Canadian Open drama - and comedy - was needed amid 'wretched rancour and distrust'

“Golf needed that one!” said Harry Higgs of the RBC Canadian Open in a post on social media on Sunday night, the popular American expressing a view shared by those who love the game and don’t like what’s happened in the sport over the past 12 months and where it could now be heading.

Unsurprisingly, there’s been a massive media reaction to last week’s shock announcement that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour are jumping into bed with the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi wealth kitty that has bankrolled LIV Golf, but it’s not just columnists who are fretting about the current welfare of the game.

“After the pure joy of watching Rory [McIlroy] and Michael Block during the PGA Championship (in which Block, a 46-year-old club professional, made a hole-in-one in the final round at Oak Hill and secured his spot in next year’s event through a top-15 finish), now this,” wrote a hugely-influential figure in the golf world and passionate supporter of the game in a message to this columnist towards the end of last week. “From an example of why all of us love the beautiful game so very much to this wretched rancour and distrust. So, so sad.”

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Even among non-golfers - and, yes, I do have friends and acquaintances of that ilk - a sensational twist in the tale has set tongues wagging, but let’s try and allow the events of the Canadian Open linger for a bit and remind ourselves that the game itself produces magical moments and, in this instance, a comical one, too.

Not since 1965, when Pat Fletcher did the trick, had a home player triumphed in the event, but, at the fourth extra hole in a play-off against Tommy Fleetwood at Oakdale Golf & Country Golf in Toronto, Nick Taylor ended that drought in style by rolling in a career-best 72-foot eagle putt.

On the strength of that alone, the event will go down in PGA Tour folklore and rightly so, but it will also be long remembered for one of the most bizarre moments ever witnessed at the top level in the game.

World No 75 Adam Hadwin, who had been watching from the sidelines along with fellow Canadian players Corey Conners and Mike Weir, ran on to the green, popped a bottle of champagne and started to spray it.

It’s the sort of scene that’s always been fairly common in golf but, unfortunately for Hadwin, he wasn’t recognised by a security guard who, looking as though he was auditioning for a career in the NFL, sent him flying backwards with a shuddering tackle before he’d reached Taylor.

Nick Taylor celebrates with his caddie after rolling in a 72-foot eagle putt on the fourth extra hole to become the first home player to win the RBC Canadian Open since 1954. Picture: Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images.Nick Taylor celebrates with his caddie after rolling in a 72-foot eagle putt on the fourth extra hole to become the first home player to win the RBC Canadian Open since 1954. Picture: Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images.
Nick Taylor celebrates with his caddie after rolling in a 72-foot eagle putt on the fourth extra hole to become the first home player to win the RBC Canadian Open since 1954. Picture: Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images.

Luckily, Hadwin wasn’t hurt and quickly saw the funny side of what had happened, for which he deserves a lot of credit, and perhaps the security guard should be employed at every PGA Tour event over the next couple of years as even a playful tackle by him on other players would be entertaining.

Fleetwood’s gracious reaction to missing out on a first PGA Tour win, heaping praise on both Taylor and Canada rather than feeling sorry for himself, was another reason to feel golf had suddenly become a better place again, but, sadly, we all know that won’t last long.

Like it or not, the build up to this week’s US Open, the third men’s major of the season, at Los Angeles Country Club will be dominated by what was announced last week and it will still be rumbling on by the time we get to Royal Liverpool in a month’s time for the 151st Open.

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