Mize Ends Drought In Montreal

Larry Mize won his first championship in 17 years at the inaugural Montreal Championship at Club de Golf Le Fontainebleau in Blainville, Que., on Sunday.

Mize, the 1987 Masters champ, finished the three-day Champions Tour event at 17-under, one shot better than second round leader John Cook, who posted a 68 on the final day.

Dan Forsman (65) and Corey Pavin (67) were three off the pace, while fan favourite Fred Couples shot a 68 to tie for fifth.

Jim Rutledge of Victoria, B.C., came in with a 70 to finish 38th at six-under. Quebec pros Yvan Beauchemin and Daniel Talbot were 55th and 63rd, respectively, while Dave Barr of Kelowna, B.C. was 74th.

After Cook missed a birdie putt on 18, Mize’s eyes became somewhat misty. “I was holding back some emotion,” he admitted. “I teared up a little bit. It’s been a long time. Once it happened, it was hard to keep that emotion back.”

“You know, it’s hard to believe,” added Mize, who knew he needed to go low.

He did just that, reeling off three straight birdies, beginning on the par-five 14th to stay one step in front of a charging Cook. The lone blemish on his scorecard was a bogey on the par-four 12th.

Cook was looking for his second victory in Canada, 27 years after winning the Canadian Open. He had a gift three-foot birdie putt on the driveable par four 16th, but missed. On the closing hole, Cook had another look, but his 25-foot birdie try rolled just by the cup.

“Some of these are harder than others to take,” said Cook. “I just came up a bit short.”

Starting the final day three shots back, Couples birdied his first hole, but gave that back on the second. The 15-time PGA Tour champion had four birdies in a seven-hole stretch starting on the eighth, but just couldn’t get that extra push.

“Larry played an unbelievable round,” said Couples. “He just kept going and going, so that was nice to see.”

Big Names Crowd Top Of Leaderboard

The inaugural Montreal Championship at Club de golf Fontainebleau in Blainville, Que., is promising to be a shootout on the final day.

John Cook, the 1983 Canadian Open champion, will look to notch his second career win in this country. Cook matched his opening day six-under 66 and sits at 12-under with a one-shot lead over Russ Cochran, who posted a 68.

D.A. Weibring set a course record 63, two shots better than the old mark, to get to nine-under and within striking range, along with seven other players including Craig Stadler (65), Fred Couples (66), Corey Pavin (67), David Frost (68), Larry Mize, (68), James Mason (69) and Peter Senior (68).

After an opening day 71, Victoria’s Jim Rutledge rebounded with a 69 and holds a share of 34^th at 4-under.

Following a birdie on his second hole of the day, Cook saved par with a 15-footer on three. On the par five seventh, he knocked a five iron to seven feet before cashing in the eagle putt.

Despite missing just two greens in his first two days, Cook knows he will need another low round Sunday. A quick look over his shoulder should give him all the incentive he needs.

“There are some impressive names there, for sure,” said Cook. “I might be leading, but Sunday is the telling day. I really won’t worry about anything until the back side. If I can give myself chances, I can’t ask for anything more than that.

“These guys won’t lay down and I’m not going to lay down.”

Cochran faltered with a double-bogey on four followed by a bogey on the sixth. He settled down to record birdies on eight and nine and played his final 11 holes at five-under. With just 50 putts in two days, Cochran admits his putter is bailing him out.

“I’m really happy with the way I made some putts to get going,” Cochran said. “Overall, I didn’t play great, but I got the ball in the hole pretty well. The putter’s the best it’s been all year.”

Making just his second Champions Tour start, Mark Calcavecchia made a Saturday charge, but didn’t do it the easy way. When his day was over, his scorecard featured an eagle, seven birdies and three bogeys.

At eight under, Calcavecchia is looking for his third win in Canada after triumphs at the 1997 Greater Vancouver Open and 2005 Canadian Open.

Couples eagled the par five seventh and added four more birdies on his back nine, including a 10-footer on the closing hole.

“I’m now back in the tournament and I’m in great shape for (Sunday),” Couples said. “I can only do what I can do and today was a better day to move myself up the leaderboard and give myself a shot to win tomorrow.

“There were a lot of people out there, which is a lot of fun,” he added. “This is a phenomenal event, as good as or better than any of our big tournaments we play. I’m pretty sure they’re going to break a record with people out here for the week.”

Wargo, Cochran Tie Course Record

Tom Wargo and Russ Cochran opened the first Champions Tour stop in Canada in eight years by tying the course record at Club de Golf Fontainebleau in Blainville, Que., with a seven-under 65.

Wargo actually shot below his age to get the quick start out of the blocks. John Cook, the 1983 Canadian Open champion, Joey Sindelar, Jay Don Blake, James Mason, Tom Purtzer and Jay Haas are just one shot back. Six others opened with 67.

Fan favourite Fred Couples posted a 69 to stay within striking distance.

Quebec pro Daniel Talbot is the leading Canadian after opening with a 70, while Victoria’s Jim Rutledge came in with 71. Yvan Beauchemin (72) and Dave Barr (74) will have some work to do if they are to get back into contention.

Starting his day on the 10th tee, Wargo, 67, was five-under at the turn thanks, in part, to birdies on the 16th, 17th and 18th, a stretch of holes that winds around a large lake and has been dubbed the “Hat Trick” this week.

“It’s always nice to get out of the gate because you get settled into a little more of a routine,” said Wargo, who added he will be retiring in the near future.

After his performance Friday, he may want to rethink those plans.

“I’m just piddling around trying to make some beer money,” he said. “When you’re 67, you’re down the other side of that hill pretty fast and I want to go on to some other things with my life before I hit the bottom of that hill.”

“I’m going to put in a tomato patch, with a few watermelons and some sweet corn,” he said. “I went to my class reunion a little while ago, the 50th. I found out there are there are two parts of life – young and skinny then old and fat.”

Cochran, who used to caddy for Wargo in Kentucky, said the crowd got into the first round in Montreal.

“The enthusiasm of the tournament, it’s just been unbelievable. You can feel it. I was the second group off and I went down to the range early to get a little work in, and the stands were full,” he said.

“That was unbelievable. People are on pretty much every hole and there were some big crowds checking the hall-of-famers out, and some of the future hall-of-famers, as well,” added Cochran, the 2009 rookie of the year on the Champions Tour.

After a bogey on the par four 11th, his second hole of the day, Cochran got down to business with birdies on three of his the final five holes to close out his front side. He made four birdies on his inbound nine, including the par four eighth where he sunk a 15-footer.

“The course is in perfect condition,” Cochran said. “Any time you get a golf course in real good shape people find a way to shoot low.”

Couples was even par after six holes before making an eagle on the par five seventh to jump start his day. At one point, he was four under, but gave one back with a bogey on the par three 17th.

“It was good but not great. There’s going to be hot rounds everywhere. I’m way behind, but if I can come out and shoot five or six under (Saturday), then I’ll have a shot on Sunday,” said Couples, who has established a rapport with the Montreal fans.

“That was the fun part,” said Couples. “They’ve supported the tournament and this will be one of the best tournaments we have on the Champions Tour.

“The fans coming out make the whole event for me.  I can speak for most of the players that when you come out and there is 20,000 people on a Friday, that’s a lot of fun.”

Round 1 Quotebook

Tom Wargo (65) 

 

“All you’re trying to do is put a score on the board and whatever it is, if it’s low and it matches your age, that’s something to yap about I guess. I’ve shot my age at home, but competitively, this is my first one.”

 

 “You’ll notice that probably 75 per cent of the field will be par or better here because of the fairways. They are quite generous at this point and the golf course is in good shape. They have done a good job here with it. It seemed to be a favorable wind today on a lot of the holes, so I don’t think any of the hard holes played into the wind.”

 

Russ Cochran (65)

“There will be a significant number of people instead of, let’s say half a dozen people, that go real low. There should be quite a few people in the mix because the greens are decent‑sized. The course is in magnificent shape. That’s the big thing, too. Any time you get a golf course in real good shape, people find a way to shoot low. “

 

 “If you had six people together, you could call Tom (Wargo) and say, `Tom, it’s going to cost you $100 to get in and you can only win 200, but do you want to come in?’  

 

`Yeah, I’ll be there. Who’s there? Count me in.’ He would go anywhere any time to play. He has a good, hearty personality. He had a good time after the round.”

 

 John Cook (66)

 “The course is in great shape.  The greens are great, perfect speed to make putts.  You can be semi‑aggressive, kind of a recipe for low scores. “

 

 “I know that it’s supposed to get rather warm the next couple of days and I don’t know what that means for the wind. It will probably have to come from a little different direction I would imagine, either the west or the south.That would be my guess. The one thing is we haven’t played the golf course where the wind is blowing that direction, so going to be a little bit different. Whoever can adjust and hit quality golf shots, I think will be the champion on Sunday.”

 

 “To have a chance to win, you have to start out well and you just can’t put yourself way behind because you only have two rounds to make it up. It’s not like you can have a mediocre first round and have three more rounds. You only have two and you know you’ve got to hit 12, 13, 15‑under par.”

 

 “I thoroughly enjoy (first round leader) Tom Wargo. At 67 years old, he looks like he can take all of us and beat us to a pulp. I just love him and he’s one of the best guys out here … To see him playing, not just shooting his age, but blowing right by his age ‑‑ I mean, where else in the world, in anything, can you have something like that happen, a 67‑year‑old guy leading a golf tournament?  I love it.  We’re going to try to beat him, don’t get me wrong there.  We won’t lay over for him, but it was great to see.”

 Fred Couples (69)

 “I was mediocre at best today.”

 

 “If you don’t putt much, you’re not going to beat many people. It’s not wide open. You’ve got to drive it in play.  The greens are a little soft, so if you’re coming out of the rough, you can still stop the ball. Sunday will be different and today was an easy day, I would say, for this course.  Tomorrow will be a little harder and a little drier and tougher.”

 

 “I don’t know why people have said it’s hard to play on this tour and that tour. I go and play in a tournament, the first hole has got a tee and a green and a hole.”

 

 “It’s just hard to play a lot of tournaments.  I’m playing more this year than I have since 1983 and that’s crazy at my age. I’m going to play less, but this year, I’m going to play a few more because I’ve played on a few on the regular tour. “

“

The Montreal Quotebook

Fred Couples

“My year is slowing down a little bit lately. I haven’t been playing much. Just like on the regular tour, you know, I do play, and a long time ago, I played well. I played well for a long stretch of time. This year, at the beginning of the year, it was the same thing. I worked pretty hard in the off‑season to get ready for this year.

To win three times, I think it was obviously great, but surprising, but at the same time, I played really, really well and, as of today, I haven’t been playing much and my game is not really all that great, but I’m very excited to be here and to start playing again, so you never know.”

“There’s a lot more left this year, and I believe the only PGA Tour tournament I’m playing is going to be the Canadian Open, so I’ll focus on maybe at least eight more Champions Tour events, which is a lot. I mean, that’s 22 times this year and the most I’ve played since probably ‘82, ‘83, was 20 times, so I’m playing more this year than I have in 25 years, which is odd,.but it’s kind of a mixed year where I still wanted to play the (PGA Tour) a little bit and next year, I think will be totally different. I’ll focus mostly out here, but I’ll play a couple besides Augusta that I love playing.”

Tom Lehman

“(Wednesday) was interesting.  We had three seasons in one day.  We haven’t quite got to winter, but we encountered some spring, summer and fall. “

“Is there a hockey team here? You think of Montréal and you think of hockey, but I grew up in Minnesota, which, again, is a hockey state, and a football state, maybe the Vikings. People don’t understand, people in northern climates, they jam a lot of stuff into those winter months, so I’m not all surprised that golf is big in Montréal. I feel like people that are limited make the very best use of their time and they love to do anything with having to be outside, so I’m not surprised.”

Loren Roberts

“I can’t believe the infrastructure work that’s been done here for a first‑year event. I mean, I heard it’s been sold out here and they are expecting 15,000 a day to come out. “

“I think even for the practice rounds, you’re seeing a lot of people out here. There’s people out here for the pro‑am, so I know that the golf fans here are excited and I really hope the that we put on a really good show. I’ve heard nothing about great things about the golf up here. Unfortunately I didn’t play any of the years in the Canadian Open it was up here. I remember watching Mike Weir beat Tiger Woods (in the Presidents Cup) a couple of years ago.”

Champions Tour Returns To Canada

 The Champions Tour makes its return to Canada on Friday when the Montreal Championship tees off at Club de golf Fontainebleau in Blainville, Que., with a field that includes 24 of the top 28 in the Charles Schwab points race.

Included in that field will be 45-time Champions Tour winner Hale Irwin, 2010 Senior PGA champ Tom Lehman, American Ryder Cup champion Corey Pavin and Loren Roberts, who just won the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open.

The announced field has accounted for 252 total Champions Tour victories and 312 total PGA Tour wins – a combined total of 564 victories across both tours.

Mark Calcavecchia is making his second start on the Champions Tour this week after recently turning 50 and just a year after he set a PGA Tour record by reeling off nine consecutive birdies at last year’s RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey in Oakville, Ont.

Calcavecchia is hoping for a triple play as far as Canadian championships go. If he won the $270,000 U.S. winner’s share in Montreal, it would be his third win in Canada after winning the 2005 Canadian Open at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club in Vancouver and the 1997 Greater Vancouver Open.

Calcavecchia isn’t the only Champions Tour rookie in the Montreal field. He’ll be joined by fan favourite Fred Couples who won three of his first four starts on the Champions Tour this year.

Dave Barr of Kelowna, B.C., is playing on an exemption and has said he’s hoping for a strong showing this week or he may pass on the Champions Tour qualifying school later this year. Meanwhile, Jim Rutledge of Victoria is coming off a tie for 14^th and another high finish could serve him well in an upcoming tour reshuffle.

Barr and Rutledge will be joined in the field by renowned Quebec professionals Yvan Beauchemin and Daniel Talbot. The Montreal Championship will be televised on the Golf Channel and RDS.

For tournament information, click here.

 

 

Barr, Talbot Earn Montreal Exemptions

Dave Barr and Quebec professional Daniel Talbot have been granted sponsor’s exemptions into the Montreal Championship, an inaugural Champions Tour event that gets underway at Club de golf Le Fontainbleau in Blainville, Que., on Friday.

“Synchro Sports wanted to open the doors of our tournament to as many Canadians as possible and we are very happy to announce two outstanding names in Canadian golf have been added to the starting field,” said tournament director David Skitt.

Barr, a two-time PGA Tour champion, also won on the Champions Tour at the 2003 Royal Caribbean Golf Classic. Talbot missed earning one of the five spots available at a pre-qualifier on Friday.

“This is a surprise and an honour for me to be invited to participate in a tournament of this stature,” said Talbot. “I am certain that this will be an exceptional experience for myself and all of the competitors.”

Tournament chairman Ronald Corey said Talbot will be a fine addition. “He is not only a crowd favourite in Canada, but has also enjoyed a long and brilliant career,” said Corey.

Ken Green Finds Strength In Golf After Tragedies

There are a couple of things that automatically come to mind leading into a conversation with Ken Green, one being how can he possibly return to golf considering the tragic events in his life over the past year and the other being how he can talk so openly about those events to somebody he doesn’t know particularly well.

A year ago, Green was involved in a horrific RV accident in which his brother William, girlfriend Jean Marie and his dog were killed. As a result of the accident, doctors amputated his lower right leg.

Tragedy struck again earlier this year when Green’s 21-year-old son Hunter was found dead in his dorm room at Southern Methodist University. The death was ruled as accidental, but one can only imagine the personal agony of Green, who has already battled bouts of depression, other injuries and financial woes.

Yet, Green, with his prosthetic limb, has played six rounds on the Champions Tour already this year and will play in the inaugural Montreal Championship at Club de golf Le Fontainebleau in Blainville, Que, June 2-4. Read more

Senior PGA Champ Coming To Montreal

Newly-crowned Senior PGA champion Tom Lehman will play at the Montreal Championship as will David Frost, the man Lehman beat in a playoff to take that title.

Fred Couples, the other player who took part in that playoff, has already confirmed his presence at the Montreal event, which will take place July 2-4 at Club de golf Le Fontainebleau in Blainville, Que.

“Having the three legends that were involved in the thrilling Senior PGA Championship playoff coming to the Montreal Championship shows what is in store for Montreal golf fans a month from now,” said tournament director David Skitt.

“We are thrilled with the feedback and support Champions Tour players are showing for
our tournament and we are confident this will be one of the flagship stops on the Champions Tour schedule.”

Can Montreal Handle Two Events So Close Together?

It will be like having your birthday on Christmas Day when Montreal hosts two high-profile professional golf events next year.

While the 2011 RBC Canadian Open will be held at Shaughnessy in Vancouver, we found out this week from Golf Canada, the former Royal Canadian Golf Association, that Hillsdale in Mirabel will host next year’s CN Canadian Women’s Open.

That LPGA Tour event, as it stands right now, will come about six weeks after the second Montreal Championship, a Champions Tour event that will be played for the first time in July at Club de golf le Fontainebleau in Blainville.

In theory, having your birthday on Christmas Day means getting double the gifts, right? In practice, however, it may mean you end up getting screwed for your birthday gifts because too much of the family income is going out on Christmas. Read more