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Laurence Applebaum is putting on a brave face.
When it comes to the RBC Canadian Open, the chief executive officer of Golf Canada describes himself as optimistic, despite having to cancel the tournament last week for the second consecutive year.
On one hand, the loss is hard to measure. What opportunities disappear when Rory McIlroy doesn’t get to come to Canada to defend a title for two years? What momentum was lost? And what does it mean to Canadian golf when the best in the sport don’t venture north for three years?
Without doubt, concerning questions. Of course, there’s also the financial hit – $35 million (CDN) slashed from Golf Canada’s revenue in 2020 due to the cancellation of its main two professional tournaments. And there’s still the very real possibility that could happen again this year if the CP Women’s Open is shuttered.
But it isn’t all glass-half-empty. Even as the two tournaments were put in mothballs with PGA and LPGA tour pros unable to cross into Canada due to the pandemic, Applebaum and Golf Canada witnessed the resurgence of golf in the country. It became the game to play, largely unhindered by lockdowns and other COVID-19 issues. Canadians flocked to the fairways, and Golf Canada is now trying to determine the best way to help keep them playing the game, especially those returning or new to the sport.
With that in mind, it is easy to see why Applebaum has mixed feelings about what’s happened to his organization in the past year.
“Here we are, seeing growth in the game that we haven’t seen since Tiger (Woods) appeared 25 years ago,” he says. “How do we keep these people in the game?”
Certainly, Applebaum is disappointed in what’s happened to the Canadian Open. In 2020, and again this year, the tournament was to return to Toronto’s vaunted St. George’s Golf and Country Club, recognized as one of the best courses in the world. The tournament was building off massive crowds that made the 2019 event such a success, when a mix of McIlroy’s performance and post-tournament concerts saw spectators turn out in big numbers at Hamilton Golf and Country Club.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, with its border closings and shutdowns, Golf Canada was hoping against hope that somehow it could hold this year’s tournament in June, the week ahead of the U.S. Open. It truly never looked promising from the outside, though Applebaum says federal and provincial governments in Canada were supportive. There was the nearly insurmountable issue of getting athletes across the border, which has been closed to everything but essential traffic since last year. Under current rules, if PGA Tour golfers were to come to Canada, they would have to quarantine for two weeks. That pretty much made the event a non-starter. Besides, a PGA Tour event is like a travelling road show with hundreds of golfers, caddies, television crews, support and event staff that make a tournament work seamlessly. And there was just no way all of those people were getting into Canada given the current circumstance.
So now what?
Applebaum and his team don’t have long to stop and ponder their situation. The CP Women’s Open, the other big event on Golf Canada’s schedule, is set to be played at the end of August at Vancouver’s Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club, immediately following the Olympics. While that might seem a long way away, as Golf Canada is well aware, tough issues will have to be addressed if the tournament is to be saved.
“Time in COVID sometimes feels like dog years – one week equals seven,” Applebaum jokes. “But there is still some time before decisions have to be made.”
There’s more flexibility in the LPGA Tour schedule, Applebaum notes, unlike the PGA Tour, which is on every week. And there is time – 60 to 90 days to observe how vaccine distribution curbs the spread of COVID-19, and how the government reacts if cases fall.
Already considerations are being put in motion for next year’s RBC Canadian Open. St. George’s members have to vote again to support hosting the tournament. That decision will impact what happens with other potential sites – namely Oakdale Golf & Country Club, which was expected to host in 2022 before a return to Hamilton.
Of course, there’s also the issue of the Royal Bank of Canada, which has supported the tournament since 2007. The bank’s deal with the Canadian Open ends in 2023. Applebaum wouldn’t say what the two cancellations have done to RBC’s deal. Regardless, there’s obviously considerations around a renewal, though the bank hasn’t given any indication it isn’t committed to the tournament. If anything, RBC’s influence in golf has increased, and the public’s renewed interest in the sport likely helps support a decision to continue sponsoring the Canadian Open.
For Applebaum, the best scenario is golf’s resurgence continuing, a vaccine allowing the CP Women’s Open to move ahead in August, and prep starting almost immediately for the men’s tournament to return to St. George’s next year.
In the meantime, Golf Canada has little control of what comes next. All Applebaum can hope is vaccines make the virus disappear, borders reopen and Golf Canada’s professional tournaments pick up where they left off.
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