It could be the dawning of a new era for Canada’s most important golf tournament.
The PGA Tour is poised to unveil revolutionary changes to its massive, complex schedule for 2019, ones that could rescue the historic Canadian event from the purgatory it has been locked into for more than a decade.
This could be good. Really, really good. But like a blind date, no sense in getting too excited before we get a look at ya.
We already know some of the changes coming. The PGA Championship is being moved from its current position as the fourth major of the season in August, seemingly untethered to the other three, to becoming the season’s second major in May.
That’s big. That’s a seismic shift. Starting next year, it will be The Masters, then the PGA, then the U.S. Open and finally the Open Championship.
After that, it will be a more orderly run up to the Fed Ex playoffs and the so-called “fall season,” culminating with the Tour Championship in September.
All done by the beginning of the NFL season, if all goes according to plan.
That’s the big picture stuff. Underneath that super-structure, there are many dominos, many moving pieces, many corporate and competitive rivalries being played out to acquire the most coveted dates on the golf calendar.
Speculation is intense. But there’s a growing belief that Canada has won a much more prestigious place on the PGA Tour schedule starting next year.
Specifically, industry sources tell Sportsnet early indications are that the RBC Canadian Open will move next year from the week after the Open Championship in July to the much-coveted week before the U.S Open in June. If that happens – and there are furious negotiations still taking place – it could transform the Canadian event from an afterthought on Tour to a marquee event starting in 2019.
Golf Canada CEO Laurence Applebaum either can’t or won’t say what’s in the offing, but he’s promising good news is on the way.
“We are eager to look at options for us to consider,” says Applebaum. “There’s been an amazing amount of speculation and interest in our date. I can tell you we’re at the table.”
PGA Tour etiquette requires that Applebaum stay mum until the Tour is ready to announce something. Rumours have suggested for months that new PGA Tour boss Jay Monahan was going to unveil the new schedule this week at the Players Championship, but Applebaum says he isn’t expecting Canada to learn its fate at that time.
“It was never a date on my calendar when we were going to find something out,” he says. “The calendar is the toughest thing the commissioner does.”
What is known is that the 2019 RBC Canadian Open will be at the much-loved Hamilton Golf and Country Club.
Membership at that club has already voted and approved of holding the tournament. After this year at the esteemed Glen Abbey layout, Golf Canada will start backing away from the doomed Oakville, ON course, which seems certain to fall to the developer’s steam shovel in the next few years.
If Hamilton is the first to hold the RBC Canadian Open at a new slot preceding the U.S. Open, it could be a transformative event. If you define tournaments by the Tiger Woods system of measurement, the fact he hasn’t teed up in a Canadian Open since 2001 is a painful symbol for Golf Canada.
Now imagine Tiger next year in Steeltown, home of the Tiger-Cats, to take on the best of the PGA Tour and kick off some promising new beginnings for the Canadian Open.
What could be more perfect?
For a decade, the Canadian Open has been locked into the week after the Open Championship, about as bad a spot as can be had, with many of the best in the game looking to take a week off as they return from Europe. That’s produced a second-class field – “fairly miserable,” according to close observers of the event – and the overall profile of a second- or even third-tier tournament.
RBC stepped in as a title sponsor after Bell stepped out, but that hasn’t yet helped the third oldest national championship in the world reclaim its former glory. The notion that this was once considered the sport’s “fifth major” seems as dipped in waxy nostalgia now as remembering when the Dodgers played in Brooklyn.
The money is good in Canada, with a purse of US $6.5 million this year, but Glen Abbey hasn’t been an attraction on its own, and the timing is lousy. Golf Canada has been playing into the wind for years.
But with RBC the title sponsor of not just one but two tour events – Canada and The Heritage tournament in Hilton Head – there’s long been a belief that the PGA Tour has to respect the commitment RBC has made and give it something better on the calendar with which to work.
There’s really no point in considering any Canadian Open dates before the middle of May at the earliest. So while the Houston Open at the end of March doesn’t have a title sponsor and seems likely to be replaced by the Valero Texas Open the week before The Masters, that slot doesn’t fit for Canada.
There are five weeks between the U.S. Open and the Open Championship, and five tournaments. The second of those is The National in Washington, D.C., but that also now doesn’t have a title sponsor and is in limbo.
There’s speculation Detroit could get that tournament. The week after that is the Greenbrier Classic in West Virginia, and there’s talk of that event moving to the fall. Either of those dates would be better for Canada than what it has now.
But the plum choice, the biggest opportunity, has to be the week before the U.S. Open. That’s currently occupied by the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis. But that tournament is becoming a World Golf Championships event in 2019, likely replacing the Bridgestone Invitational, currently held in the first week of August.
| Week | 2018 PGA Tour Schedule | 2019 Schedule (Projected) |
|---|---|---|
| MAY 31 – JUN 3 | The Memorial (Dublin, OH) | The Memorial (Dublin, OH) |
| JUN 7 – 10 | FedEx St. Jude Classic (Memphis, TN) | RBC Canadian Open (Hamilton, ON) |
| JUN 14 – 17 | U.S. Open (Southampton, NY) | U.S. Open (Monterrey, CA) |
| JUN 21 – 24 | Travelers Championship (Cromwell, CT) | Travelers Championship (Cromwell, CT) |
| JUN 28 – JUL 1 | The National (Potomac, MD) | ?? (Possibly a new Tour event in Detroit, MI) |
Industry observers suggest the first week of June would be the answer to Golf Canada’s most fervent prayers.
“I like the week before U.S. Open,” says former PGA touring pro Ian Leggatt. “Theoretically, you know the locations of the U.S. Open years in advance, and you could plan ahead and move the Canadian tournament around the country for a geographical fit. It could increase the quality of field dramatically.”
Golf insiders say Golf Canada could even plan to host the event at courses similar to that year’s U.S. Open location, and with layouts specifically designed to allow the best in the game to prepare for what, by then, will be the third major of the golf season.
For Canada, re-establishing itself as the fifth major isn’t possible. The re-design of the Tour schedule will create a structure in which there’s a marquee event every month starting in March with The Players. Then comes The Masters in April, the PGA in May, the U.S. Open in June, and the Open Championship in July.
The best Golf Canada can hope for is to be the second biggest event in one of those months. June seems to offer that chance, while opening a whole new world for the tournament.
Leaving the Canadian event where it is now would be a major slight to RBC, almost unthinkable, really. RBC not only sponsors two PGA events, but also underwrites Team RBC, a stable of golfers led by world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, tour veterans Jim Furyk, Matt Kuchar, Graeme McDowell and Brandt Snedeker, and Canadians like Adam Hadwin and Graham DeLaet.
For his part, Applebaum certainly isn’t issuing any ultimatums.
“The market is eager to hear some new news,” he says. “We’re working to make the RBC Canadian Open a world class event, turn it into something that’s on people’s calendars year after year. We’re really optimistic.”
