MILTON, Ont. – RattleSnake Point Golf Club in Milton, Ont. is set to host the first-ever US Open Sectional Qualifier on Canadian soil on Monday, June 3rd with  spots up for grabs into the 119th playing of the US Men’s Open, taking place June 13-17 at the famed Pebble Beach Golf Club in Pebble Beach, California. The final number of qualifying spots will be confirmed early Monday morning by the USGA.

The 36-hole Sectional Qualifier will be conducted on the CopperHead course at RattleSnake Point featuring a field of 37 competitors that includes a mix of seasoned PGA TOUR veterans, up-and-coming Canadians and a triple major winner in Padraig Harrington.

“Golf Canada is pleased to support our global partners at the USGA in hosting the first-ever US Open Sectional Qualifier on Canadian soil,” said Adam Helmer, Golf Canada’s Director of Rules and Competitions. “A number of the competitors are also competing in next week’s RBC Canadian Open and we are proud to build a meaningful connection between our respective National Open Championship. We also want to thank our friends at ClubLink for welcoming this first-ever Qualifier to RattleSnake Point.”

“We are thrilled to host this crucial event leading up to one of the most coveted tournament entries in the world of golf,” said RattleSnake Point’s Director of Operations Craig Cupido. “To have such accomplished competitors grace our fairways for this toughest of tests is a fantastic opportunity that our entire team and club members welcome wholeheartedly. And as fans of this great game, we look forward to seeing how these world-class competitors fare on our course come June 3.”

A total of 927 players are competing in 12 sectional qualifiers, including one sectional qualifier in each of Canada, England and Japan. This is the first time in U.S. Open history that a sectional qualifier will take place in Canada.

U.S. Open qualifying began earlier this spring with 8,602 players competing in 110 local qualifiers. One local qualifier was in Canada on May 13 at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley in Caledon, Ont.

The Canadian sectional is being held the same week as the RBC Canadian Open, and several PGA TOUR players will be playing both the RBC Canadian Open and the U.S. Open Sectional Qualifier.

Canadians Nick Taylor and Mike Weir already qualified for the 119th U.S. Open via the sectional qualifying event on May 20 in Dallas, Tx.

For full field information, pairings and tee times, click here.

When Naomi Ko first took up the sport of golf, the goal was simple: to score a golf scholarship to a U.S. College. Over the years, that goal has evolved for the talented golfer from Victoria, British Columbia.

Having recently graduated from North Carolina State University on a full golf scholarship, the 21-year-old has fulfilled that childhood goal; and is now focusing on new challenges and an exciting journey ahead.

Looking back, Ko is amazed at how far she’s come since her mom, Adriana, introduced her to the sport at the age of 11.

“I actually played soccer when I was younger; but my mom got me into golf…She heard from a friend that you could get a scholarship playing golf and introduced me to the game,” she recalled.

Ko says her older sister and younger brother were also introduced to golf but she was the only one who found her passion in the sport.

She remembers her first time playing on the golf course was quite the learning experience.

“When I started, I was hitting at the range for the first seven or eight months. And the first time I went out on the course it was with some older girls and I wasn’t prepared at all,” she reminisced fondly.

“I brought golf balls from the range as opposed to normal golf balls. That was a lesson learned there,” she said with a laugh.

Ko first realized she had a special talent for golf in her early teens after scoring full status on the AJGA Tour.

“I think I was 13 or 14 years old and I played in an AJGA tournament which I won.  And it gave me full status on the AJGA Tour – which was a big deal at the time.”

The now 21-year-old says her seven years on the National Team Program has been instrumental in taking her game to that next level.

“We have support in all aspects of the game both on and off the golf course,” said Ko, the 2016 Canadian Junior Girls Champ.

“Being part of the program has given me the opportunity to travel and compete in some of the biggest junior and amateur tournaments around the world,” she added.

“Playing in those big tournaments is a reminder that there’s always someone better than you; and it’s also a reminder of the importance of working hard and improving and getting better each day.”

Tristan Mullally, the head coach of the Canadian Women’s National Team, speaks about the keys to Ko’s success.

“Naomi is strong off the tee and is a streaky putter when she gets it going,” said Mullally.

Tristan Mullally & Naomi Ko (Golf Canada)

“Naomi is low key and just goes about her business…She’s also someone who is very dedicated and has work really hard and she’s made improvements every year,” he continued.

“She’s had some great results winning the Canadian junior girls title in 2016 and had some strong results playing in the NCAA.”

Ko says playing in the NCAA was important to her overall development.

“Having to balance school and playing golf definitely taught me the importance of time management, being organized, and working as a team,” Ko pointed out.

“Overall, it was a really a good experience but I feel now that I’m ready to take the next step in my golf career.”

Having achieved a degree is sports management, Ko now has her sights set on the next big challenge – making it on the LPGA Tour.

Although she’s been dealing with a shoulder injury, Ko was able to win her sectional qualifier in Oregon last month and scored a spot for the U.S. Women’s Open.

Despite the fact that she wasn’t able to play her best golf at the LPGA major because of her shoulder injury, the recent NC State University graduate certainly learned a lot from the experience of being on the course with the best in the game.

And while the journey towards achieving status on the LPGA Tour promises to be an exciting one, Ko is grateful to have met and exceeded her original goals on the golf course.

With that said, the 21-year-old was asked what her advice would be for those aspiring young golfers eager to play the sport at a similar high level one day.

“There may be times where you don’t feel like you’re making progress.  But you will see the results come if you put in hours. So be patient and keep working hard,” Ko replied thoughtfully.

“Also, make sure that you learn from the ups and down and try to enjoy every moment of the journey.”

While the 63-year-old St. Catharines native won’t be teeing it up with the best on the PGA Tour, it will mark the first time he’s visited the historic Harry S. Colt layout since winning the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship in 1977.

It’s hard to believe that Rod hasn’t been back, but that will change when he’s inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame on Tuesday, June 4 during RBC Hall of Fame day at the RBC Canadian Open.

When the 22-year-old collegiate golfer arrived at HGCC in the summer of 1977, he was just happy to be playing at the private country club where his dad caddied as a kid in the 1940s. Nobody expected Rod to win, as seasoned BC amateur Jim Nelford was trying to make it three consecutive Canadian Men’s Amateur Championships, but Spittle’s parents watched from the sidelines as their son made a name for himself.

“It was a huge victory for me and so unexpected. I was home from school for the summer looking to play a few tournaments and it all came together,” says Rod, who didn’t play much on the Ohio State men’s golf team in his first two years – that changed after winning our national amateur championship.

“It was the biggest tournament I had won to that point. Looking back over 40-plus years of golf, it remains significant in my journey, because I learned what it felt like to win for the very first time. It gave me some confidence and the drive to take my game to a higher level,” he adds.

”To be able to go out a year later and win the title for a second consecutive time at Laval-sur-le-Lac was another incredible moment. I’m very proud of both trophies,” says Spittle, who won by a commanding 10 strokes in Quebec.

Rod’s victory at HGCC, which was hosting the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship for a fifth time, wasn’t nearly as convincing. Nelford was highly favoured to become the first person to win the championship threeyears in a row since the great George Lyon accomplished the feat from 1905 to 1907.

The opening two rounds of medal play suggested an easy Nelford victory. Jim’s first-round 69 was followed by a brilliant performance on the second day, during which he tied the course record of 64 that had stood since 1930, when the great Tommy Armour established it en route to winning the RBC Canadian Open that year.

Nelford’s 36-hole total of 133 gave him an impressive seven-shot lead over Spittle, but a third round 73 saw his lead reduced to four, before a closing-round 75 left him two shots back of the mark set by Spittle, who posted scores of 72-68-70-69 over the four days of competition.

“After the first two rounds Jim had a seven-stroke lead and all the reporters were writing that it was almost a foregone conclusion that he was going to win the championship, and that the rest of the field was playing for second and third place,” says Rod. “After the first two rounds I just dug in and tried to make every shot count. I was playing well and slowly chipped away at the lead. There wasn’t a lot of pressure on me. Nobody was expecting me to win, but in the back of my mind I believed that I wasn’t out of it.”

The two leaders didn’t play in the same group for the final round, so they only had glimpses of each other over the closing holes. Rod birdied No. 17 after hitting the green in two on the par-5, and then he bogeyed No. 18, but it was enough for the two-stroke win.

In the Willingdon Cup, the Ontario team of Gary Cowan, Ian Thomas, Nick Weslock and Spittle posted a 215 on the first day and a 213 on the second day for a total of 428, which gave them the victory by 11 shots over Alberta.

Rod graduated from Ohio State in 1978 with a degree in Business Administration. After a brief stint as a professional golfer and not enjoying life on the road, he opted to focus on supporting his family by selling insurance for 25 years in Dublin, Ohio, and continuing his passion for the game in amateur golf.

In 2006, Spittle and his wife, Ann, left their regular jobs behind and made a five-year plan to fulfill the dream of playing professional golf. In 2009, four years into that plan, Spittle’s goal of being a full-time Tour professional took a severe hit after he failed to secure his PGA Champions Tour card.

In 2010, the final year of the five-year plan, Rod was forced to Monday qualify into events. Playing with limited status, Spittle got into only five events the entire season. He Monday qualified into the final event of the year, the AT&T Championship in San Antonio, and in a storybook ending, he played stellar golf all week to beat Jeff Sluman in a playoff for his first-ever professional title. Just like that, his dream of playing professional golf, nearly dead and gone, gained new life with a full exemption for 2011 as a PGA Tour Champions winner.

Spittle stats are remarkable! In 195 starts over his 13-year PGA Tour Champions career, Rod missed just five cuts and earned more than $4M in prize money. He never missed more than one cut in any year, and played nine full seasons without missing a single cut. He had a pair of runner-up finishes, a pair of third-place finishes and 23 top-10s. He played his final PGA Tour Champions event on home soil, finishing T17 at the 2018 Shaw Charity Classic.

CALGARY, CANADA – SEPTEMBER 1: Rod Spittle of Canada hits his tee shot on the 7th hole during the second round of the Shaw Charity Classic at the Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club on September 1, 2018 in Calgary, Canada. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)

On the personal level, he and his wife Ann have three children (Leslie, Steve and John) and seven grandchildren. His mother still lives in Niagara Falls. His father passed away in 2010 at the age of 84, six months before Rod won in San Antonio.

“It’s very exciting thinking about going into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. It’s been very emotional. I’m looking forward to it, and to be able to go back to Hamilton G&CC, where I enjoyed that first win four decades ago, is going to be very special,” Spittle says. “It’s been a great run. I could never have dreamt up a story like this when I won the Canadian Am at HGCC in 1977.”

While he may not have been able to dream it, there is an undeniable symmetry to that national championship of 42 years ago in Ancaster. Rod first took up the game of golf at age 10 when his father became one of 25 original founders of Willodell G&CC in Niagara Falls. The course designer was none other than Nicol Thompson, who, from 1912-1945, was the head professional of Hamilton G&CC.

After not playing a round of golf in 2018 and only a few in 2017, Michael Blair now finds himself preparing to play in the 2019 RBC Canadian Open.

What makes this mind-boggling turn of events even more unimaginable is that the 27-year-old lives in Ancaster, just a few minutes from Hamilton Golf & Country Club, so he’ll essentially tee it up in his first-ever PGA Tour event right in his own backyard.

“I graduated from Eastern Michigan University in the spring of 2015 and I have spent the better part of the last four years being injured with a sore shoulder and rotator cuff injuries,” says Blair, who has worked part-time in Ancaster as a Hostess Frito-Lay chip truck delivery driver for the past 18 months.

Although he picked up a business degree at Eastern Michigan University, and had a job lined up with RBC, the title sponsor for the Open, Michael decided to gut it out, get healthy again and give golf another shot this season. After rehabbing for all of 2018, Michael picked up his clubs in January and started working with his coach Nick Starchuk throughout February using an indoor simulator. Then he headed to Fort Myers, Florida in March and April to work on his game and prepare for PGA Tour Canada Q-School. He missed earning a card by sevral shots, so it was back to Ontario and the drawing board.

“I used the money that I saved up working at Frito-Lay to pay for my expenses in Florida, so it’s looking like a good investment at this time,” Michael says. “I probably played five or six rounds in May in Ontario and hit balls a few times leading up to the RBC Canadian Open Regional Qualifier at TPC Toronto on May 16.”

The Nelson High School graduate, who worked at Hidden Lake Golf Club for about 15 years, then went out and shot an 8-under-par 64 at the qualifier, earning a spot in the 2019 RBC Canadian Open – a dream come true.

Blair put together a spectacular round, sinking eagles on two par-fives on the back nine. Coupled with five front-nine birdies, Blair found himself two strokes ahead of the competition at the conclusion of play.

Twenty-one other players advanced to the final Monday, June 3 qualifying round at Heron Point Golf Links including local favourites and long-time HGCC members Chris Ross, who finished T6 at 6-under, and Nicholas Ross, who finished T9 at 3-under.  HGCC member, J.J. Reagan missed the cut, finishing T30 at even par.

“I haven’t played in a tournament in two years, so it was nice to put it all together for one round. It should be an incredible week at HGCC. I was there to walk around for a round when the Open was at Hamilton in 2012. I got in for free because I looked so young and they thought I was a junior. This time I’ll be able to drive right into the main parking lot with all the other players – that’s pretty cool,” says Michael, who has been receiving lots of calls from friends looking for tickets. And he hasn’t chosen a caddie yet!

Mackenzie Hughes grew up about 15 minutes from Hamilton Golf and Country Club and says he has played the course around 50 times.

While the native of Dundas, Ont., will have the most experience playing the private course of any PGA Tour golfer who tees it up next week at the RBC Canadian Open, he hasn’t teed off there since more than 1,000 trees were removed a few years ago as part of an environmental restoration.

Still, Hughes says for the last two months almost everyone he’s been paired with on the PGA Tour has asked him about Hamilton. They mostly ask him to compare it to Glen Abbey and try to get a feel for its classic look.

“It’s pretty cool to be asked, and I do have great things to say about it,” Hughes said. “I like both courses but I have to give the edge to Hamilton because it’s more classic. Guys are excited about it.”

The RBC Canadian Open returns to the course in the Hamilton suburb of Ancaster for the sixth time, and on the 100th anniversary of when it first hosted the tournament – won by England’s James Douglas Edgar in 1919. Americans Tommy Armour (1930), Bob Tway (2003), Jim Furyk (2006), and Scott Piercy (2012) are the other winners at Hamilton, long considered one of the top courses in the country.

The club will also host the RBC Canadian Open in 2023.

FORT WORTH, TEXAS – MAY 26: Mackenzie Hughes of Canada plays his shot from the sixth tee during the final round of the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club on May 26, 2019 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Scott Shannon, a member of the club and the 2019 Tournament Chair, says the 27-hole facility designed in 1914 recently went through a particularly rough winter. With ice and snow covering the ground, a chemical reaction caused damage to its greens.

The shade patterns of the all the trees were going to cause even further damage, so the club decided to remove more trees than what their normal turf maintenance program called for – between 250-300 per year.

Shannon said the course now has the kind of sightlines and “visual beauty” Harry Colt, the original architect, had in mind. He says the membership at the club hasn’t been this excited for the Canadian Open since 2003, when it came back for the first time since 1930.

The course will play as a par 70 for the RBC Canadian Open, and will measure between 6,850 and 6,950 yards – making it one of the shortest on the PGA Tour in 2019.

Bill Paul, the Chief Championship Officer for Golf Canada, says the golfers are going to enjoy playing a classic layout. He was the tournament director of the Canadian Open for more than two decades.

“I had this conversation with a lot of players in 2003. They said, ‘If they could ever get rid of a lot of trees, you’d be able to see the golf course a whole lot better.’ Fast-forward to 2019 and it’s there,” says Paul. “I just think it takes the golf course and makes it, from an aesthetic standpoint, more iconic.”

The layout is a stark contrast to Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont.

Glen Abbey is a modern layout that has hosted the RBC Canadian Open the last four years in a row, and the most of any course in the tournament’s history.

There are only two par fives at Hamilton, for example, and double that at Glen Abbey.

“Hamilton only gives you two chances (to score) and they’re no pieces of cake,” says Hughes, who likes how Hamilton makes a golfer think, compared to Glen Abbey.

“They’re very different. Hamilton’s greens to me will be a bit more of a challenge, but I’m not sure they’ll be able to get them that fast. The biggest difference for me is that Hamilton will provide different shots into greens and off the tee there’s a bit more variety.”

Shannon believes if the golf course dries out over the next few days and the rough stays at a reasonable length, the score won’t be too low. But if it’s waterlogged, it could be a different story.

“If the best players in the world can play target golf at a relatively short golf course and they don’t have to worry about it rolling into deep rough,” says Shannon, “then the number could get pretty low.”

The Canadian Open will be contested June 6-9. World No. 1 Brooks Koepka, No. 2 and defending champion Dustin Johnson, and multi-major winner Rory McIlroy, who is making his Canadian Open debut, headline the field.

PGA TOUR champion and Team RBC member Corey Conners previews Hamilton Golf & Country Club, site of the 2019 RBC Canadian Open.

Watching the Henderson sisters – world No. 6 golfer Brooke and her caddy Brittany – was one of the best experiences of Celeste Dao’s young career. She’s hoping to put those lessons in to practice at this year’s U.S. Women’s Open.

Dao got to observe the Hendersons at last year’s event and is back in the field this week with Henderson. They’ll be joined by fellow Canadians Megan Osland and Naomi Ko at the Country Club of Charleston in South Carolina.

“Watching them around the greens, how they identify the chips or the second shots and where they could be,” said Dao of the Hendersons. “Then they work on that, finding different shots and different options. They are really focused around the greens, taking notes and finding all the angles.”

Dao, from Notre-Dame-de-l’Ile-Perrot, Que., is still an amateur and earned her way in to the second major of the LPGA Tour season in a qualifying event at TPC Boston on May 6. Osland, from Kelowna, B.C., qualified on the same day at an event at Bradenton Country Club in Florida. Ko, from Victoria, made it in at a qualifier at OGA Golf Course in Woodburn, Ore., on April 26.

Henderson, the 21-year-old phenom from Smiths Falls, Ont., will compete as the winner of the 2016 Women’s PGA Championship, but could have qualified a number of different ways.

“Growing up, (Brooke) was always my idol and a great model to follow,” said the 18-year-old Dao. “I played a practice round with her last year. I learned a lot from her and her sister.”

Osland has been playing on the Symetra Tour since 2016 and the 26-year-old is targetting an LPGA card within the year. This will be her first appearance at the U.S. Women’s Open and, like Dao, she hopes it will be a learning opportunity.

“Just being around the best players in the world, seeing how they prepare, how they play the course and stuff like that is something I can learn from,” Osland said. “I think overall it’s going to be a really cool experience playing alongside everyone and seeing how my game stacks up to everyone else.”

Osland played a full practice round on Tuesday and described the fairways as firm and the greens fast – perfect for her style of play. She appreciates that winning her qualifier and playing in a major is already a new high for her career.

“It’s definitely the biggest tournament that I’ve played in so far and I would say that it’s the biggest tournament in women’s golf,” she said. “Just to play, to get out there and play at that level I’m just really excited for it. I’m happy to be here.

“This week I’m just going to go out and play my best and see what happens.”

After each stroke you make on a hole, you are supposed to find and play that same ball. Most of the time, it is possible to identify your ball without lifting it. But occasionally you need to lift it to do so.

Click here to learn more about the Modernized Rules of golf.

If you have reason to believe your ball has been damaged during play of a hole, you are allowed to mark the spot of the ball and then lift it without cleaning it, unless your ball is except on the putting green.

Click here to learn more about the modernized Rules of golf.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – Majors matter more than any other golf tournament.

They are not the sole measure of greatness.

And that might be one reason it took Brooks Koepka winning four majors – as many as Rory McIlroy, one more than Jordan Spieth among his contemporaries – for the 29-year-old Floridian to get the kind of attention his game deserves.

Never mind the No. 1 ranking that came with his victory Sunday in the PGA Championship. That could change in two weeks.

Koepka now is at that level – and it took back-to-back titles in the U.S. Open and PGA Championship to get there – that he makes people look when he walks onto the range, that he’s considered a top favourite wherever he goes without anyone having to look up the odds.

Why wasn’t it enough when he won last summer at Shinnecock Hills to become the first repeat winner of the U.S. Open in 29 years, and only the second player to successfully defend the U.S. Open since Ben Hogan in 1951? Same major, yes, but Erin Hills and Shinnecock were entirely different tests.

What kept him from megastar status when he added the PGA Championship last summer at Bellerive to join Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Hogan and Gene Sarazen as the only players to win the U.S. Open and the PGA in the same year? That kind of company is as elite as it gets.

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?PLAYER ANNOUNCEMENT? 3-time major champion winner @BKoepka has committed to the #RBCCO this June 3-9 at Hamilton Golf & Country Club #SummersOpen #LiveUnderPar

A post shared by RBC Canadian Open (@rbccanadianopen) on May 6, 2019 at 10:38am PDT

What made Koepka different was that he seemed to show up only at the big events. That’s a nice problem to have.

Koepka now has won four of his last eight majors, a stretch not seen since Woods won seven of 11 in an amazing run through the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black. The only other tournaments Koepka won during his run of majors was the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan in 2017 (by nine shots) and the CJ Cup last fall in South Korea.

Woods won 19 other times during his stretch of majors, 15 of them on the PGA Tour.

Roger Maltbie’s description of Woods at Pebble Beach – “It’s not a fair fight” – goes well beyond that 2000 U.S. Open. It’s never fair to compare Woods with anyone. He won at a rate never before seen in golf, and it probably won’t happen again.

Koepka is aware that his trophy collection is weighted heavily toward the majors. Justin Ray of a golf analytics group called “15th Club” pointed out over the weekend that Woods and Koepka are the only active players who have more victories than missed cuts in the majors: 15-9 for Woods, 4-2 for Koepka.

Don’t get the idea that Koepka would trade any of his four majors for a few more Texas Opens or Phoenix Opens. It simply explains why it took longer for golf fans to embrace what he has done in the last two years.

Koepka touched on this Saturday night after he had a seven-shot lead – a PGA Championship record – and faced questions that were intended to find out what he was doing differently to win majors so regularly.

“I’m just that much more focused,” Koepka said. “I think I’m more focused than anybody out there. My focus probably goes up, I don’t know, tenfold of what it does in a tour event – which isn’t good. I mean, it’s good that I’m doing it in the majors, but I need to do that in regular weeks.”

Consider some other players from his generation.

McIlroy won 12 times starting with his first major in the 2011 U.S. Open through his fourth major in the 2014 PGA Championship. Spieth won the Masters and U.S. Open in 2015 when he chased the Grand Slam, but he also won the Valspar Championship, the John Deere Classic and the Tour Championship that year. Spieth was 23 when he won the third leg of the career Grand Slam at the 2017 British Open, and he already had 11 titles on the PGA Tour (14 worldwide).

They also had name recognition before they turned pro. McIlroy was the low amateur at Carnoustie in the 2007 British Open when he was 18. Spieth tied for 16th in the Byron Nelson Classic when he was 16.

FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK – MAY 19: Brooks Koepka of the United States poses with the Wanamaker Trophy during the Trophy Presentation Ceremony after winning the final round of the 2019 PGA Championship at the Bethpage Black course on May 19, 2019 in Farmingdale, New York. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)

Koepka?

His last name was pronounced “Cupcake” on the first tee at the Phoenix Open in 2015, his first PGA Tour victory.

The game was always there.

His caddie, Ricky Elliott, recalls being asked to work for Koepka in the 2013 PGA Championship. He saw him for the first time on the range at Oak Hill. “I watched him striping it and thought to myself, ‘Happy day,”’ Elliott said.

In a 2015 interview with Golf Digest, Steve Williams, who was on the bag for 13 of Woods’ majors, was quoted as saying: “Once in a great while, a player comes along who hits a golf ball the way it was meant to be hit. Powerful, piercing, the perfect trajectory. Of the young players out there, one I’ve seen has that special ball flight: Brooks Koepka.”

Majors should never be dismissed for their value, for the legacy they create. At this point, Koepka really doesn’t need to win more PGA Tour titles to add to his reputation.

“Now he’s got it. And he got it in the right way,” Paul Azinger said Tuesday. “He has built his brand through self-belief and intestinal fortitude. By not getting attention, he has become a (tough guy) with a chip on his shoulder who says, ‘I can do anything you say I can’t.”’

That should do.