OTTAWA – While most of the eyes of the Canadian golf world are on the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open this week at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club, Golf Canada CEO Laurence Applebaum is keeping one of his on the goings on at Glen Abbey Golf Club.
The home of Golf Canada’s office, and semi-permanent home of the RBC Canadian Open, was in the news Tuesday after the town of Oakville unanimously voted in favour of designating the golf course, which has hosted the Canadian Open 29 times – more than any other layout in the country – as a heritage site.
Only two courses in the country already have heritage designations, which is allowable, per the provincial government. The courses, located in Windsor (Roseland Golf Course) and Mississauga (Lakeview Golf Course), are both owned by their respective municipalities, and according to the Globe and Mail, the designation is supposed to help keep golf accessible to the public.
Glen Abbey’s price tag – $236 peak rate during the summer – does not make it the kind of course people would be flocking to every week.
But Applebaum, in an exclusive interview with Sportsnet, said it is “very clear” the residents of Oakville feel strongly about the property.
“It’s wonderful to see,” he explained. “I would like to see the due process to go forward. They’re going to keep the discussion direct with us and with ClubLink as the land owner and I think it’s been something we’re going to work on very closely. Going forward it will be (up to) the town of Oakville, Golf Canada, and ClubLink to develop a really solid management plan so that the golf course can not be static, but can live and breathe and expand so that we can run a world-class event there.
“We’re going to continue those discussions and let this process continue on and hopefully everyone can be in a good place.”
Applebaum was borderline adamant at the Canadian Open in July that a permanent site for the country’s lone PGA Tour event in the Greater Toronto Area was going to be the plan moving forward.
“Our hope is to have a permanent long-term strategy and long-term site,” he said at the time. “We really see a good home here in the GTA.”
And he said now he’s eager to evolve the big marketing activation at Glen Abbey – turning the par-3 7th into a hockey rink viewing experience, appropriately dubbed “The Rink” – into something special.
“The Rink was a massive success and it became really a chance for people to do what they do normally at the Canadian Open… and see the rink. The Rink became a really special thing,” he explained.
“It was really exciting. We’re going to evolve The Rink. We’ve got two (more) brilliant creative ideas and we’re hoping to make them a reality. We’re going to expand on them for sure. We’ve had all of our partners, especially RBC… really (help) bring it to life. We caught some fire with it and we’re going to try to expand on it.”
But while Applebaum waxed poetic about The Rink, an appearance by Jack Nicklaus during this year’s Canadian Open, and the excitable crowds, there is still a question of where the Canadian Open fits on the PGA Tour’s schedule moving forward.
Right now it comes the week after the Open Championship, and most of the game’s top players usually take a pass – Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy have never played, for example, and Jason Day played for the few years he was sponsored by RBC. This year, his first year without RBC branding, he did not play – due to scheduling.
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Graham DeLaet took to Twitter to express his displeasure at the PGA Tour, not giving RBC – which sponsors two PGA Tour tournaments, the only company to do so – some better treatment with respect to scheduling.
“Couple tournies (sic) still without a sponsor for 17/18 schedule, Yet, CDN Open date can’t be moved despite RBC sponsoring TWO Tour events?” he wrote, after the Associated Press reported one of the FedEx Cup playoff events (the one that takes place in Boston) will likely be eliminated from the schedule entirely after 2018, and The Greenbrier Classic, held in July, will move to the fall.
The date of the Greenbrier, which is now two weeks prior to the Open Championship, would be a prime spot for the Canadian Open if a shake-up was to take place in 2019.
“They could reshuffle some of the dates,” said Applebaum.
But Applebaum said the 2018 schedule is already confirmed, meaning the Canadian Open won’t be moving next year.
“We’ve had really good dialogue with the PGA Tour about options on 2019 and beyond… 2018 is set,” he said. “(The PGA Tour, Golf Canada) and RBC. The three of us together are working really hard. It’s premature to speculate on anything. I’m optimistic about anything going on in the future.”
One thing that does remain to be seen about the Canadian Open’s future is who will be at the helm of the event.
This year, in a surprise move, Golf Canada removed tournament director Brent McLaughlin from his position on Friday evening, with two days left in the tournament.
McLaughlin, who was also the tournament director for this week’s CP Women’s Open, is not here. Instead, it’s Bill Paul – the organization’s chief championships officer and a 20-plus-year veteran of Golf Canada – who is leading the show, as he did on the weekend of the Canadian Open.
“We’re very fortunate to have Bill. He’s done a wonderful job,” said Applebaum. “We have a laundry list of things we need to go through for our debrief. We’re going to run this event and then make some plans for 2018.”
