Oh Canada! Fans follow countrymen to top of WM Phoenix Open leaderboard
Decked out in a Team Canada hockey jersey, Kodi Gibson of Victoria, British Columbia, had half a beer to go and his buddy from Peterborough, Ontario, half a cigarette, as they watched PGA veteran Adam Hadwin tread uncharted ground on the opening day of the WM Phoenix Open.
That the jersey bore Hadwin’s signature, along with fellow Canadian golfer Mackenzie Hughes, exemplified the bonhomie between countrymen at TPC Scottsdale on a windy Thursday where being a tourist from the Great White North could not have been cooler.
Since 1983, there have not been two Canadians tied for the lead after any round of a stroke play event on the PGA Tour. But on this day, when frost delayed the morning wave, there were Hadwin and Nick Taylor atop the leaderboard at 5-under par.
“It’s great,” Taylor said. “Adam I feel like has played well the last few years, I’ve had some decent rounds here but never kind of pieced [them] together. I’ve put a lot of work in the last few months — just put more emphasis on reading the greens, studying them, kind of figuring them out because they’re quite tricky to read — but today paid off so it was nice. I hit it great but I was able to capitalize with the putting.”
Between the warm desert weather providing an escape from the northern winter, the Phoenix Open and the Super Bowl, many Canadian sports fans made the trip to Arizona to support their fellow countrymen.
Gibson has been here since Tuesday’s practice round, when he collected both Hadwin’s and Hughes’ signatures, the latter supplying his own pen.
“We were just walking off the tee,” Hughes said. “It was Adam and I, we saw his jersey, Adam walked over, then I walked over and signed it. It’s obviously a pretty recognizable jersey, and that was it.”
“Last time I was here, I followed (Hadwin) for his first 18,” Gibson said. “When we saw him on the leaderboard when he was at 3-under, we were like, ‘Yep, let’s go find Adam.’ Last time, Hadwin was paired with Patrick Reed, so the fact that Patrick Reed was playing, you know it was a few years ago.”
Chris Pantalone, an Ottawa native on a father-son trip that will include both the Open and the Super Bowl, was also wearing the maple leaf, his in hat form.
“Obviously we wanted to see the Canadians when we had the chance,” he said. “When we saw that (Hadwin) was leading we just decided to follow him.
Gibson has been here since Tuesday’s practice round, when he collected both Hadwin’s and Hughes’ signatures, the latter supplying his own pen.
"Canadian golf has been in a great place for a while now, (with) Corey (Conners) and Mackenzie kind of leading the way,” Hadwin said. “We had Adam Svensson winning this year as well, along with Mackenzie. It's a great group to be a part of. I'm really disappointed I didn't get to 6-under because I saw Nick up there, and I wanted to hold it over him tonight. But yeah, it's fun. It's a great group to be a part of, and we share a lot of laughs together.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Oh Canada! Fans follow countrymen to top of Phoenix Open leaderboard
