Canada made a solid start in defending its gold medal as golf returns to the Olympics for the first time in 112 years.
Weyburn, Sask.’s Graham DeLaet, in the first group of the day, carded a 5-under score to sit in second place. He’s trying to defend the gold medal won by George Lyon in 1904, the last time golf was in the Olympics. Lyon went to London for the following summer games to find golf was canceled; it didn’t return until this year where it is being played on a course designed specifically for the games.
A Canadian loonie is buried under the final pin position on the 18th hole by Canadian golf designer Ian Andrew, who spent some time working on the project with course creator Gil Hanse.
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DeLaet said playing first off alongside a Brazilian competitor was a different experience from typical weeks on the PGA Tour.
“I was a little bit nervous actually,” DeLaet said. “You know, we do this for a living week in and week out, but there was something different about that first tee shot today. It was just a really cool feeling.”
Golf has struggled to attract a world-class field, with players like world No. 1 Jason Day, as well as Rory McIlroy, and Dustin Johnson, all electing not to represent their countries. DeLaet had no such concern.
“It’s such a cool event,” he said. “It’s one of those times every four years where you watch sports you would probably never watch, maybe they don’t get the press or television time, but it’s so neat. We went to table tennis and synchronized diving and swimming. It’s been a really, really cool experience to see the pride from every single country and through the athletes’ village, which is a really neat place. Everybody wearing their colours everywhere they go, and it’s just an amazing, amazing experience and I hope to be there in Tokyo, as well, in 2020.”
Australian Marcus Fraser leads the field by shooting 8-under par. The tournament is four days long.
Brooke Henderson leads Canada’s chances next week when the women’s event takes place.
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Brantford, Ont.’s David Hearn is 42 on the leaderboard after shooting 2-over.
But big names lurk, including British Open winner Henrik Stenson and Spanish star Sergio Garcia.
American Bubba Watson said the scoring didn’t surprise him.
“It’s just like PGA Tour golf,” he said. “You’ve got guys that are going to play good. We’ve all played in the U.S. We all have played in majors. We’ve all played against each other before and this year.”
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