Chez Reavie, a 26 year old Tour rookie, won the Canadian Open with a final round 70 to finish at 17 under par 270. Owning a name sounding more like a French restaurant than a talented golf professional, Mr. Reavie put together a remarkable performance on a course softened considerable by rain. After opening rounds of 65 and 64, the latter concluded after a significant delay for weather, he concluded his third round 68 Sunday morning. Thus he started his final round with a one shot lead. Despite bogies on two of his first three holes, no one really threatened the leader until Billy Mayfair moved to fourteen under par after becoming only the second player all day to birdie the 17th hole.
On a course where the rough appeared to approach knee high in places, thus capable of not only hiding a variety of really nasty creatures but also causing some really nasty injuries, Mr Reavie found a regimen of fairways and greens quite to his liking. He even managed to tickle the back of David Faherty’s leg at one point during the afternoon.
Billy Mayfair finished alone in second at 14 under par, three shots behind the victor. Not bad for a guy who hasn’t won in 10 years, yes he did tie for 1st in 2001 but lost a playoff to Jose Coceres at the WorldCom Classic. Anybody remember WorldCom. Does the name Bernie Ebbers ring a bell? Mr. Mayfair shot a final round 68, which was matched by Sean O’Hair who tied for third with Steve Marino (70). Mike Weir, carrying the hopes of a very large country atop his short statured frame was another shot behind in a tie with Nicholas Thompson (who has played remarkably consistant quality golf of late) and another name from the past, Scott McCarron. Mr McCarron is recovering from elbow surgery, which hurts just to think about much less be an active participant in the procedure. He seemed to be suffering from neck and shoulder problems throughout the day but managed to play quite well for the week.
Mr Reavie now looks forward to remaining on tour for the next two years, playing in the World Championship event at Firestone CC, and the PGA Championship in two weeks. Plus he’s earned an invitation to the Masters for next spring. AFTERTHOUGHT: he also moved into the top 30 in the FedEx Cup points race, should anybody be keeping track. Oh yes, and he earned $900,000 too. Not a bad cluster of rewards for a 26 year old rookie, eh. In case you didn’t watch the proceedings, or if you watched you weren’t really paying attention to the announcers, Mr. Reavie is a student of CBS analyst Peter Kostis, who was the recipient of shameless promoting by his fellow analysts. it was almost enough to make one believe that without the troll sized Mr Kostis there would have been no victory in Mr. Reavie’s future. Bleeh, blach, achhhack. Piffle and folderol! Talent is not something that can be taught, bought, stolen, traded for nor conjured from a concoction containing eye of newt, wing of bat, and lip of chicken. Not happening. Never. So keep the conversation about the golfer not the teacher, eh.
Anthony Kim was in the final group Sunday, but could not find the magic used in winning twice this year. His final round 75 left him tied for eighth. It appeared that Mr. Kim tried to force the issue, which as any golfer knows usually ends badly in the game of golf. Still it’s a top ten finish, which would have been considered by many a victory for young Mr. Kim at the start of the season. Watching him play the last couple of months has been quite entertaining, as Mr. Kim not only posesses a wonderful golf game, but appears to actually have a real honest to goodness personality, and be much more intellegent than some of the rockheads playing on the PGA Tour. I may be becoming a fan, even of the outlandish belt buckle. Especially since he seems far far removed from that other large belt buckle toting character. We’ll see.
For now, my congratulations go out to Chez Reavie the Canadian Open winner. I wonder if he’d be interested in investing in a restaurant.
