Random thoughts on an emphatic Canadian moment
Savouring Canadian golf's equivalent of the 'golden goal'
There are moments in Canadian sports history where you remember where you were when. Just a few include Joe Carter’s winning homer in 1993, Sidney Crosby’s ‘golden goal’ in 2010, and Nick Taylor’s 70-foot eagle putt to win the RBC Canadian Open in 2023.
The tackle of Adam Hadwin on the 18th green is one of the greatest shoulder tackles and comedic security moments of all-time; as of Sunday evening, it’s getting more views that Taylor’s putt. I hope Adam didn’t suffer an upper body injury.
The moment in sports is so delicious, electric and even unifying. When Taylor’s eagle putt roared into the hole, everyone in our house must have elevated a foot off the furniture and yelled in unison, just like every other place where Canadians watched the broadcast. It will be a memory that we get to share forever as families and as a country. I love sports for those bonding moments, high fives and all.
Taylor was full-on stoic for most of the round, not getting too low when things looked bleak nor too high when it was looking good. He put on an amazing display in the art of hanging in there and keep punching no matter what. As the late Payne Stewart said: “All you can do is keep knocking on the door, and someday it will open.”
How wonderful and just that after the LIV-PGA Tour shenanigans had once again appeared to overshadowed the RBC Canadian Open, we were treated to the most exciting and inspiring tournament of the year—majors included.
I think that if Taylor wins the U.S. Open, it won’t hold a candle to the outpouring of joy we felt with his winning our national championship the way he did. Both he and Corey Conners are legit threats this week in Los Angeles. Canadian golf at the tour level has never been so promising.
Nice to see Mike Weir—beer in hand—cheering on Taylor with the boys. How proud he must be to savour what he helped inspire.
Full marks to Taylor for playing the ball as it lay in a rat’s nest behind the 18th green even though, as the CBS crew argued, he could have petitioned for relief that may have taken his ball on to the fringe. I haven’t heard Taylor’s explanation yet, but it struck me that he was not going to exaggerate the situation to take advantage of a nuance in the Rules of Golf that would have given him a break. Talk about being a respectful and fair competitor.
Kudos to the CBS crew for capturing the Canadian flavour, mood and energy of the event and relishing it. The crew obviously did their homework, and had a ball with hockey analogies. Years ago, the bad pronunciations and patronizing attitude was eye-rollingly abysmal.
Jim Nantz is the best in the business. Period. No one nails the moment like him.
Taylor’s pre-shot process was the exactly same on every full shot, from the front nine to the second shot on the fourth playoff hole, and every shot we saw him him hit on the range.
Historically, American networks tend to downplay sports events that happen outside of the U.S., and overplay it when Americans win significant events on U.S. turf, but the CBS crew were authentic in saying the RBC Canadian Open was the greatest tour event of the year, and a key reason was the international flavouring. CBS enhanced the story by bringing us the twitchy reactions of the Canadian and European players nervously watching their comrades.
Not always, but the mix of sports and nationalism can be an amazingly intoxicating combination as we witnessed Sunday. The back nine and playoff had the intensity of a Ryder Cup. Beautiful.
As a Canadian journalist covering the Canadian Open, it was downright irritating to hear every year that Pat Fletcher was the last Canadian to win the Open since 1954. Thank you Nick Taylor for putting an end to that.
Speaking of knocking on the door, it’s just a matter of time until Tommy Fleetwood wins his first PGA Tour event. Gotta love how he smiled when Nick’s gargantuan putt steamrolled in.