Weir gets a head start on the field
Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:48:22
Celebrities and professional golfers aside, the Mike Weir Charity Classic Monday served a useful purpose - for Mike Weir.
Weir, winner of eight PGA Tour events, has played the undulating, exacting course at St. George's Golf and Country Club in the midst of an upscale area of Toronto only once. So his trip around the traditional course in Monday's heat was not only a fundraiser but also gave the 40-year-old extra tee time for the Canadian Open, which starts Thursday.
"I think I'm in the same boat as everyone else," Weir said just before he teed up for the first hole. "No one has seen the golf course enough, so it's important to play today and play the pro-am Wednesday and get a feel for the place."
Paul Casey, third at the British Open last week and winner of this year's Shell Houston Open, is taking advantage of the charity tournament too, despite a long flight from Scotland Sunday night. Sean O'Hair, Camilo Villegas and Stephen Ames shrugged off fatigue and hit the greens too.
"I think everybody is a little tired," Weir said. "It's actually good to get out and get going and try to get the time zone right back on track."
Weir has never won the Canadian Open. His best finish was a second in 2004, the year after his breakthrough season. Last year he finished in a tie for 24th. Last week at the British Open he finished in a tie for 80th, 23 over par. "I would have thought that my record would have been better than it is at this point in my career [at the British Open]," he wrote in a blog. "I'm hoping that maybe I'll do better in my 40s than I did in my 20s and 30s."
His putter hasn't been kind to him this season, contributing to missed cuts here and there, and finishes of 52nd, 26th, 40th, 43rd, 33rd in various tournaments. He does have bragging rights for winning $270,000 at the Telus Skins Game at Bear Mountain in Victoria last month, but a skins game and a Canadian Open are two vastly different events.
With one of the stronger fields assembled for the Canadian Open in recent years, Weir has his work cut out for him.
"There's pressure every year for all of us [Canadians]," Weir said. "But no question, it's exciting to try to win this championship every year. It's a big challenge to try to win this championship. It's important to us."
Weir took three weeks off before the British Open to recharge his batteries and spend time with his family in Tuscany. He found a little course to bat some balls around. But the wayward winds of the capricious St. Andrew's course, and being "on the bad side of the draw," blew Weir out of contention at the British Open.
Click here to read more...
