Would have loved to be a fly on the wall when RCGA CEO Scott Simmons met with PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem last week. They both knew the Buick was going away after this year, and that fact must have been a hot topic of discussion, but neither referred specifically to this week as a possibility for our Open when questioned. Simmons, for his part, stuck to the RCGA mantra that the Canada Day weekend would be the ideal slot for the RBC Canadian Open going forward. Finchem hedged his bets by saying a flexible schedule might be the answer, wherein tournaments would float between two or three dates in future. Despite all that, it is indisputable that the Buick date (this week) would be perfect for the Canadian Open. Great weather across the country (fingers crossed, judging from the past two years), and far enough removed from the British Open to ensure a very strong field, including a host of Euros over here preparing for the following WGC Bridgestone Invitation and the PGA Championship the next week. Go for it, Scott!
And while the grounds crew at Glen Abbey got a lot of air time for their incredible efforts to restore Glen Abbey time and again to a semblance of playability, I increasingly feel that while I still enjoy watching PGA Tour and LPGA stars play the game, it is the superintendents and architects who hold the most fascination for me. Like the players, there are stars and tomato cans, but there are far more of the former, judging from what I've seen over 25 years in the business. At last week's Open, Nicklaus's design stood up once again, and superintendent Scott Bowman and his people were superstars. The drainage system at Glen Abbey handled the repeated deluges as well as any course outside a seaside links built on sand, and no one could have outperformed Bowman and his troops. As I write this, the rain is pelting down in southern Ontario yet again. Is it ever going to stop raining at some point during this alleged summer?
Finally, got a great email from Keith Flanagan, whom I assume plays at Furry Creek in B.C. He copied me on a lengthy, heated but rational email he sent to Simmons after getting fired up over a number of issues he had with this year's Open: Not being able to see Mike Weir's first-ever ace on Tour thanks to spotty TV coverage, the very notion that our national championship might be reduced to 54 holes, and more. His follow-up message said: "Now, after firing this, granted, inflammatory and slightly unfair tirade off to every link available on the RCGA website, I was stunned to receive a rebuttal inside of 6 hours from none other than Scott Simmons himself, miffed that I should e-mail him with my tantrum and not actually call him direct….Wow! I am hoping we will talk on the phone within the next few weeks. If nothing else, this man takes his job very seriously, and I must say I hope that if we do get to have a decent debate on how to get the pride back into our Open."
Apparently Simmons is dedicated to winning over each and every of Canada's five million golfers one at a time, a time-consuming but ultimately rewarding task. Just hope he lives long enough to accomplish it.