Graham DeLaet withdraws from Canadian Open as national drought continues

The greatest Canadian hope to end a 61-year drought at their national championship has withdrawn from the RBC Canadian Open.

Graham DeLaet, ranked 84th in this week’s Official World Golf Ranking, pulled out of the event on Friday morning after sustaining a thumb injury in Thursday’s opening round. Despite the best efforts of training staff, DeLaet was unable to continue after an opening even-par 72.

“I just can’t play golf like that, release the club and kind of puffing it out there,” DeLaet said Friday. “If I was still able to hit it long and straight and kind of playing my game, I probably would have fought through it.”

Pat Fletcher was the last Canadian to win the national open back in 1954.

Mike Weir, who last week announced an indefinite leave of absence from the pro game, came close in 2004 at Glen Abbey Golf Club, which again hosts this week, losing in a sudden-death playoff to Vijay Singh. After Singh won the playoff, he apologized to the 2003 Masters winner for ruining what could have been a huge story in Canada..

Despite DeLaet’s withdrawal, Canada still has hope. After DeLaet, the next highest-ranked Canuck is David Hearn, who lost in a playoff for The Greenbrier Classic earlier in July. He’s 128th in the world and in contention in Ontario. Hearn is 11 under through two rounds and near the top of the leaderboard.

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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