Wacky week at Canadian Open ends with Green's first win

Mike Dudurich

Posted 2009-07-27

Ironic, isn’t it, that the national championships of the United States and Canada, a pair of neighboring countries, were dominated by rain and won by players who had never won a major and had never won on Tour, respectively.

The wild and wooly RBC Canadian Open was finally completed late Monday afternoon in typical fashion. Within an hour of Retief Goosen missing a par putt on the second playoff hole, giving the victory to Australian Nathan Green, the traditional post-victory press conference was being held in the press tent.

As Green spoke, the skies opened up, pounding the already-saturated Glen Abbey Golf Club.

It was a perfect capper to a week during which 4.02 inches of rain fell at the club in suburban Toronto.

"It's been bizarre. A long week," Green said.

What might have even more bizarre was the fact that Green, a native of Toronto (Toronto, Australia) was even in a position to be in a playoff.

Sitting in the middle of the fairway on 18, Green tried to cut a 3-wood from 235 yards and it went straight, missing the green to the left and into the crowd. Instead of making birdie that would have given him the win, he scraped in a par to force a playoff. Goosen had eagled the hole to get into the playoff.

The 18th was the first playoff hole and Goosen appeared to be in the driver’s seat, but missed a 6-foot birdie chance that came about when he left a bunker shot above the hole. Meanwhile, Green was performing more magic. This time his approach shot bounced off the cart path, landing above the green near a scoring trailer.

Goosen had a putt to win on No. 18 on the first extra hole, but missed a 6-foot birdie try after leaving his bunker shot above the hole. Green saved par after his second shot bounced off a cart path, landing near the scoring trailer above the green.

Despite all of that, he saved par.

"I dodged a bullet," Green said.

The two moved to the 17th hole and both had birdie chances on the par 4. Green missed a 12-foot birdie attempt, but made par. Goosen had an 8-footer for par, but missed that.

"It's a huge surprise to finally win," said Green, the 34-year-old former Canadian Tour player. "This is where I started my pro career. I love coming up here. The people are great."

The playoff also was the second of his PGA TOUR career. In the 2006 Buick Invitational, he was eliminated on the first extra hole in the event that Tiger Woods won on the second hole against Jose Maria Olazabal.

“It was the last thing I was expecting to do," Green said after earning $918,000, giving him $1,282,017 for the year. "It's been a tough year."

Goosen didn’t win, but his runnerup finish continued a streak of stellar play for the former U.S. Open champion. After tying for 16th in the U.S. Open, the 40-year-old South African was third in the BMW International in Germany, tied for sixth in the Scottish Open and tied for fifth in the British Open.

"I'm very happy with the way I'm playing," said Goosen. "I've had chances to win in the last four tournaments I've played in. I've just got to keep going and hopefully it's going to come my way."

It was the first Monday finish in the Canadian Open since 1988 and in keeping with the bizarre nature of the week, eight holes-in-one were recorded in the tournament, the most since the PGA Tour began keeping more extensive records in 1971.

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About Mike...
As a sports writer for over 35 years, Mike Dudurich has seen a lot of great things, covered spectacular events, but his passion is, and has been golf. He recently ended a 29-year career at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and will now be a frequent contributor on GolfGearReview.com. Mike hosts a weekly golf radio show on 1250 ESPN in Pittsburgh from the beginning of April through the end of August. The show airs Saturdays from 8-9 a.m. and can be heard online at http://stations.espn.go.com/stations/espnradio1250/show?showId=insidepghgolf - Listen to Mike Here!.

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