Players wetting their whistles at rain-delayed tournament

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/07/2009 (6240 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OAKVILLE, Ont. — As the unofficial host of the RBC Canadian Open, it only seems fitting that Mike Weir buy the rest of the field a drink. He might want one for himself, too.

The popular lefty made a dramatic hole-in-one on Sunday morning before losing ground to leader Jason Dufner while sitting out a delay, and yet another day of rain pushed the tournament to its first Monday finish in more than two decades.

Weir aced the 200-yard fourth hole with a four-iron and was a popular man in the locker-room once the rain chased everyone back into the clubhouse.

Several players took the opportunity to remind him that he was on the hook for a round. Weir was in no position to object.

“It’s good drinking weather right now,” he said.

While the rain has been a dominant storyline after causing several long delays, there have also been a number of weird things happen on the golf course. For example, there have been an amazing seven holes-in-one at the event — two more than any other since the PGA Tour started keeping detailed statistics in 1971.

Play was called Sunday before any of the golfers could even finish his third round, forcing everyone back for a 7:30 a.m. start this morning. The plan is to try and squeeze in the rest of the event in one day.

“If we don’t think we can get it in (tomorrow), we’ll reassess it then,” said tournament director Bill Paul. “Our goal is to get in 72 holes.”

The last time a Canadian Open finished on a Monday was in 1988, when Ken Green registered a one-shot victory in what Paul referred to as an “anti-climactic” ending because there were so few people around to see it.

There’s the potential for things to be a little more exciting this time around with plenty of interesting names lingering on the leaderboard.

Dufner finished six holes of his third round on Sunday and sits at 14 under for the tournament — one shot ahead of Anthony Kim and Jerry Kelly.

Retief Goosen, Scott Verplank, Bob Estes, Michael Letzig and Peter Tomasulo were another stroke back.

Weir was four shots behind Dufner when the horn sounded to halt play Sunday morning. However, during the delay he was asked by the rules committee to go back over video from the end of his round on Saturday and ended up taking a one-shot penalty as a result.

Weir signed for a birdie at No. 18 and a second-round 66 on Saturday following a lengthy delay in which the rules committee reviewed tape and found that he hadn’t grounded his club prior to having the ball move in the fairway.

However, the committee reopened the incident Sunday and was unable to account for what caused his ball to move — a grey area in the rules that tends to go against the player. As a result, Weir asked to have the penalty assessed and fell five shots back of Dufner.

“Even though I don’t think I (caused the ball to move), I guess there’s that grey area,” said Weir.

Today’s round will be broadcast on TSN and The Golf Channel from 1:30-3:30 p.m. CT.

— The Canadian Press

Open leaderboard

Jason Dufner -14 42 holes played

Anthony Kim -13 45

Jerry Kelly -13 42

Michael Letzig -12 46

Retief Goosen -12 44

Bob Estes -12 43

Peter Tomasulo -12 43

Scott Verplank -12 42

Mike Weir -9 47

Chris Baryla -7 42

Graham Delaet -6 47

Stephen Ames -6 46