Nearly three years ago, Rory McIlroy walked off the devilish 18th hole at Hamilton Golf and Country Club, raised his hands to the applauding crowd and went to sign his card that cemented his win at the RBC Canadian Open.
His victory capped a magical week. The weather was ideal, and the course looked stunning. Crowds came in droves, with thousands taking in the newly launched concert series in the evenings. And then McIlroy blasted his way to a 9-under final round to run to the top of the leaderboard, giving the tournament a superstar winner. Finally set in its new June date ahead of the U.S. Open, the RBC Canadian Open was on the rise. Momentum was building.
And then … nothing.
COVID-19 and border restrictions led to cancellation of the 2020 tournament at St. George’s, and then more uncertainty derailed last year’s playing. The PGA Tour went forward, but the Canadian Open sat in stasis, awaiting the day when the government would allow fans and players to return to the fairways.
Bryan Crawford knows the disappointment firsthand. Crawford had just completed his first full year as tournament director for the RBC Canadian Open when the pandemic hit, leaving him playing a waiting game for the next two years. Though it was clear that 2020 likely was a bust from the start for the tournament, 2021 held signs of hope. Then that went south as well.
“We weren’t sure what would happen, and we did tons of government-relations work trying to make sure we could safely play,” Crawford said of last year’s attempt.
It wasn’t to be, and the tournament was canceled three months out, allowing the PGA Tour to find a replacement.
This year is different, even if questions still linger. Spectator stands and the footprints for corporate tents already are being set up at St. George’s, as the tournament returns to the vaunted Toronto venue for the first time since 2010. McIlroy has confirmed he’s coming back to defend, and Scottie Scheffler, the newly minted Masters champ and world No. 1, is supposed to be in the field as well. And the Team RBC players – Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson, Matt Kuchar and others – will be in Canada for the tournament. And it's a given that the top Canadians – Corey Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Adam Hadwin, among others – surely will be there, as well.
“It was frustrating to lose the momentum we built up, and it was deflating at the time. But now we are in a spot where we feel we are fine, and I think the Canadian Open is in a great position.”
Bryan Crawford
Crawford isn’t particularly anxious about the possibility of any issues going ahead. Though Canada shut its borders to golf for two years, the PGA Tour played on. The players have spent 24 months getting used to playing tournament golf with COVID as an ever-present factor.
“I think the players are comfortable with this situation, as they’ve been traveling and dealing with it,” Crawford said. “They know how to function in this environment.”
The positives are many. Ticket sales have been brisk, and corporate support has been strong. Crawford says pent-up demand and the game’s resurgent popularity should fill the ropes with fans. And if that doesn’t work, there are always the concerts – the tattooed pop of Maroon 5, and the inoffensive party hip hop of Flo Rida – to capture the interests of those looking for a day of sports and entertainment.
Crawford is hoping to average 25,000 fans over the four tournament days, which would be a significant jump from the last time the tournament was held at St. George’s and struggled to draw crowds. However, at that time the event was mired in a challenging summer date in the week after the Open Championship, and there was concern that getting to and from St. George’s, which is located in a residential area of west Toronto, would be trouble. In truth, Golf Canada, which runs the tournament, had no problem ferrying fans around, and the new June date is a vast improvement. It also doesn’t hurt that St. George’s is a classic parkland course – and a regular among top-100 lists in the world – making it a perfect primer for the U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, in the next week. The hope is some unexpected players will make a game-time decision to come to Toronto.
That’s not to say there aren’t any concerns. Will any of the best on the PGA Tour skip the event out of concern about travel restrictions? Surely some players might be put off by mandates that, as of now, still require testing. And there’s a potential that some ill-informed players, worried that COVID could keep them from the U.S. Open at Brookline, might stay away from Canada’s only PGA Tour event.
Crawford isn’t worried that somehow a golf tournament will have lost ground to other sports. Most pro sports struggled in Canada during the past two years, only returning in the second half of 2021. Golf should benefit from the renewed interest and pent-up demand.
“It was frustrating to lose the momentum we built up, and it was deflating at the time,” Crawford said. “But now we are in a spot where we feel we are fine, and I think the Canadian Open is in a great position.”
The tagline for the tournament – “Summer’s Open” – with its double entendre, is an ideal way to relaunch the tournament. It’ll sit on the cusp of what many hope finally is a great Canadian summer. If COVID hasn’t fully disappeared – and who expects that? – at least it’ll have faded to the background.
And Crawford isn’t the only one hoping headlines about ICU visits will be replaced by coverage of McIlroy bombing drivers on one of the country’s most celebrated courses. With next year’s tournament scheduled only a short drive away at Oakdale, an equally old-school classic course, the Canadian Open could well make up the ground lost by two years of cancellations. And after a thousand days away, there’s a lot of catching up to do.
Top: Rory McIlroy delivers a marquee champion to the RBC Canadian Open in 2019 before pandemic shutdowns.
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