OAKVILLE, Ont. – Beside the pond to the right of the 18th green at Glen Abbey Golf Club stands a giant billboard reading, “True North Strong” in bold lettering.
Pictured are seven Canadians, including three PGA Tour event winners.
Appropriately, the player on the top is Mike Weir – the person, according to fellow billboard model David Hearn, who deserves a good portion of the credit for this golden age of Canadian golf.
“Weirsy was the last guy to do it before them. You’re seeing a lot of influence from Mike on that,” said Hearn, 38, who has two playoff appearances on his resume.
“He’s paved the way for a lot of Canadians and shown us all a great role model for how to compete and how to prepare. You’re seeing that from this next generation.”
Weir and Hearn are two of the 17 Canadians scheduled to tee it up for the first round of the 108th RBC Canadian Open on Thursday.
After spending most of his career as the face of Canadian golf, mostly notably after his 2003 Masters win, Weir is no longer a PGA Tour star.
He’s 47 and has battled elbow and wrist injuries in recent years. He’s only played six tournaments in 2017 and has missed the cut in five of them. His only placing is a 72nd. Once third in the official world golf rankings, he’s now at No. 1,960.
Weir’s PGA Tour career is in its twilight stages. And, as he’s moving towards exiting stage left, he believes Canadian golf is in a good place.
Man it feels good to be back in Canada! #RBCCO
— Graham DeLaet (@GrahamDeLaet) July 24, 2017
“I think it’s great that we have more Canadians that are in the mix, more guys that are on tour and more guys with chances to win,” Weir said.
“It’s good to see guys playing well. For years there was not many of us with a chance to win at this event. Now there are a lot more.”
Joining Weir and Hearn on the billboard are players with strong and improving track records. There are 2017 PGA winners Mackenzie Hughes and Adam Hadwin, a past champion in Nick Taylor, a Presidents Cup member in Graham DeLaet, and PGA Tour member Brad Fritsch.
The ad doesn’t even feature Jared du Toit, 22, who finished tied for ninth at the Canadian Open last year as an amateur. Nor does it include Austin Connelly, 20, the European Tour player not in Oakville, but with a tied-14th finish at last week’s Open Championship.
“I’ve been saying this for a few years,” Hadwin, 29, said. “We might have been underperforming a little bit five or six years ago.”
“The development has been great the last few years. More and more guys are moving up to the next level. And it’s not only that, but the guys now on the PGA Tour are not only competing for victories. They are sort of easily maintaining their cards every year instead of battling it out.”
Of those in the field this week, Hughes and Hadwin have garnered the most attention because of their wins this season – in November and March, respectively. It was the first time two different Canadians won on the PGA Tour since Weir and Stephen Ames did so a decade ago.
“We always are texting each other when someone plays well. We’re always rooting for each other,” DeLaet said.
“I think it kind of whets the appetite to try to be that next guy.”
However, it’s Taylor, DeLaet and Hughes that enter the tournament with more recent successes.
Taylor, 29, has four top-10 finishes to his name this season, the most recent coming July 9 at the Greenbrier Classic.
DeLaet, 35, has done one better in that regard. His last was a sixth-place showing at the Memorial Tournament in June.
Hearn, meanwhile, tied for eighth at the Travelers Championship last month. He led the Canadian Open after three rounds two years ago until an even-par 72 wasn’t good enough on the Sunday.
It was the closest a Canadian has come to ending the national championship drought since Weir lost in a playoff to Vijay Singh at Glen Abbey in 2004. Pat Fletcher is the last Canadian to win the national Open in 1954.
“I’ve been playing well the last couple months. I feel like my game’s a lot closer to being in contention than it was earlier in the season,” Hearn said. “I feel really good about it. I’m very comfortable around here. Hopefully, I can rekindle some of those feelings from a couple years ago.”
For his part, Hadwin has had his struggles over the last few months. He’s missed the cut in three of his past five events, including last week’s Open Championship.
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This is the perfect opportunity for him to turn his fortunes around. Based on the official rankings, the first 10 spots for the Presidents Cup’s International team are locked in on Sept. 4. Hadwin sits 11th and would need one of two captain’s picks to otherwise secure a place.
Nick Price is the International captain, while Weir is one of his assistants.
Weir hasn’t shared any thoughts with Hadwin about the Presidents Cup yet. Because he’s rarely at tournaments, he prefers to keep the advice he shares with his fellow Canadians to a minimum. He will send the occasional text message if he knows someone has had a good round.
Even though he’s fading into the background, Weir is proud of Canada’s next wave. Perhaps they were spurred by seeing him slip on the green jacket, he said, but Weir sees more confidence from them.
And he has more confidence in them.
“I believe in them. I think they can (win),” Weir said. “But it’s a tough game. It’s tough to get that momentum going and break through. Once you do, you can kind of keep the pedal down and hope to keep going.”