Home-cooking not the recipe for Byrne
Essex-native David Byrne hits a shot on the practice tee at Roseland Golf and Curling Club prior to his second round in the Jamieson WFCU Windsor Roseland Charity Classic. Byrne shot 76 on the second day of the tournament after an opening round 65 put him in a four-way tie for the lead. (Photo by/Rob Benneian)
by Rob Benneian
David Byrne has been enjoying all the benefits of playing on his home course at the latest stop on the Canadian Professional Golf Tour.
That includes a nice home-cooked breakfast the morning after he fired a opening round five-under-par 65 at Roseland Golf and Curling Club in the Jamieson WFCU Charity Classic. After watching her son’s lead quickly evaporate in a disastrous start to his second round, Byrne’s mother, Jody St. Louis-Byrne, 56, feared her cooking was to blame.
“Bacon, eggs, toast and he had a big glass of milk,” Jody said. “We wanted to give him a champion’s breakfast. Normally he goes to Tim Horton’s and gets a chocolate milk and a bagel.”
Jody, who is following Byrne around the course for the first time in his rookie season on the Canadian Tour, said she won’t be making him breakfast any time soon.
Aside from his mother’s chow, Jody feared her son was battling a stomach full of butterflies.
“He’s nervous,” Jody said. “There’s so many people here, he wants to do well. He’s trying so hard.”
A group of nearly a hundred fans followed Byrne from his opening tee shot until he holed his final putt.
Jody also remarked that the pressure of leading a tournament, something Byrne had never done on the Canadian Tour prior to Thursday’s opening round, could be getting to him.
“He’s never been in first,” Jody said. “This is hard, I feel bad for him.”
Byrne started on the 10th hole and three-putted to a bogey, and then failed to get up and down for par after flying the green at the 11th hole. Byrne’s problems were compounded when his tee shot caught a tree branch at the 12th and he wound up making a double-bogey seven, something he said he doesn’t recall ever doing.
Jody, who has taught figure skating for the past 38 years, said when Byrne was younger, she would drop him off at Roseland to play the “shorty” – the colloquial name for the par-3 course attached to the 18-hole main course – on her way to work, and he would practice his short game there all day.
Byrne settled down from his rocky start to finish his second round with a six-over-par 76. His one-over-par through two rounds put him safely inside the projected cut-line of three-over-par for the tournament.
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