of the year for me.  There is a lot more media attention, more autographs and more requests of all kinds.  It's taken me a lot of time to learn how to manage this week, but I'm pretty comfortable that I have come up with the right plan off the course.  On it, I'm also really comfortable with Glen Abbey. It wasn't always kind to me early in my career, but he last two times we've played here, I've had some great results so I'm looking forward to it.  I know I'll be ready to go when I get to the first tee on Thursday.

As always, thanks for your support.
Mike