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Smiths Falls doing its part at Canadian Open

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OTTAWA — Brooke Henderson isn’t the only individual from Smiths Falls displaying personal drive this week.

Twenty-five members of the Smiths Falls Golf and Country Club, where the 19-year-old superstar learned to play the game, have signed up for four shifts each as volunteer marshals for the LPGA Tour event at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.

A handful of them will be among the first faces Henderson and half of the 156-player see in the opening round on Thursday from their positions on the first hole, an assignment granted to them by Kim Leclair, vice-chair of the marshalling committee. The other 78 women will tee off on No. 10, which is where Henderson is to begin her Friday round.

“People from Smiths Falls all know her well because we’re a small town, eh,” Larry McIntosh, captain of the marshalling crew, said Wednesday. “They’re on a first-name basis with a lot of people.”

The commute to Ottawa Hunt is 45-50 minutes for most of the Smiths Fallians, according to McIntosh, but it’s about 75 minutes for him and his wife, Theresa, from their residence on Big Rideau Lake.

Vice-president of the Smiths Falls club, McIntosh said the spectacular success of Brooke Henderson, including four LPGA Tour titles in the past two seasons, had been good for it and good for the community overall.

Besides the road-side signs showcasing Smiths Falls as the hometown of Brooke Henderson and her older sister, Brittany, herself a former national amateur team member and now Brooke’s caddie, the golf club building now has a Brooke Henderson Junior Room complete with television and lockers, and McIntosh said there was a showcase area with a hologram awaiting arrival of a Brooke Henderson golf bag.

“When you go to the golf club, everybody is, ‘How is Brooke doing?’” McIntosh said. “If she’s in a tournament, there’s always somebody on their (smartphone), saying, ‘She’s on the third hole.’ It’s constant.”

Those on duty as marshals on Thursday have been told they won’t be allowed to display any overt favouritism to their hometown favourite, but it probably won’t take much to see their extra-wide smiles when the young woman who has put Smiths Falls on the world’s sports map steps to the first tee.

“What we’ve noticed is that it has brought the town together,” McIntosh added. “They did a welcome-back for her when she went to the (2016 Rio) Olympics and all that, and it’s just amazing, the spirit that lifts the town, by having somebody to watch. It creates conversation among everybody.”

PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF

Although Tuesday’s stormy conditions, made things … interesting … Hannah Hellyer persisted, and she was able to complete a full 18-hole practice round at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.

Four holes followed by a weather delay, during which she had a nice breakfast, then seven holes, then another weather delay, then the final seven holes mercifully completed before a third weather delay was called in late afternoon.

Still there was more work to be done Wednesday, so Hellyer was among those golfers who rose before the crack of dawn to complete another nine holes before Ottawa Hunt’s tournament course was handed over to 50 pros and 150 amateurs participating in the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open pro-am event.

This week’s Open marks the first LPGA Tour experience for the 26-year-old native of Stirling, Ont., now an assistant pro at St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Toronto. She described her normal schedule there as six days a week, at least eight hours a day, plus time giving golf lessons on the side.

Personal practice, then, becomes a matter of quality over quantity.

“It has been a long time coming,” said Hellyer, who shot a 3-under-par 69 at Camelot Golf and Country Club to tie for top spot in the Monday qualifier, thus earning one of the final four available spots in the field. “I’m really excited and I always dreamed of being here. You just have to persist.”

The last of 14 Canadians to join the 156-woman field for this tournament, Hellyer will play with Kelly Tan of Malaysia and Tiffany Joh of the United States in the first two rounds.

“My reasonable goal is to play like the person that I am and to really focus on the things that I can control. That’s my goal,” Hellyer said.

Was that the same as the ideal goal, she was asked.

“And I’d definitely like to be in the last tee time on Sunday, right? That’s what we’re here for. We’re here to win.”

Those wondering if Hellyer might be related to former MP and federal cabinet minister Paul Hellyer, more recently in the news for his professed belief in alien life forms, might feel let down by her response.

“I know better to say I don’t know,” she said. “I get that all the time.”

MR. 59 ON KIRKS BAG

If Katherine Kirk wants advice on how to get back into “the zone,” the likes of which she entered to win the 2008 Canadian Women’s Open, she only needs to turn to the young man carrying her golf back this week at Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club.

Patrick Simard entered “the zone” in a big way as an Ohio State University junior in 2008-09, shooting a dreamy 11-under-par 59 on the school’s 5,800-yard Gray Course.

“I still have the golf ball,” Simard said while waiting for Kirk to complete her practice session before Wednesday’s pro-am. “That’s in my trophy case back home.”

Strangely, perhaps, Simard’s magical round could have been even better, but he bogeyed two holes, including the par-4 16th, but birdies on the par-3 17 and par-4 18th enabled him to reach golf’s hallowed sub-60 terrain.

“I happened to hit very good shots coming in,” he said. “The last putt was like a 10-footer uphill, left to right, and every since it has been my favourite putt.”

Simard’s father, Paul, played junior hockey with the Verdun Maple Leafs in the 1960s, but Patrick was born in Spain after the family moved there in the early ’80s. However, he still carries a Canadian passport.

gholder@postmedia.com

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