Canadian Open round one: Mahan, the golfer that just keeps going

I’ve heard some really stupid questions in my time, but there’s few beat the interviewer Thursday who asked Hunter Mahan: “Would you say this course fits your game?”

Of course it doesn’t, you oaf! You do the maths - 18 holes and only three eagles. Clearly that leaves huge room for improvement.

Almost as daft was Mahan’s “I think so” answer. What more does he want as he continues his impression of golf’s Duracell bunny. Another continent, another hot performance. It doesn’t end here either. Mahan’s not taking a break while he’s this hot and will be playing at Firestone next week.

His first round figures almost mirror the impressive stats from his recent performances - top 25 for everything and a clear first with the putter. Mind you, that putting figure is skewed by the fact that he didn’t need to putt two of the par 4s because he eagled them from off the green. Without them his startling 1.29 putts per green in regulation would be a somewhat more workaday 1.5, although even that would leave him sixth in the putting ranks.

Mahan showed us at the Travelers that he has what it takes to stick around over four rounds, if not to lead wire-to-wire. But he may face a sterner test in the afternoon winds if the course plays anything like day one. The stroke average difference between morning and afternoon was a whopping 2 (72.35 to 70.34). Small wonder the first seven on Friday morning’s leaderboard were in the morning crew.

That’s a heavy incentive for those going off Friday morning, such as Charlie Wi, picking up where he left off with his second place in last week’s US Bank Championship and showing a lively set of stats, 16 greens in regulation being the most notable. It even offers some hope to Jim Furyk, who could only go to two under in the afternoon.

But the task looks near to impossible for another of the gang from Carnoustie, local hero Mike Weir. No way you’d call him a Duracell bunny. More like an ever unready tortoise. No, this isn’t a reference to the old fable. Duracell do rabbits, not hares.