The 2023 Canadian Open was a event for the ages.
Nick Taylor drained a 72-foot eagle putt on the fourth playoff gap to defeat Tommy Fleetwood of England.
In doing so, Taylor gave Canada its first Canadian champion since 1954.
On the flip facet, Fleetwood confirmed great class and admiration for Taylor within the loss.
“Good second for Nick [Taylor] and the followers right here,” Fleetwood mentioned after the spherical. “It’s nice to be part of that [on] Sunday and [to be in] that playoff. I had my possibilities, actually. It wasn’t to be this time. However, yeah, congratulations to him.”
Fleetwood has by no means received a PGA Tour occasion however has six victories on the DP World Tour.
The 4 playoff holes between Taylor and Fleetwood created a Ryder Cup-like ambiance: Canada pitted towards England, a match not often occurring in sport, not to mention in golf.
Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Tyrell Hatton stayed round to help Fleetwood—their fellow countryman, whereas Mike Weir, Corey Conners, Adam Hadwin, and everybody else on the Oakdale Golf & Nation Membership property rooted on their fellow Canadian.
When Taylor’s putt dropped, it appeared as if all of Canada received the golf event, because the Toronto crowd erupted right into a frenzy.
And withstanding all of it was Fleetwood, who got here up simply brief but once more. He then took to Twitter and confirmed a degree of sophistication.
Thanks Canada for a tremendous ambiance. Congrats @ntaylorgolf59, what an unbelievable three days of golf you’ve simply performed and what a second for you and your nation! We’ll begin once more tomorrow. See you at work.
— Tommy Fleetwood (@TommyFleetwood1) June 12, 2023
Since 2015, Fleetwood has completed within the top-five 20 instances on the PGA Tour, essentially the most of any participant who has not recorded a victory throughout that span, per Golf Digest.
Fleetwood at present ranks because the 21st participant on this planet, based on the Official World Golf Rating. He has been within the prime ten earlier than, as excessive as ninth in 2019.
He additionally has recorded 4 top-five finishes in main championships since 2017.
“I simply need to hold training, hold taking part in,” Fleetwood added after his spherical. “I used to be actually happy with how I performed over the weekend. I performed nice at this time, regardless of lacking some possibilities on these playoff holes. It was shut. I simply need to take the positives from it and begin training tomorrow. I acquired a significant subsequent week. So can’t dwell on it an excessive amount of.”
Certainly, the U.S. Open will happen on the Los Angeles Nation Membership’s North Course this week.
Fleetwood completed fourth on the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills after which second to Brooks Koepka at Shinnecock Hills in 2018. Fleetwood fired a final-round 63 in brutally harsh U.S. Open situations at Shinnecock, ending one stroke behind Koepka.
Maybe Fleetwood places the Canadian Open behind him and wins in Southern California, giving England back-to-back U.S. Open champions for the primary time ever.
