Calcavecchia wins on a bowling alley

Now I'll admit to not watching much of the Canadian Open, since I was in Nova Scotia working on the Ron Joyce book project. But here are some observations from what I did see:

1. Mark Calcavecchia is a great, but exceptionally lazy player. Here's a guy who won the British Open and should have won far more. Now he's got the Canadian Open, but it isn't worth more than a John Deere Classic these days
2. Shaughnessy played far tougher than anyone expected. Interestingly, the course wasn't that long, but long rough around the greens made it very challenging and led to some high scores. Aside from majors, I think few tournaments this year have had scores as high as Shaughnessy did. That led some, like Robert Allenby, to sound off. "The front nine is just stupid," he said. "The rough is just ridiculous. I know it's a national title but it's not the U.S. Open." Indeed, it isn't a US Open. But the Canadian Open means something and the RCGA seemed to get away with growing the rough in the last three years. That's made the courses play tougher. The only issue here is whether that could actually hurt the fields that show up. After all, these players aren't looking to play a second US Open -- they are looking for the 84 Lumber Classic. Allenby may have a point -- but he comes off as a whiner nonetheless.
3. Regardless of how many times Lorne Rubenstein apologizes for Mike Weir's poor play, the reality is that the Canadian lefthander's game has gone way south. He can't find the fairway, his irons aren't sharp, and he can't putt. That's not a great combination. I'm sure Dynamic Mutual Funds is really thrilled with isn't sponsorship agreement, the one with Brendan, Weir's caddie, telling Mike how to putt and which shots to hit. Right at the moment Weir can't do any of that. What's that say about Dynamic's ability to advise clients? I can see it now: "Well, sir, we meant to invest in XXX stock, but couldn't quite get the order in on time."
4. Ryan Moore has a strange looking swing, but he's the real deal. He'll follow Charles Howell III and some guy named Tiger as one of the players to get onto the tour through excemptions. It is quite an accomplishment considering Bill Haas couldn't pull it off last year. Moore finished second at the Canadian Open and now gets as many excemptions as he needs for the rest of the year.
5. Off to Ireland next week. Royal County Down here I come.