2018 Ryder Cup – Syndication Server

Rory McIlroy can relate to winning a national open (like Nick Taylor did last year at the RBC Canadian Open)

McIlroy has only played the RBC Canadian Open three times, but he’s already made his mark on the event.

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As golf cliches go, “there are horses for courses” seems to carry plenty of truth.

For example, Sam Snead won the Greater Greensboro Open eight times, and Tiger Woods dominated the South Course at Torrey Pines for over a decade, winning the Farmers Insurance Open seven times between 1999 and 2013. Woods also won the U.S. Open on that picturesque course above the Pacific in 2008. Davis Love won the RBC Heritage five times at HarbourTown Golf Links between 1987 and 1993.

Rory McIlroy has only played the RBC Canadian Open three times, but the 35-year-old Irishman has already made his mark on the event.

McIlroy had already won the Players Championship in 2019 before he arrived at Hamilton Golf and Country Club, and before the final round, he was tied for the lead with Matt Kuchar. Using a $2 Canadian coin (affectionately called a ‘loonie’) as his ball marker, McIlroy blitzed the course and the competition with a Sunday 61 to not only win but also shatter the previous scoring record at the event of 263 by five shots.

“I remember saying to myself, ‘Keep your foot down,'” McIlroy told Golfweek. “I birdied the first two holes and set the tone for the day, and I followed through on the commitment that I made at the start of that day to just keep your foot down and keep going. Some days it works and some days it doesn’t, and thankfully that day it did.”

There is a code among PGA Tour players that golfers should always defend their tournament wins the following year, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the suspension of the RBC Canadian Open for two years. However, McIlroy returned in 2022, and unfortunately for his competition, the Sunday result was the same as McIlroy fired a 62 to defeat Tony Finau by two shots.

“I saw Justin Rose went out, and he was going really close to shooting 59, so I knew that there were scores out there,” McIlroy said. “I was super excited because I was playing with Tony and Justin [Thomas] in that final group on Sunday, two of the best players in the world. It was a really cool deal.”

Winning puts a smile on every athlete’s face and makes memories of venues sweeter. McIlroy is no different, but looking back at that afternoon brings back memories of the win and the Canadian fans who did not have a chance to enjoy their national championship for two years.

Rory McIlroy celebrates with the trophy after winning the 2022 RBC Canadian Open at St. George’s Golf & Country Club in Etobicoke, Ontario. (Photo: Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)

“It was absolutely incredible,” McIlroy said. “COVID was hard and the regulations and the lockdowns were pretty strict in Canada, so it really felt like in ’22 that it was the first time that people were out and they were ready to go. And they made it known. Walking up 18 on Sunday, people stormed the fairway, they’re in the bunkers and they’re nearly on the green. It was such a cool scene.”

One of the coolest scenes of the PGA Tour season last year also played out on Oakdale Golf & Country Club’s 18th green when Nick Taylor dramatically holed a 72-foot eagle putt in a playoff to defeat Tommy Fleetwood to become the first Canadian to win the RBC Canadian Open since 1954 and the first Canadian-born winner since 1914.

Taylor instantly became a national hero in Canada for winning his country’s national championship, which McIlroy, who won the 2016 Irish Open, can relate to but not completely.

“It’s amazing, but before I had won the Irish Open, Shane (Lowry) had won the Irish Open, Padraig (Harrington) had won the Irish Open, so we weren’t waiting decades for an Irish winner,” McIlroy said. “In Canada, they were, so for Nick Taylor to break through and be a Canadian Open winner as a Candian, is just incredible. I can’t imagine how that felt for him, just to be the one to do it and break the course, so to say. It was an unbelievable scene.”

After holing the eagle putt, Taylor tossed his putter to the side as bedlam engulfed the green. That club toss was designed into the tournament’s logo.

Three weeks ago, during a virtual press conference, Taylor was asked to reflect on his win.

“I can’t believe, first, that it’s been a year.” he laughed before revealing the true impact of his achievement. “I still get people coming up to me and telling me about where they were when they putt had dropped, the moment, their reaction, the people around them. I think those stories, over time, have probably been the most special ones. From strangers to family to friends to all of the above, it’s been very humbling over the past year to hear stories about how people were impacted by it. It’s been great and I wish I could be the defending champion a little longer.”

Back in February, Taylor jarred a 12-foot putt to defeat Charley Hoffman on the second playoff hole at the 2024 WM Phoenix Open, proving that he can still summon the magic touch he displayed at Hamilton Golf and Country Club last summer.

If history is a guide, to hold off McIlroy and win another RBC Canadian Open, he’ll need it.

Jordan Spieth nearly 100 percent after bacterial infection, ready for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

“It was about five or six days straight of it being pretty bad.”

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Jordan Spieth is coming off a miserable two weeks.

In the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego last week, Spieth continued to lose a battle with a stomach bug, one that wrecked his second round. With a 78 last Thursday on the South Course, his PGA Tour-best streak of 20 consecutive cuts made came to an end.

While he’s not 100 percent, he’s feeling better, has added back most of the weight he has lost the last 14 days, and is a definite go in this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

“I should probably be at 100 percent by Thursday, would be my guess,” Spieth said Tuesday at Pebble Beach. “I mean everything was just kind of running through me. I got a bacterial infection in my stomach and had to get on some meds and I didn’t know that until I finished my round Thursday, the second round, but the test had come back before I teed off and it was what they were testing for and I didn’t see it until I got done or I may not have played.”

Jordan Spieth plays his shot from the ninth tee during the first round of the Farmers Insurance Open golf tournament at Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Course – North Course. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

Spieth said his illness started when he took antibiotics to deal with a sinus infection, but that, he said, “destroyed my stomach, as it does.”

And then the bacterial infection came calling.

“It was about five or six days straight of it being pretty bad and I thought it was just going to get better and when it didn’t and when I was playing and I started to feel it while I was playing I was like, I got to go figure out what’s going on,” he said. “My parents even, they were like, ‘Yeah, you just did not look like yourself on, whatever, PGA Tour Live or whatever.”

For what it’s worth, he does look a lot better than he did last Thursday.

And he’s feeling a lot better, too, because this is AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am week, a tournament he won in 2017 and one that boasts some of the most spectacular meetings of land and sea.

He’s finished in the top 10 in five of his nine starts here, his most recent coming when he tied for third last year.

“It’s arguably the most beautiful place in the United States, especially for a golf lover it’s got to be a No. 1 spot,” he said. “And then when we get the forecast that we have this week, it just amplifies how amazing it is to play these golf courses and I’ve played well here, I think in part because I’ve kind of fallen in love with the tracks but also because I have a great time with (country music singer and actor) Jake (Owen). We go out there, he keeps me light and we try and kind of feed off each other as if we’re playing a round at home.

“So I look forward to this week. Yeah, the rounds are long and such, but there’s plenty to look at while we play these courses. So always really embraced it and had success because of that.”

On Tuesday, he played a practice round with Patrick Cantlay, the reigning FedEx Cup champion who also tied for third last year at Pebble.

Patrick Cantlay (left) and Jordan Spieth line up their putts on the 17th green during the conclusion of the rain-delayed first round of the Memorial Tournament golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

“Jordan loves competition,” Cantlay said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s throwing a water bottle in the trash can from 20 feet or trying to make a 25-footer to tie or win a match on the last hole.

“I definitely remember watching him at the Walker Cup in 2011 and we were down, we ended up actually losing the Walker Cup, but I remember watching, I think he was in the lead match on the second day in the afternoon and in singles. And I can’t remember who he was playing (he played Andy Sullivan), but it was blowing 40 miles an hour and our team room was inside but had maybe almost like a one-way view of the first tee.

“And he had got to the tee a few minutes early of the match and he was standing there in a way that made me think that he was definitely going to win his match.

“And he did.

“Sometimes you just get a feeling and it just looked like no matter what happened, no matter what break, no matter how he was feeling about his game, no matter anything that happened, he was going to win his match.

“Certain people can be like that and when he’s going, he can be one of those guys.”

Being the competitor he is, Spieth, despite battling the bug last week, was disappointed his made-cuts streak came to an end. It was a streak that spoke to his consistency in a resurgent year that was highlighted by his victory in the Valero Texas Open, his first win since the 2017 Open Championship. He also finished third in the Masters and second in the Open.

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The winner of 12 PGA Tour titles, three being major championships, had fallen to 92^nd in the world; he’s now No. 15.

“I hate missing weekends. I wish that there were no cuts ever,” he said. “But it was a little bit of a different circumstance because, yes, I played poorly and it’s not to say that I would have made the cut if I was 100 percent. I told Michael (Greller, his caddie) when I got done I was almost like relieved because I felt like pretty bad and didn’t have anything in the system and I was just hoping that maybe something actually was wrong, so this wasn’t like normal, in a weird way.”

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