Every week on Globalnews.ca Canadian golf stars Graham DeLaet and Adam Hadwin take readers behind the scenes of the PGA Tour, providing insights, perceptions and observations as they battle at the game’s biggest tournaments.
It’s easy to be impatient when it comes to Canada’s expectations for our professional golfers.
It is a very talented group and I think this is a long time coming. I’ve been saying it for a while. We just needed to be patient. We’ve had a lot of great players and it has just taken a while for their games to come together. Now there are six Canadians playing on the PGA Tour, and I think it is true that every one of us has the potential to be a winner.
That’s especially clear with Graham DeLaet. He’s proven he can take it to the next level, at least compared to the rest of us. What he’s done is off the charts and he has an explosive game. And it isn’t just the Canadian media that recognizes it—everyone sees that he is on the verge of breaking out. I think once he gets his first win there will be more to follow and there will be no stopping him. That’s how good his game is.
David Hearn is really close as well, and hopefully I’m not far off either.
The thing is that everyone’s game matures at different speeds. Nick Taylor was the man when he graduated, the No. 1 amateur in the world, and everyone expected him to make an impact right away, like Rickie Fowler did. But it didn’t quite work as planned.
It took three or fours years to move forward, but then Nick got through the Web.com Tour. And then after only a couple of starts on the PGA Tour, Nick wins and has the benefits that come with a victory on the PGA Tour, including a two-year exemption. So it is really hard to judge how someone’s game will come together.
I suspect a lot of people assume the Canadians hang around on tour a lot. There’s some truth to that, and I’ve gotten to know the other Canadians pretty well.
I know Nick and Roger Sloan the best of the group. I’d say Nick and I are close because we’re both from British Columbia and share the same hometown of Abbotsford. Last year, when we played the Web.com Tour, Nick and I often roomed together, and I played a lot of junior golf with Roger and saw him a lot last year as well. We’ll go out for dinners when we get a chance, but it isn’t as easy as some think.
Golfers on the PGA Tour don’t work the same hours, which makes it difficult to connect. When we’re on the range I’ll talk to Graham about the rivalry between our hockey teams—he’s a Flames fan and I support the Canucks—and I went to his Christmas party last year. But I don’t know the guys who have been on the PGA Tour—Mike Weir, David and Graham—that well because they are a fair bit older than I am and I’ve been playing on a different tour.
But even beyond that, you don’t regularly see the other Canadians when you’re on tour. We don’t play the same tournaments and even when we do, everyone has a different schedule. David, Graham and Mike are expected to play in the Wednesday pro-ams, and now that Nick has a win he gets different tee times from a player like Roger or myself, who are rookies on the tour.
And David, Graham and Mike get prime tee times, which is also something that I don’t get. That means they can tee off up to 90 minutes ahead of me and by the time I’m off the course, they’ve already gone back to their hotel.
And finally, the other guys are married and their wives often travel with them. I’m the odd man out in that regard.
Even if we don’t see each other that regularly, I think this is a tremendous group of Canadian pros and there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll see more wins. But to my way of thinking, it is really just a great period in Canadian golf. There’s a ton of talent out there, and I think we’re on the verge of something significant.
Adam Hadwin can be seen playing the Valspar Championship this weekend on Global TV.
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