The Canadian Gospel according to Mike Weir

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Mike Weir will lead the charge of Canadians hoping to end their country's 54-year drought in the RBC Canadian Open.

As a former Masters winner and the most celebrated golfer in his country's history, Mike Weir is Canada's Golf Ambassador. And as usual, all hearts in his native land will be pulling for him at this week's RBC Canadian Open, hoping he can end the drought that Canadian golfers have suffered in their national championship. Not since Pat Fletcher in 1954 has a Canadian won this event.

Weir has come close, holding a three-shot lead going into the final round in 2004, only to bogey the 72nd hole and lose in a playoff to Vijay Singh. Whether he or Stephen Ames or one of the other Canadian golfers can end the 54-year drought ... well, a whole country awaits.

Meanwhile, Weir remains one of Canada's most beloved sportsmen. He has won Canada's Male Athlete of the Year three times, has hobnobbed with Canada's Prime Minister and NHL legend Wayne Gretzky, and with one more TOUR win, he'll break the tie with George Knudson for most PGA TOUR wins by a Canadian golfer. In 2007, Weir was awarded the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honor for lifetime achievement, recognizing outstanding achievement and service in various fields of endeavor. And this year, he is being inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame, with the induction ceremony scheduled for later this year.

"I am extremely honored to share a place in the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame with so many names who have done so much for golf in Canada," Weir said. "I have so much that I still want to accomplish both on the course and in helping to continue to grow the game in Canada, but this honor will always rank as one of the greatest of my career."

To get Weir's insights on his home land, PGATOUR.COM recently did some research. Here's what we found:

MORE WEIR: This week's Player Spotlight | Original artwork on Weir | Photos: Jordan, Costner at the Mike Weir Charity Classic

A CANADIAN WINNING OUR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP "There's going to be somebody at some time do it, whether it's my generation, the guys that are here right now or the next crop of young guys that are coming up. It would be great for the game in this country if one of us can do it. ... There's a lot of talent in this country, a lot of young guys. I see them doing some great things going forward. So, hopefully, we'll get some guys that are in contention out here."

PLAYING IN FRONT OF THE HOME CROWD "Well, what's it do for my game? I think when I get on a roll ... you can sense the energy. That's what Tiger gets a lot. Someone was asking me about how does he make these putts on the last hole? He believes he can make it. The crowd believes he can make it. It's all the right stuff going in the right direction. It's nice to have that one time, you know, one week. When people are pulling for you, sometimes there is a feeling like you feel like you just can't miss. I use that example of the 17th hole at the Presidents Cup [in 2007]. ... I heard Johnny [Miller]'s comment, 'Mike, you don't even have to hit this putt. It's just going to be willed in.' And there is something to that when you have that much pull from the crowd. Sometimes you just feel like you can't miss them."

STEPHEN AMES IS ONE OF US "What I'll say about Stephen [who was born in Trinidad & Tobago but has Canadian citizenship] is yeah, he's Canadian. He does the right thing, and he supports his country, supports the game here and comes to do a number of his events and his event, the Stephen Ames Cup. I think he's done a great job since he's moved here and married Jodi and blended right in."

MY CANADIAN GOLFING HEROES "Guys that were on TOUR when I was growing up were Dan Halldorson, Richard Zokol and Dave Barr. Jim Nelford was kind of getting done when I was coming up, so I did get to see a little bit of him. Zoke helped me out a little bit when I was trying to pick a university to go to. I started working with his coach when I was right out of college, so he helped me get in touch with him, and start working on my game and start working on better fundamentals and things, so he was a good example. He was just a guy to call and talk to about the professional game, about travel, and doing all that entails professional golf, so he's been a big help to me."

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES OF THE CANADIAN OPEN "My best memory, probably, was at Glen Abbey. I remember watching a clinic with Andy Bean and Tom Kite. It was a junior clinic. I remember being in a semi-circle behind the guys and they were hitting different shots. They were doing a clinic, and Greg Norman came over and started rifling these 3-irons, and the cart guy was out there driving and picking up the balls. And [Norman] was hitting wherever [the cart guy] was driving, he was trying to wrestle these 3-irons off the cart. And I remember sitting as a kid sitting there watching him. He nailed him a couple of times, and I just thought that was pretty cool. When you're 8 years old, you think that's pretty cool. Then they took the shag bag of balls that Andy Bean and Tom Kite were hitting, and they just rolled them all towards us. So we had a free-for-all diving on them and putting them in our pockets. They let us have all the golf balls. So that's one of the memories as a kid. I still remember that, that was fun."

THE CANADIAN TOUR "The development of the Canadian Tour to get out here for me is very important. It is a legitimate international tour from guys from all over the world trying to make the next step. So everybody's hungry. You get used to playing Thursday, Friday, making the cut and winning out there. You have to play some really good golf. You've got to beat some great players down the stretch of the tournament when you're winning. So, you know, it's kind of when you're getting on the PGA TOUR, you don't just jump there. There's steps. And the Canadian Tour is a big step for me when I was out there."

CANADA'S NATIONAL PASTIME "I love hockey, too. I just wasn't very good. I love golfing. You know, I moved across the street from a golf course when I was about 10 years old or 9 years old, and I got a job at the golf course, cleaning the clubs, and picking the range. From there I worked my way to the pro shop, and that gave me a chance to hit balls all the time when I was out there. So I was a golf course rat. I was out there all day. And that's how I got involved with the game."

FUTURE CANADIAN OPEN VENUES "We have great golf courses across the country. I was discussing that the other day. There's plenty of opportunity to use some of the golf courses we have across the country. ... Sure, I know some courses don't have the space to expand, but you can add 20 yards here, a little bit there. And you can make it so it that you can hold championships on some of these great courses. I have not had a chance to play a ton of them. Rail Montreal is really good. I haven't played a lot at Calgary. But I know there are some great tracks out there. I see no reason why we can't move them out west, as well, in Calgary and Edmonton area. I see it moving around. I see those three being the main three courses, Hamilton, the Shaughnessy, Royal Montreal -- it's a good rotation to start. It's a national championship, that's what I think we should be playing on, personally, and yet something in Calgary, Edmonton, I think would be just right. ... I think when guys know they are playing an old championship golf course, and this being a National Championship, I think it really adds to the tournament if we can get playing some of these great, old courses that we do have."

MEMO TO YOUNG CANADIAN GOLFERS: I'M HERE TO HELP "It's funny, I know when I was coming out I looked to guys for advice and I would ask them. I don't know if it's a different generation, I don't see that. I go out and I try to make myself available to them. But they seem to be doing their own thing a lot. And I found that kind of odd that they don't ask more advice, because I know when I was younger, I would seek that out. That's how you learn. I learned from Tiger by asking some things. I learned from Vijay asking him some things. Asking about the shots. I think they need to do that more. I'm trying to do it, I'm trying to get my work done, too, but I think if they came up and asked, yeah, I'd be happy to help them out, anything they wanted to know."

PLAYOFF BEARDS "It's a hockey thing. In hockey, guys grow the beards, so thought I would give it a shot [at last year's PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup] and see if it works." (For more on Weir's playoff beard, click here)