The RBC Canadian Open is one of those tour stops that always sneaks up on you. It's the week before the U.S. Open, the field is a weird mix of guys grinding for FedEx points and Canadians playing for national pride, and somehow every year it produces a leaderboard that turns into a free-for-all by Saturday. This year is no different — and Fore Play is in the middle of it with a putter in hand.
Riggs taking dead aim at downhill 15-footers for the Chevy-sponsored Daily Nine.
Downhill 15-footers are the worst putt in golf. You can't hit it. You also can't not hit it. That's the entire bit of the Daily Nine — give Riggs a tester nobody actually wants, slap a Chevy bowtie on it, and let the internet count makes. Meanwhile out on the actual course the leaderboard is doing leaderboard things. Tommy Fleetwood eagled his opening hole to jump to co-leader at -10, because of course Tommy Fleetwood is somewhere near the top of a leaderboard in June.
Fleetwood drops in the eagle putt and slides into a share of the lead.
The vibes around the tournament have been all over the place. Wyndham Clark showed up to the third round in a Jack Hughes USA Hockey jersey, which is exactly the kind of move that gets you cheered AND booed in the same gallery in Canada. Neal Shipley striped a tee shot near the pin. Bud Cauley nearly aced a stadium par-3 and the grandstand lost it. The whole event has had this slightly unserious energy to it — until somebody actually has to grind out a par.
Keith Mitchell, water in play, gallery sprinting up the fairway, ball on the green — "routine par."
That's the punchline of the whole week. A guy hits an approach over water with the crowd sprinting alongside, gets it on the green, two-putts, walks off, and the scorecard just says 4. Routine par. Meanwhile Riggs is sweating downhill 15-footers in front of a Chevy logo trying to get to nine. Both things are golf. Only one of them pays.