RBC Canada Open Leaderboard 2022: Wyndham Clark Catches Up in Round 1, Defends lurking Champion Rory McIlroy
TORONTO (AP) – Wyndham Clark started the week with a late foul to qualify for the US Open, and then he went on a hot run on Thursday at the RBC Canadian Open 7 under 63 for the right. into the first round of command.
Clark opened with five birdies on nine holes and didn’t drop bogeys at the St. George in the third round of his PGA Tour career was at 63 or below.
Matt Fitzpatrick has a stroke again, Doug Pins and Harold Varner III next at 65.
Defending champion Rory McIlroy had six birdies in round 66, knocking him out to Tony Finau, Lee Hodges and Mackenzie Hughes, who wanted nothing more than to become the first Canadian to win the National Open since five years. 1954.
McIlroy had to wait three years to defend his title as the COVID-19 pandemic canceled golf’s fourth-oldest championship in the past two years. He finished with 61 to win by seven shots against Hamilton.
“I feel like the school ground there will go even lower just because of the rain and how receptive it is,” says McIlroy. “Overall very pleased with the start of the week, especially after a disappointing weekend at the Memorial last weekend.”
Clark hasn’t gone par in the final three rounds at Memorial, and he didn’t look good in Monday’s 36-hole qualifier. But then he combined five birdies in an 11-hole stretch that got him into next week’s US Open at The Country Club outside of Boston.
“It’s great to see some putts being put in,” Clark said. “I haven’t shot lower in a while. I’ve had a lot of under-horizontal, 3-, 4-under analysis pairs in my last few events, but really feel like I’ve left a lot of shots behind. hit there. This round I pretty much maxed out there.”
Clark made the birdie on all but one hole, and he hit an 8-foot par putt in 12th in his round.
Fitzpatrick started and ended his round with a birdie, hitting a 35-foot putt on the par-3 eighth hole with a score of 64.
“Really, really happy with the way I’m playing today, just solid around,” said Fitzpatrick. “There’s a couple of chances to get a handle on it a little closer, but other than that, I’m really picky. Everything in my game is going well.”
PGA champion Justin Thomas, who wanted to play a week before a pro because it worked so well last time, opened with a score of 69.
Sam Burns, whose win at Colonial two weeks ago, opened with 67 in the afternoon, and first-place Masters champion Scottie Scheffler had 69. The Canadian Open drew five of the top 10 players in the world. .
They were well aware of a rival tournament taking place across the Atlantic in the UK, the first of the LIV Golf Invitational series, in which 17 players who were PGA Tour members were declared ineligible. for the rest of the season.
McIlroy said he’s still able to watch some of the streaming because he’s a golf fan, he’s curious, and he has some friends in the field. But he is a bit skeptical of the names assigned to the 12 teams at LIV Golf, such as the Niblicks and the Cleeks.
“Definitely not going out any time soon to buy any team merchandise,” McIlroy said.
Copyright 2022 by STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and the Associated Press is strictly prohibited.
