ANCASTER, ONT. — One shot, one round and a tangle of world-class players.
That’s what’s separating Adam Hadwin from a place in history at the RBC Canadian Open.
On Saturday, Hadwin battled through a gusty Hamilton G&CC to post a round of 67 that left him one stroke behind a three-way tie between Rory McIlroy, Webb Simpson and Matt Kuchar.
Brand Snedeker and Shane Lowry are tied with the top-ranked Canadian at 12 under.
The 31-year-old has now set himself up with a tremendous chance to do what hasn’t been done in 65 years.
“There’s a lot of firepower ahead of me,” stated Hadwin. “I’ve got to play a good round tomorrow.”
Hadwin snaked his way up the leaderboard Saturday despite not having his best stuff. He bogeyed the second hole and lost a few early drives into the gnarly rough at Hamilton that required him to scramble to save pars.
But as he moved through the course he settled in and began making some birdies. None was louder than the one on 13th hole when he chipped in for a deuce setting off a wild celebration by the slightly inebriated fans that surrounded the hockey-themed hole known as The Rink.
“I’m proud of the way I battled,” Hadwin stated of his game. “I stuck with it and just kept trying to hit good shots.”
It was a raucous affair not just for him but also the other Canadians. Four of them – Hadwin, Mackenzie Hughes, Ben Silverman and Nick Taylor — played in consecutive groups, something that hasn’t happened at the Open in at least 40 years.
Hughes sits in eighth spot just four off the lead, while Taylor trails by five. Silverman sits in a tie for 17th.
And on just about every hole, they were all reminded that they were chasing history.
As Hadwin, and just about every Canadian who has ever teed it up in the national championship knows, the last home-country winner was Pat Fletcher back in 1954.
In fact, this current crop of Canadians cringes at the mention of the 65-year drought. Winning would be sweet, but putting an end to the questioning might be even sweeter.
Hadwin had a chance to stop it once before. Back in 2011, he trailed by a shot heading to Sunday when the tournament was at Shaughnessy G&CC.
But that was a different time and a different golfer. That Hadwin was playing the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada back then and still cutting his teeth as a professional. He went out in the final group that Sunday, looking a bit like a deer in the headlights, struggled early and ended up finishing in a tie for fourth.
This Hadwin is a PGA Tour winner, a Presidents Cup player and a guy who has recorded a 59 in competition. He knows his game is good enough to win and what it will take to do it. And, perhaps most importantly, he believes he can do it.
But just as he did the first time around, he won’t try to put the chance of winning out of his head.
“Of course I’m going to be thinking about it,” he said when asked if he’ll allow his mind to wander to the possibility of becoming the first Canadian-born winner of the Open in more than a century. “This is why we play this game to put ourselves in position to win a golf tournament.”
The Abbotsford, B.C. product will likely need a flawless performance on Sunday to hold off the star-studded cast. The leaderboard includes major champions, FedEx Cup winners and guys who’ve cashed a lot more first-place cheques than he has. But this is where he feels he belongs. The challenge is not something that intimidates him.
“It would certainly make it a low sweeter at the end,” Hadwin summed up.
Indeed it would.
