What a wild finish to last week’s RBC Canadian Open!  For the longest time, it looked like the winner would be William McGirt.  He was in control of his game, had the lead and was playing very well. . His first 3-putt bogey on the 15th hole changed everything.  It began to look like no one wanted to win as the players were dropping shots left and right.  No one was able to hit the ball with any accuracy.  It was clear what was happening…. the three front runners were starting to feel the effects of nerves – they were starting to feel  the pressure.

William McGirt has never won as a professional, so everyone was expecting him to crash and burn. Don`t get me wrong, I was rooting for McGirt to win, but it is always that much harder to win when you have never done it before.  The second player, Scott Piercy,  had only won one PGA  event.  The last player who was part of the group trying to win was Robert Garrigus.  He, like Piercy, had won once before on the PGATOUR.   So when they came down the stretch,  the two players who were past winners were the favorites to take the title. There was no way I would have thought that Piercy would have taken home the title with a simple par on the last hole.  That was all he needed considering that McGirt made a bogey from the middle of the fairway when he hit his approach shot into the greenside bunker.  With tremendous pressure on him…his second shot was poor. When he gets himself into such a position again, he will most likely know how to handle the pressure.

What a great win for Piercy.  He now has two wins on tour and he can add this trophy to his 2011 Reno-Tahoe Open trophy.  With this great win, he now has the ability to play at this week’s World Golf Championship, the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio. The sad part, however, is that he won`t be back in Nevada to defend his title at Reno.  Luckily, the Bridgestone Invitational is a much better event that pays more, has far greater prestige,  and has a much smaller field.