{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
Corey Conners is collecting lots of Masters memories, if not a green jacket just yet. The 29-year-old from Listowel, Ontario, shared eighth place Sunday in his fourth and most-promising career appearance at Augusta National Golf Club.
Conners made a hole-in-one during the third round and an eagle during the second round to help put him into contention going into Sunday’s final round. The achievements, each of which earned him crystal, followed his 10th-place finish in the 2020 Masters, in which he shot a second-round 65, the lowest score posted in the event’s history by a Canadian.
His ace, with an 8-iron, was just the sixth in Masters history at the par-3 sixth hole, which was playing 184 yards on Saturday.
Fellow Canadian entrant Mike Weir, who missed the cut but stuck around for the weekend, was on the grounds when he heard a distant roar from the Augusta National patrons, who were limited in numbers this year because of the pandemic but typically enthusiastic. Weir said he snuck a peek at his cellphone to learn of the noise’s source.
The roar also excited Conners’ friends and family at his home Listowel Golf Club and other family members around the world, including a twin sister in Ireland.
Conners, a one-time PGA Tour winner, entered Sunday’s final round in sixth place at 6-under-par 210 after progressively better rounds of 73, 69 and 68. He was five shots off the third-round lead of Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama, who went on to win his first Masters and major title.
Conners birdied the second hole Sunday to raise his prospects but a bogey-bogey-double bogey-bogey stretch beginning at the fifth hole essentially ended his chances. He shot 74 Sunday. Still, it’s clear Augusta National is a course that suits a superlative iron player and the Masters is a tournament that doesn’t faze him. “I am more comfortable than I have ever been,” he said before the opening round.
With his top-12 finish, he is guaranteed another Masters invitation next year.
The third Canadian in the field, Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ontario, finished at 4 over, in a tie for 40th place.
The Augusta National Women’s Amateur didn’t go the way Brigitte Thibault had hoped, but it still provided a special moment as her amateur career winds down.
The 22-year-old from Rosemère, Quebec, missed the cut in her second appearance at the nascent tournament and acknowledges her scores hit her “like a truck.”
In an interview from California’s Fresno State, where she’s a senior and has a handful of U.S. collegiate tournaments left this season, she said, “It was probably some of my worst golf in three to four years.”
But Canada’s top female amateur said she left feeling proud of the way she handled her emotions in shooting 77-80 in the first two rounds, and believes the learning experience will help her as she finishes her amateur career and steps toward the professional ranks. She plans to enter the LPGA Tour’s qualifying school this fall, then make a decision on whether to turn pro.
She foresees a summer schedule of North American amateur events, as overseas travel might be limited because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has committed to returning to Fresno for a fifth year to wrap up her studies. If she makes the tour and turns pro, she can defer joining until her schooling is behind her. If she stays amateur, a third trip to Augusta National isn’t out of the question.
Hamilton Golf and Country Club members have voted in favour of holding the RBC Canadian Open in 2024.
The private club in Ancaster, Ontario, was set to hold the national championship in 2023 but the COVID-19 pandemic set off a series of changes to the event’s rotation.
Last week, members agreed to delay the club’s hosting duties by a year. The move also will give it time to polish extensive course renovations, which began last year and continue. The 2020 and 2021 Canadian Opens were cancelled because of the pandemic.
St. George’s in Toronto had signed on to hold the event in those years but now will take on 2022 duties. Organizers at Golf Canada haven’t announced the 2023 venue but Oakdale in Toronto is widely expected to be the choice.
The cancellation of this year’s RBC Canadian Open has left a hole in the PGA Tour schedule in June. But it will be filled by a tournament June 10-13 at Congaree Golf Club in South Carolina. The name and title sponsor have not been announced.
The tournament will be a coming out for the course, a 2017 Tom Fazio design founded by a pair of Texas billionaires. Despite its exclusivity, it has a stated social mission to provide educational, vocational and golf instruction to underprivileged youth. Golf Digest says Congaree also had ambitions to stage the 2026 Presidents Cup.
Golf courses and driving ranges in Ontario are allowed to be open despite emergency stay-at-home orders imposed by the province last week to combat the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With cases surging, hospital intensive-care units reaching capacity and virus variants now dominating, the provincial government issued its third state of emergency since the pandemic began.
“Unless it’s for an essential reason, please stay home,” Premier Doug Ford said in announcing the four-week shutdown, which tightened already-existing restrictions. “We need to hunker down right now.”
Non-essential stores, restaurant dining rooms, gyms and personal-care services are among the businesses that are shuttered. But Ontario’s 800 courses are free to open or stay open. Seen as safe havens, set outdoors where physical distancing is possible, they largely stayed operating during last year’s golf season, too.
However, the industry remains aware it’s in a precarious situation. The PGA of Ontario issued two statements last week urging courses to be vigilant in enforcing safety protocols, which include closed clubhouses, distancing enforcement and, new this year, mask-wearing in carts for two players from different households.
The association acknowledged it has received complaints of courses ignoring the rules, and added, “Golf facilities must demonstrate leadership in these areas if we want to continue to be recognized as a safe, outdoor activity.”
A Toronto-area club with two courses ranked in Canada’s top 25 isn’t resting on its laurels – under new ownership, it has rebranded, embarked on multimillion-dollar renovations and is offering a unique investment opportunity for members.
An investor group, managed by real estate investment company Longridge Partners, purchased the Devil’s Pulpit Golf Association in Caledon, Ontario, last year, and already is busy with its transformation. It has rebranded the DPGA as the Pulpit Club and shortened the name of its two courses to just the Pulpit and the Paintbrush, from the Devil’s Pulpit and Devil’s Paintbrush.
The modern, parkland Pulpit has undergone major bunker renovations. The club also is offering a “partner membership” in which members can buy a stake in the club’s properties, not just the courses, making it a real-estate investment as much as a golf investment.
Longridge has assembled a property portfolio that includes not just the two golf courses but land adjacent to the courses and another 500-acre site that has permission for building additional courses and lodging. The club’s long-term plans include adding housing and club amenities to make it family-friendly with year-round activities.
Mike Weir’s rejuvenated career has led to new business opportunities, one of which was on display last week at the Masters. Canadian big-box retailer Golf Town added Weir to its roster of sponsored players. He joins Canada’s LPGA Tour star Brooke Henderson and long-drive champion Lisa “Longball” Vlooswyk.
Weir sported the retailer’s logo on his golf bag last week as he made his 22nd appearance in the major tournament, which he won in 2003. He’s now 50 and, after years of struggles, has found better form on PGA Tour Champions, where he has five top-10 finishes since joining the senior circuit last August.
“I’m at the stage in the game that I can offer a lot with partnerships because I have time to do things,” he said last week. “There’s a lot more exposure for me on the Champions Tour and there’s a lot of positive momentum going on with my game.”
Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada plans to return to action this year despite the lingering travel uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It cancelled its entire 2020 season but is hopeful it can safely offer a schedule this year.
To that end, the developmental circuit has been conducting its qualifying schools to award more playing cards – six of the Q-schools were held in the United States, with the seventh and final one set for late May in Courtenay, British Columbia.
Canadian Wil Bateman is among the players who have earned cards for this season. An exact schedule has not been announced yet, but events typically number a dozen and begin on the West Coast in late spring. Meanwhile, the Canada-U.S. border continues to have restricted access and many provinces have limited interprovincial travel, advised against it or established quarantine periods for those who enter.
E-Mail Jeff