The Daily Wrap-up: Day 1, RBC Canadian Open
OAKVILLE, Ontario (AP) -- Kevin Na hustled to finish his rain-delayed round in the Canadian Open. He ended up running the tables at Glen Abbey.
Na birdied the final five holes and nine of his last 12 for a 9-under 63 and a two-stroke lead over Retief Goosen, Scott Verplank and Joe Durant on Thursday during the suspended first round of the 100th Canadian Open.
By finishing in fading light, he avoided an early trip back to the course Friday.
"That's all I was hoping for," said Na, winless in six seasons on the PGA TOUR. "I was just trying to get to the tee real quick and hit. Ended up being we had 10, 15 minutes to spare, but you never know when they're going to call it."
After playing one hole in the morning, Na waited out a seven-hour rain delay in the tournament plagued by wet conditions for the second consecutive year. There were 98 players who could not finish the round, and 39 of them didn't even begin play.
"I had my manager go to the hotel and grab my computer," Na said. "For a couple hours, I watched TV shows that I downloaded, and just ate a couple times and went to the car and took a nap. I swear, I mean, I got to the 11th hole where I was starting, and I looked at the guy and I said, 'Man, it feels like Friday.' It was a long day."
Na moved to the United States at age 8 and took up golf a year later. At 17, he skipped his senior year of high school to turn professional. Now 25, he has seven top-11 finishes in 18 events this year, including a seventh-place tie Sunday in Milwaukee.
"Once in a while, we get it," he said.
TOUR rookie Jimmy Walker was 6 under with four holes to play when play was suspended for the day because of darkness.
Mike Weir, trying to become the first Canadian to win the national championship since Pat Fletcher in 1954, opened with a 71.
"It was not what we wanted for this event," Weir said. "It's kind of playing soft -- a dart show. It's too bad because the course is really good. It's in really good condition, but super soft."
Na closed his first nine, the back nine at Glen Abbey, with birdies on the par-5 16th and 18th, added birdies on Nos. 1 and 2 and birdied the final five for a front-nine 28, matching the tournament record set by Vijay Singh on the same nine in the second round of his 2004 victory.
"The greens are holding, so you can get aggressive with the irons," Na said. "But off the tee, you must put yourself in the fairway. The rough is very thick."
Durant had a hole-in-one on the seventh hole.
"It was like 147 to the hole, which for me was kind of an in-between shot," Durant said. "I hit a nice little smooth 8-iron. It hit about 4 feet past and drew back in."
He also was relieved to finish the round.
"We were running the last couple holes to try to get done," Durant said. "It'll be nice to sleep in."
Goosen played the four par 5s in 5 under, making eagle at the 13th after the long rain delay and birdieing Nos. 16, 18 and 2.
"Been a long round. Thirteen hours from tee-off to finish," said Goosen, coming off a fifth-place tie Sunday in the British Open. "I've been up since 4:30."
After the round began on time at 7 a.m., heavy rain forced the suspension of play at 8:38 a.m. The rain stopped just before noon, and course workers needed more than four hours to drain the flooded bunkers and get the clay-based layout in shape to play.
"If you play out here long enough, you're going to have some days like this," said Verplank, the 2001 winner at Royal Montreal. "So, you kind of figure out what to do, and just go with it. That's the way it is."
Because of the wet conditions after about 1 inche of rain hit the course overnight and in the morning, players were allowed to use preferred lies in the fairways -- just as they did in all four rounds last year.
DIVOTS: The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame opened an exhibit honoring Weir on Thursday. Weir will be inducted into the hall later this year. The exhibit includes his green jacket from the 2003 Masters. ... Defending champion Chez Reavie shot a 1-over 73. ... Bob Tway, the 2003 winner at Hamilton, withdrew during the round because of personal reasons. Steve Flesch withdrew before the round because of a neck injury.
| Other notables at the RBC Canadian Open | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Thursday's Best |
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The par-5 16th hole was the easiest with a Thursday scoring average of 4.411.
The par-4 14th hole was the toughest with a Thursday scoring average of 4.286.
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Retief Goosen chips in for eagle from the deep rough on the par-5 13th during the opening round of the RBC Canadian Open. 
Kevin Na started slow but was unstoppable coming in, with five straight birdies to finish with a 62. INSIDE THE ROPES WITH THE PGA TOUR NETWORK
PGA TOUR Network correspondent Bob Stevens offers these observations from Thursday's action. Listen to PGA TOUR Live coverage on XM 146/SIRIUS 209 or right here at PGATOUR.COM.
Watch for very sharp and dramatic movement on the leaderboard all week when players get into the back nine. With 30 more yards, the 16th hole is now a short par 5 instead of a long par 4, giving Glen Abbey three par 5s on the back nine (Nos. 13, 16 and 18), and the last two are very, very reachable in two. Retief Goosen's a perfect example of this catapult effect -- using an eagle at the 13th, birdies at Nos. 16 and 18, as well as a bird at the 17th, to get to 5 under through his first nine holes.
As a member of the first group off the 10th tee Thursday morning, John Merrick got it to 2 under through his first five holes before the seven-and-a-half-hour rain delay struck. I asked Merrick if he actually got to "sleep on the lead" that we usually talk about after the round, and he chuckled before admitting he did get in a good nap, as well as a second breakfast before play resumed in the mid afternoon. Maybe he was too well rested. Merrick three-putted the par-5 16th after reaching it in two with his first swing back on the course, then had to salvage a birdie at No. 18 -- the two easy par 5s on the back nine (see the note above).
There's no truth to the rumor circulating around Glen Abbey that there were dolphins seen jumping in the fairways of the "valley" holes (Nos. 11-15) that are 60-feet lower than the other holes above the ridge line, but the course took on over an inch of rain during the day Thursday, swelling 16 Mile Creek, and there are more showers expected overnight and Friday as well. Could it be an advantage for the later starters that players who played early Thursday got to play "lift, clean and place?" No matter what the conditions were when the late starters finally began their opening round, they'll be able to clean their golf balls in the fairways for the rest of the first round.
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