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Spent Sunday at the Canadian Open and had a chance to get really close to the players. I was behind the 158 yard 17th hole, about 10 feet behind the markers for 4 groups, so I had a really good chance to see how the big boys do it. Watched VJ, Sabatini, Moore, DiMarco, Franco, Andrade, and Ames, among others. The pure contact these guys make is amazing. No one misses the sweet spot, and the trajectory is the same for all their clubs, a laser straight flight to the apex, and then a soft drop to earth. For short irons the fades may have been 3 yards, and the draws about the same. For drivers, maybe 5-10 yards max. The shot you always see on TV of the ball heading off to the right by right handers must be a trick of the lens. Every shot I saw that was well struck went straight at the target and then softly fell off.
A few things surprised me. Everyone teed up higher on the par 3s than I thought they would. The ball was about 1/4 inch clear of the grass. For the driver, no one teed up their ball as high as I expected. We always hear that about 1/2 the ball should be above the face, but none of the pros teed it up that high. Even with the deep faced drivers they all use, I didn't see anyone tee it higher than about an inch.
The course itself made every good place I've ever played look like a goat track. I've often wondered about the rough the PGA plays. I keep hearing how penal it is, and how deep, and yet it never struck me that is was any worse than the **** I play out of all the time. Here is a quote from Robert Allenby about Shaugnessy: "You've got six inches of rough and it's like Popeye grass, it's like spinach." Well I saw it. I sure as **** feel a bunch better about my game, because it was nicer than anything I've played out of. We get a lot of rain in BC, and the grass grows thick and deep. On the courses I play I doubt if they mow the rough more than a few times a season.
The sand is much better as well. With our rain, the traps pack down like concrete with a 1 inch deep layer of looser sand on top. The bounce on your wedge hits the hard layer and doesn't penetrate past it. The traps the pros played were fluffy and immaculate. Takes a lot of the fear out of the shot. They always say that sand shots are easy and I've never been particularly scared of the sand, but there is a far smaller margin for error in the hazards on my local Munis. Strike the sand too far behind, and the club will hit concrete and bounce back up into the ball. Not to mention that perhaps 2 or 3 out of 10 even bother to rake them.
Perhaps the most surprising thing I noticed was that no one appeared to be having a good time out there. I know that this is their job, and a tremendous amount of money rests on each shot, but the only people who seemed to be enjoying themselves were the caddies, and not all of them at that. Kevin Na missed his target by about 10 yards on the 17th and threw his iron back at his caddie end over end from about 15 feet. He was lucky he wasn't brained. I don't mind when golfers swear and get upset when they play, to my mind it shows that they care, but I think that displaying absolutely no regard for the safety of your caddie oversteps the bounds of acceptable behaviour.
The pace of play was crushingly slow. Everyone waited for their partners to hit and only then began their preshot routines. No one out there, even Sabatini who has a reputation for speedy play, set any sort of example. It is no wonder that 6 hour rounds exist at the recreational level.
Last thing, it was really interesting seeing the size of some of these guys, many were a lot smaller than I had thought, but VJ is a very big dude. I can understand now how he was able to survive as a bouncer in Scotland. He looks like a tight end.

VJ survived as a bouncer in Scotland ?????? excuse me laddie I beg to differ, he would never have survived for two minutes as a bouncer in some of the pubs I used to frequent in Glasgow in my younger days. Seriously I agree with a number of your comments regarding golf courses, I live an hour from Kamloops and we are fortunate to have a number of top quality courses in that area. I certainly have no problem paying a much higher green fee to play a well maintained course. Shaugnessy is a fine course although I prefer Marine Drive, the pros. are definately amazing with their skills, we walked the Old Course a few years ago following Monty and the Scottish team at the Dunhill Cup, four hours and forty five minutes, not bad at all.

Four hours and forty-five minutes to play the old course?!?!? That is VERY slow. They like to get around in 3.5 hours, and that isn't very hard on the old course.

I can't believe VJ didn't tee it up high, everytime I've seen him play in person, he was always the guys with the ball teed the highest.

The pros are amazing aren't they? Nice report, I'm glad you had a good time.

I was there, i jogged back and forth between Crane's group, Immelman's group, and DiMarco's group most of the day. Andrade was teeing his whole ball above the head of the driver almost all day, so...

DiMarco liked to hit the ground with his clubs it seems, as a few times he completely lost it, and tried to dig a tunnel to China... (once in a bunker, once in the rough)

Sabbatini's group was behind Crane's group on the final day. Sabbatini had a huge grimace on his face (i think from that) The funny part is, Sabbatini played so poorly, his group was almost always 1 hole (or sometimes more) behind.

VJ was huge in person, and yes he did serve as a bouncer in Scotland.
The thing that got me most about him was his ballstriking. I watched the range for awhile when i first got there, and only he and funk seemed to have a consistent ball flight. He was doing it with a headcover tucked under his left armpit. Whereas Na and Immelman were spraying it around a bit.

I didn't mind watching Crane, even though he was quite slow with his pre-shot routine, because his shot always seemed to be good. On 17 he hit it to about 10 feet after a good 45 seconds prep time. some guys would be way faster, but end up taking more time, because they put it in the rough.

Interesting note about Calcavecchia and his Canadian Open victory........He made only one birdie on the weekend and still held on to win.

That course was definitely playing tough, (-5) is respectable in a Major by today's winning standards on Tour tracks where you see upper teens or sometimes (-20) or so.

I probably stood beside you a few times. I spent some time with those groups as well. On one hole Andrade pulled his drive off the fairway and into some shrubs on the left. He made a terrific shot to get the ball back in play, but was still some 250 yards from a green protected by bunkers on both sides. He hit driver off the deck (some sort of Taylormade) and it flew low, and with a little fade into the right hand bunkers. He could probably have gotten almost as close to the hole with his 3 wood, but I didn't see him hit it ever. On a few holes when his playing partners (DiMarco, Huston) hit 3 woods or long irons, Andrade hit driver. I know that he is shorter than Huston, but I'm guessing he didn't have a lot of faith in his fairway woods that day.

it looked like he was playing the R7 TP.

Yeah, i never saw him pull out three wood. Then again, i was only with his group for holes 1,2,6,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,17.

I loved Immelmans response on #3 to the crowd... from the tee, you couldn't see the green... hits it on a nice line, and i guess catches the slope... anyway the crowd around the green starts making noise, growing progressively louder... then they groan... i guess the ball was rolling toward the hole, but then rolled past, as when i got to the green he was only on the right edge... anyway when he heard the groan he threw his club onto the ground in mock anger... then picked it up, laughing. He's quite the showman.


did you see Sabbatini on #4?? he was in that ditch in front of the tees... what knd of shot does it take to hit it in there???