The treacherous Muirfield presented problems for many golfers at the Open championship, and Graham DeLaet was no exception.
The treacherous Muirfield presented problems for many golfers at the Open championship, and Graham DeLaet was no exception.
DeLaet, the leading Professional Golf Association Tour player for greens-in-regulation, struggled with the greens and striking the ball.
He managed to make the cut at the Open championship, and he finished the tournament at 83, earning $16,794 US.
The Open championship was the first-ever major tournament for the former Weyburn athlete. So far on the PGA Tour, DeLaet has competed in 20 events, making the cut 17 times, and his total earnings is $1,577,300.
During the first two rounds, DeLaet was partnered with Jonas Blixt and Brian Davis. Then for the third and fourth round, he was partnered with defending Open champion Ernie Els.
DeLaet had wanted to play better in Els's company. "We've played together before, and we get along really well- he's always been good to me. I kind of felt like I was in his way the first 10 holes, but he's a great guy, and you can learn a lot just watching a guy like that."
Phil Mickelson won the Open championship, finishing with the only under-par score with three-under. All the other Open championship golfers who made the cut were either at even-par or had above-par scores.
The first round presented many challenges for DeLaet, especially after scoring a"Hosel Rocket" on the 10th with a double bogey. The biggest challenge for many of the golfers was the slick greens.
Many players talked about the quickness of the putting surfaces and trouble began early for DeLaet when his missed four greens-in-regulation. He bogeyed the first hole and then the eighth, and shot his only birdie of the round on hole nine.
But then he had the double bogey on hole 10, and back-to-back bogeys on holes 14 and 15. DeLaet's score after the first round was 76, five-over-par.
"I struggled with my speed all day," said DeLaet, after the first round. "I felt like I didn't really have any birdie chances all day. I finally got one on eight and I ran it six feet past the hole and made bogey. Same thing on 14. Disappointing for sure."
"I just wasn't hitting the shots that I needed to and the putting wasn't sharp even though I holed a few. It just felt like I had six, seven, eight feet for par on every hole," said DeLaet. "I had a tap in for par on 17 and as I was tapping it in I was like 'I can't remember the last time I had a tap-in par.'"
Then during the second round, DeLaet was pushing to make the cut at his first major.
He started on the front nine, running into bogey trouble again on holes three, six and eight. But then DeLaet was able to rebound slightly during the back nine with back-to-back birdies on holes 12 and 13. Then he had one more bogey on hole 14.
DeLaet finished with a 72, one-over-par. After two rounds, and a total score of six-over-par, DeLaet was well above the cut, set at eight-over-par.
He tweeted his reaction of making the cut. "Thanks for all the tweets. Lots of work to do this weekend but glad that I'll be playing. Didn't look like it for the first 27 holes."
Not only was the first time that a Saskatchewan-born golfer made the field for the Open championship, but DeLaet was also the only Canadian on the field. He had a lot of Canadian supporters cheering for him during the event, a few of them wearing Roughrider jerseys.
DeLaet returned to the challenging Muirfield for the third round, where he scored another 76, five-over-par.
He really had bogey difficulties during the front nine. DeLaet shot a bogey on hole two, then a double bogey on hole four and shot another bogey on hole five.
Then he shot back-to-back bogeys on holes eight and nine. DeLaet shot another bogey on hole 10, as he started golfing on the back nine. He stayed on par for most of the back nine, and was able to come out of the hole with back-to-back birdies on holes 17 and 18.
The most challenging round for DeLaet was the fourth and final, when he finished at 79, eight-over-par. Once again, he had the most difficulties during the front nine of the course.
Right off the start, DeLaet shot back-to-back double bogeys on holes one and two. Then he shot a bogey on hole four, and scored his lone birdie of the round during hole five. DeLaet had two more bogeys of the front nine, scoring them back-to-back on the eighth and ninth hole.
During the back nine, DeLaet stayed on par for most of the round. He scored only one bogey, hitting it on hole 12.
"Funny, because those are the most difficult holes on the golf course, those last six or so, and they're about the only holes I played well," DeLaet said. "I just kind of felt like I was behind on that front side all week and was just trying to salvage rounds."
"The course was probably about as easy as was all week. There's really no excuses for shooting 43 or whatever I did on the front side," said DeLaet. "I just played poorly. I missed a couple of putts and made a couple of mental mistakes."
For his first-ever major, DeLaet's final score was a total of 19-over-par. Despite the troubles with the course, DeLaet reported that he had a wonderful time while at the Open.
"I had a great time this week more than anything and I think I'm going to learn a lot from it and I enjoyed the experience." The learning experience during the Open championship will prove important to DeLaet, as he prepares for the upcoming PGA Tour playoffs.
Another important major event is the PGA championship, set for Aug. 8 to 11. There is also the Wyndham championship, set for Aug. 15 to 18.
Then after that, all the PGA playoff tournaments will be held. The Barclays is open to the top 125 FedExCup leaders and runs Aug. 22 to 25,, the Deutsche Bank championship is open to the top 100 leaders and runs Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.
The BMW championship is open to the top 70 leaders and runs Sept. 12 to 15; and the Tour Championship is open to the top 30 leaders, and runs Sept. 19-22.
A golfer has to go through all the different stages of the playoffs, as their points do change depending on results during the actual tournaments.
Another potential major will be the Presidents Cup at Muirfield Village in Ohio this fall. Currently DeLaet sits in 12th place among International Team hopefuls for the tournament, but only the top 10 make it based on world rankings.
But there are still a few more PGA Tour tournaments before the playoffs that are important to DeLaet. There was a special 100-seat charter that left from Muirfield for the golfers who were heading to Ontario to compete in the RBC Canadian Open.
Competing on a Canadian course is something that DeLaet appreciated. He tweeted "now looking forward to one of my favorite weeks of the year."
The RBC Canadian Open will start on Thursday and runs until Sunday, July 25 to 28. This year it is played at the Glen Abbey golf course in Ontario. There is a long list of Canadian golfers who will be competing during the RBC Canadian Open.
