REVIEW

My first competitive trip to Canada did not go to plan – I missed out on qualifying for the US Open and then missed the cut at the Canadian Open.

My play over the two days at the Canadian Open just wasn’t good enough to make the cut having hit too many poor iron shots in particular.

In round one I drove the ball nicely but I hit my irons very poorly and just wasn’t getting any sort of strike on them.  Even my bad shots weren’t consistent; some were thin and some were fat.

Friday was the same; I wasn’t able to figure out what was causing the problem.  The funny thing is that it is normally the other way around for me – my iron play is normally good and the driver would be the club that can let me down.  That said, as bad as I hit my irons on Thursday I could still have shot a decent score if my short game was up to scratch.

I opened up on Thursday morning by missing a 3 footer for birdie and closed out my round by doing the same.  In between I had a 3 putt on my 16^th hole and what was more damaging was a thinned bunker shot on my 15^thhole.  I was 2 under par at the time and it was as easy a bunker shot as possible.  I thinned it into the woods behind the green and ended up having to take a drop in the bunker and play the shot again.  In the end I got up and down for a double bogey but it was a devastating blow.  Having struggled with my game during the round, I managed to get it to 2 under and then to give the shots back so easily was a killer.

In the end I shot 1 over which left me with a lot of work to do on Friday.

On Friday I just didn’t play well enough to get anything going and never really looked like making the cut.  The damage was done on Thursday when I turned a reasonable round into a bad one.  In the end I missed the cut by 4 shots.

It was a tough one to take, as I know that looking at my first round, I could so easily have shot 2 to 5 under par, but instead shot 1 over.  I stayed around for the weekend to do some practice so as to try and figure out what I was doing wrong with my irons.  I think I may have got to the bottom of it as I could see some good progress by the end of the weekend.

What a great week it was for the Irish guys though.  Rory played great all week for the win, Shane secured his playing rights for next year with a great 2^nd place and then Graeme holed a putt on the last to get him into The Open.  Great to see!

I’m off for a week so will be doing some work to sort out my iron play before getting back to action next week at the Travelers Championship and being a couch potato watching the US Open….

Talk soon,
Padraig.

Padraig continues his stay in Canada after attempting to qualify for the US Open with a trip to the RBC Canadian Open. It’s a who’s who of golf this week with the world number one and two playing, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, along with Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy. The course this week is a new venue at Hamilton golf & country club and is set up to replicate the tough conditions of next weeks US Open. Players will be required to hit it straight off the tee as the rough is penal and the greens complexes are quite sloping.

Padraig tees off in the opening round at 7.10am local time with David Lingmerth and Adam Schenk.

Disappointing opening round for Padraig  as he shoots a one over par round of 71. Starting on the back nine, he got off to a slow start with two dropped shots on the 13th and 18th holes where he missed the fairways. He then played exceptional golf to birdie four of the next five holes. Then a bizarre incident on the par three 6th hole derailed his round. He found sand off the tee but then hit a poor shot into an unplayable lie and had to take a penalty drop back into the same bunker. He eventually got it up and down to salvage a double bogie but then three putted the next hole to finish the day on a sour note. Seven under par leads the event after round one and Padraig tees off late Friday at 12.10pm local time.

Second round of two over par 72 sees Padraig miss the cut at the RBC Canadian Open. He got off to a bright start with a birdie on the par four second hole but three bogies to finish the front nine left him with a mountain to climb. He did get one back on the par four 11th hole but a closing bogie sealed his fate. On a brighter note there was a lot of good news for Irish players with Rory McIlroy winning the event, Shane Lowry finishing in a tie for second and Graeme McDowell qualifying for the Open Championship by virtue of a top ten finish.