Is it finally time a Canadian won the Memorial Tournament?

USA Today

a day ago

Is it finally time a Canadian won the Memorial Tournament?
Oh, Canada, why haven't any of your golfers won the Memorial Tournament?
I mean, we Yanks have won 34 of the 49 Memorials at Jack's Place, and 37 if you count Kentucky. (Just kidding, Kenny Perry.) Aussies have won three, thanks to mates Greg Norman and David Graham. Sweden's Carl Pettersson and David Lingmerth each have shaken the hand of Jack Nicklaus, as have Norway's Viktor Hovland, South Africa's Ernie Els and Fiji's V.J. Singh.
Don't forget England's Justin Rose and South Korea's K.J. Choi, as well as Hideki Matsuyama of Japan. Spain's Jon Rahm almost certainly would have won twice if not for the demon COVID.
Count 'em up and 10 different countries have produced Memorial champions. Conspicuously missing from the list? Canada, which has witnessed as many of its countrymen hoist the crystal trophy as has Russia, Barbados and the Maldives.
In a way, it makes sense why Canada is 0-49 at Muirfield Village Golf Club. Have you been to Edmonton in July? You're lucky to get two weeks of golf in before winter arrives. It's tough to hone your swing while wearing a parka.
Or maybe that's a silly stereotype? Canadian Nick Taylor and American Ben Griffin are co-leading the soggy Memorial after two rounds. Taylor, 37, grew up in Abbotsford, British Columbia, which is more temperate than tundra. But it rains there. A lot. So, no wonder he feels comfortable at Lake Muirfield Village.
Memorial Tournament 2025: Nick Taylor, Ben Griffin tied atop leaderboard
Nick Taylor accustomed to wet weather
'This was every day of my golfing life since I was about 23,' said Taylor, whose bogey-free 68 was one of only two on the day, with fellow Canadian Mackenzie Hughes recording the other. 'Usually, October through March or April, this was a pretty standard day.'
It also is a pretty standard day for the Memorial, where after completing their second rounds, players were spotted entering the ark, er, clubhouse two by two.
'College was the same,' Taylor continued. 'I went to school in Seattle, so I don't enjoy playing in this, but I've played in it enough where I kind of know what to expect.'
And that is?
'Six months of not ideal golf weather,' he said.
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Less-than-ideal timing is more likely the reason Canadians have been shut out at MVGC. The prime years of Mike Weir, the nation's most famously successful player, and the only Canadian man to win a major championship (the 2003 Masters), coincided with the rise of Tiger Woods.
'The peak of Weir was probably when Tiger was winning every week,' Taylor said.
Mike Weir inspired Canadians to give golf a try
Still, Weir inspired many of his younger countrymen to exchange hockey skates for 3-woods.
'Mike Weir for Canadians just gave you that belief that you could do it,' Taylor said.
Woods also had a big impact, making golf cool in Canada, which led to more elite athletes taking up the sport. Eventually, they gravitated to the PGA Tour.
'The last five or six years, the Canadian contingent out here is the best it's ever been,' Taylor said. 'For a long time, there were probably two or three guys playing this tournament, and it's very hard to win here.'
Other Canadians in the Memorial field are Hughes, Corey Conners and Taylor Pendrith — all from the eastern part of the country, all who landed at Kent State University before turning pro. Hughes is seven shots off the lead, Pendrith and Conners, who played in the same pairing (and were the best man in each other's weddings) are eight and nine back.
Can Taylor keep it going and break the Canadian drought? He's got the game to make it happen, having won five times on tour, including this year's Sony Open.
'The last few years, my iron game has become very sharp,' he said. 'Really, everything is a little bit sharper.'
Including his mental game, which has improved since he joined the tour in 2014.
'For me, it probably took four to five years to compete week in, week out,' he said, adding that COVID was particularly tough on him because of the quarantine issues that made crossing the U.S.-Canadian border more challenging. Still, he won the 2020 AT&T at Pebble Beach, then captured his nation's championship at the 2023 Canadian Open. The next year he won in Phoenix. His playoff record is 3-0, which bodes well if the Memorial ends in a playoff, as it has two of the past four years.
If it happens, Canada will be off the hook, eh?
Sports columnist Rob Oller can be reached at [e-mail] and on X.com at @rollerCD. Read his columns from the Buckeyes' national championship season in "Scarlet Reign," a hardcover coffee-table collector's book from The Dispatch. Details at OhioState.Champs.com