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RBC Canadian Open now has heavy hand at bargaining table
Just hours after RBC announced a couple of weeks back that it was set to put their money with their mouth is in getting behind Canadian golf, I, like many others, referred to RBC as one of the major players in Canadian golf.
I’ll take a mulligan. They are now THE player.
From the official release naming RBC as an official patron of the PGA of America:
”This partnership represents an exceptional opportunity and an ideal platform to reach our target market and to build the RBC brand in the U.S. and internationally,” said Jim Little, Chief Brand and Communications Officer, RBC. “We have taken a purposeful approach to building our golf program and we are proud to step up as the Official Bank of The PGA of America. This relationship opens the door to significant benefits, including brand exposure with a highly attractive audience, client hospitality and new business development potential with thousands of members of The PGA of America.”
By lining up with some pretty powerful allies in golf – in this case, the PGA of America – RBC is sending a message they are ready to for primetime.
Of course, thanks to their rather rapid ascent up golf’s food chain, RBC is going to hold a pretty heavy hand at the boardroom table when the PGA Tour gets around to renewing the contract for the RBC Canadian Open.
As Bob Weeks at ScoreGolf pointed out after chatting with Little at the PGA Merchandise Show, the RBC won’t be pushing the PGA Tour for a more attractive date prior to their current pact ending two years from now. But rest assured, it’s near the top of RBC’s to-do list. The moment the current deal runs out, you can bet the phone will be ringing in Tim Finchem’s Office.
Getting the Canadian Open back to its glory days, with a whole lot of help from the gang at Golf House, is priority number one for RBC. That starts with a better date, leading more name players to make the trip north.
For now, there are probably a few more surprises coming out of the RBC head office as we make our way towards spring. If they are looking to make another splash before then, I am sure Rick Janes over at the Canadian Tour won’t create much of a fuss if Little and RBC come knocking on his door with a title sponsorship offer.
But the events of the past couple of weeks are nothing but good news for the RBC Canadian Open.
Dave Matthews gets well-deserved honour
Somewhere, you know Dave Matthews was smiling.
The RCGA recently announced that Matthews, who worked tirelessly at various professional events in this country over the years, had been named their 2009 Volunteer of the Year.
Sadly, Matthews never had the chance to accept the award. He passed away last fall after a brief, courageous battle with cancer.
From the RCGA release:
The late Dave Matthews of St. Catherines Ont. was recognized as the RCGA’s Volunteer of the Year. 2009 marked the fourth year for this initiative which recognizes individuals in the golf community whose tireless efforts and dedication help to grow the game in Canada.
Matthews was a native of Truro, N.S. and lived in Noranda, Que., Toronto and finally St. Catharine’s, Ont. where he became a proud member of St. Catharines Golf & Country Club.
Throughout the years, Matthews volunteered as Chairman for the Canadian Tour Championship, served as volunteer committee chairman for RCGA professional events since the 2001 Canadian Women’s Open at Angus Glen and up until the 2009 RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Club.
Matthews was diagnosed with terminal cancer three weeks prior to the Canadian Tour championship, an event he worked diligently to pull together. Sadly, he passed away less than a week after the event.
Matthews epitomized the real driving force behind a professional golf tournament, regardless of the tour. Players, naturally, get the headlines and are the main attraction while the volunteers, for the most part, are happy to stay behind the scenes, making sure even last ‘i’ is dotted, every last ‘t’ crossed.
Volunteers are all too happy to put in endless hours during tournament week, while volunteer chairs like Matthews spend months coordinating their committees prior to the tournament. Usually they do it for a golf shirt and a work’s worth of sandwiches. If they get really lucky, they may get a couple of player autographs on their ball cap.
Adding a special touch to the RCGA’s release was the note that Matthews was a driving force behind the successful Canadian Tour Championship. In all my years with the Canadian Tour, one constant – at least with the more established events – was the countless number of volunteers that turned out, year after year in locales like Victoria, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Barrie and Montreal, giving up a week of their time – and often much more – to make the tournament a success. For the simple love of the sport.
Something Dave Matthews showed, year after year.
Five to watch at the Farmers Insurance Open
Torrey Pines (both of ‘em) is the site for this week’s Tigerless, almost sponsorless Buick Invitational Farmers Insurance Open.
Given the title, we’re not taking the bait – we refuse top put country bumpkin Boo Weekley as one to watch. Just too easy.
We are, however, running with these five as players to keep an eye on starting Thursday:
GRAHAM DELAET
OK, so slap that big ol’ “homer” label right on our forehead. We’re going with the long bomber from Saskatchewan just to keep people interested. Well, that and the fact no one else is taking him in their previews because, quite frankly, most have no idea who he is. We do. Torrey Pines demands a lot of length off the tee – which DeLaet, ranked inside the top ten in early-season PGA Tour driving distance, certainly has. The rook has held his own early on, racking up top-25 showings in both his starts. No doubt DeLaet is an obvious darkhorse pick here, but once in a while Cinderella finds her way to the ball, right?
BUBBA WATSON
Another long bomber, Watson could go either way after yet another close call Monday in the final round of the Bob Hope. For those keeping count, that is four runner-up showings for the Bub, who just seems to have a tough time closing one of these things out. Watson has top-ten finishes at this event in two of the past three years, when it was known as the Buick Invitational (T4, T7). We’re betting he is ready to make a push at getting rid of the bridesmaid’s tag once and for all this week.
ERNIE ELS
Sixteen PGA Tour wins, but just one since 2004. So why is The Big Easy one to watch at Torrey Pines? Well, he’s played the Buick Invitational just once in his life, finishing T6 five years ago. Seeing how he’ll stay on this side of the pond until at least May, this could be a week he turns it up a notch. Now’s the time to leave little doubt he can keep pace with the best on the planet.
NICK WATNEY
Watney is the defending champion, but he has been a bit of an enigma here. Dating back to ’05, here is his docket at this event: MC, T49, T9, MC, Won. Just one start in 2010 (T16 at the SBS Championship) so Watney will be well-rested as he looks to go back-to-back – and we’re not doubting the defending champ this week.
PHIL MICKELSON
Gee, here’s a shocker, huh? Lefty makes his season debut and for the foreseeable future will be out of Tiger’s shadow. In fact, all eyes are now on Phil, beginning this week. Mickelson’s won three times in 20 starts at Torrey Pines and, for those who need a refresher, he did win the TOUR Championship a few months back. When it comes to players to watch lists this week, this is about as close to a no-brainer as you’ll get.
Canadian Tour, FUTURES Tour prospects banking on RBC help
As mentioned in this very space last week, there is no telling just how profound a long-term impact the RBC’s enhanced involvement in Canadian golf will have but it’s a safe bet it will be quite substantial.
RBC has bucked up in a big way, and now one of the lingering questions will be how many players – at least when it comes to young professionals – are going to get their finger in the pie.
News that players such as Graham DeLaet, Chris Baryla, Samantha Richdale and Lisa Meldrum will be among the first to benefit from the RBC’s initiatives isn’t overly surprising, given the progress the four have made in the past year.
But are there more, lesser-known players in line for support?
Scanning the RBC/RCGA release last week, one excerpt jumped out at me more than the others:
Beginning in 2010, RBC has created a new initiative to support emerging Canadian professionals making the transition to the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour — including 2010 graduates Graham DeLaet and Chris Baryla on the PGA TOUR, and Lisa Meldrum and Samantha Richdale on the LPGA Tour — by providing a combination of funding and tailored, comprehensive financial planning and private banking services through its RBC Sports Professionals program. Athletes who elect to sign up for the program will become RBC ambassadors and carry corporate branding on.
Just hours after RBC’s surprise announcement, I merely scratched the surface on what “emerging Canadian professionals” actually meant. To find those players, the program is going to have to reach out to them long before they get to the big leagues, as DeLaet, Meldrum, Baryla and Richdale have. Keeping them there is one thing.
Helping them get there is quite another.
Imagine Sidney Crosby or John Tavares not being given every last resource available to them prior to their respective NHL draft days. It would almost seem sacreligious in this country, wouldn’t it?
With the RBC backing the RCGA national development program and the elite up-and-coming professionals in this country, it would seem at first glance that all the bases are covered – until reality sets in of a substantial learning curve that has to be negotiated before the road comes out at the PGA or LPGA Tour.
And that gap has swallowed up many players before they fully realized their full potential.
Regardless of the promise that a Matt Hill, Nick Taylor or Jennifer Kirby may show, the reality is, at one point, they are likely going to spend some time sharpening their claws on a feeder circuit such as the Canadian or FUTURES Tour, rooming with others to make ends meet. One could make a strong case that the Nationwide Tour can be put on that list but an above-average player can make a pretty decent annual wage on that tour – not to mention a direct pass straight to the PGA Tour. Case in point, Chris Baryla earned over $217,000 on the Nationwide in 2009 while Dustin Risdon placed 37th on the money list with over $150,000.
Some never make it that far. James Lepp, who became the first Canadian to win the NCAA individual championship in 2005, had won twice on the Canadian Tour before his 24th birthday and was out of the game by his 26th. Granted, Lepp, who now runs a trendy golf shoe business in BC, suffered from the yips, which likely caused him to throw in the towel earlier than he wanted. That said, if someone had been there to give him that little nudge and Lepp made it to, say, the Nationwide Tour – a circuit he was fully capable of excelling on – it’s hard to imagine Lepp putting the cleats away for good. Matt McQuillan of Kingston, a former Canadian amateur star, also enjoyed success on the Canadian Tour, shooting 17-under to win in Edmonton five years ago. Like Lepp, McQuillan, out of money and out of sponsors, walked away from the game for a couple of years before making a return to the Canadian Tour in 2009.
These are the players that need that help. Of course, the tough part could be separating the contenders from the pretenders, which is why a logical approach could be the top four off the Canadian and FUTURES Tour money lists could automatically benefit from the RBC program.
Last year, those players from the Canadian Tour would have been DeLaet, Stuart Anderson, Ryan Yip and James Love. On the FUTURES Tour, you would have been looking at Richdale, Meldrum, Angela Buzminski and Jessica Shepley.
That’s a pretty impressive list of up-and-comers. Then again, without the support and backing, there is a chance many of them will fade away, never to reach that potential.
During the Canadian Tour’s Desjardins Montreal Open over the past couple of years, a provincial program dangled an attractive carrot for Quebec-born players where the top finishers in the tournament had their PGA Tour and/or Canadian Tour Q-School entry fees paid for. It was a little extra incentive for Quebec players.
And it proved to those players that, if they put in the hard work necessary and showed results in just that one week, they’d get that support.
The RBC program can do the same for players at the national level, so there are no more talented players giving up on their dream far too early.
RBC announcement should change face of Canadian golf
If there was ever any doubt, RBC is now one of the biggest players in Canadian golf.
And we aren’t just talking on a sponsorship level.
For the most part it came without warning, but RBC floored an awful lot of people with the announcement Thursday they were backing up the Brinks truck to the back door of Golf House.
The current sponsor of Canada’s national championship – and one of the more secure sponsors the PGA Tour has, no less – RBC is now upping their involvement in golf in a big-time manner – and not just at the professional level.
From the release:
Already the title sponsor for Canada’s national golf championship, the RBC Canadian Open, RBC will help fund Team Canada, the Royal Canadian Golf Association’s high performance national amateur golf team program. RBC will also contribute support to the resurgence of Canada’s national amateur golf championships, conducted by the RCGA.
RBC also announced plans to deepen its relationships with Canada’s emerging and established touring professionals.
RBC is creating a new initiative to help young male and female professional golfers make the jump to the professional ranks on the PGA and LPGA Tours. Beginning in 2010, RBC has created a new initiative to support emerging Canadian professionals making the transition to the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour — including 2010 graduates Graham DeLaet and Chris Baryla on the PGA TOUR, and Lisa Meldrum and Samantha Richdale on the LPGA Tour — by providing a combination of funding and tailored, comprehensive financial planning and private banking services through its RBC Sports Professionals program. Athletes who elect to sign up for the program will become RBC ambassadors and carry corporate branding on their golf bags as they compete each week on the world’s stage.
As part of their new involvement, RBC will now bankroll the men’s and women’s Canadian amateur championships, hoping to bring back some of the lustre to the tournaments and get mentioned in the same sentence as the higher-profile U.S. and British ams. RBC will also help pick up the tab for the RCGA’s underappreciated national development program. Players like Matt Hill, Nick Taylor and Jennifer Kirby, three youngsters coming off dominating amateur seasons, are sure to benefit from a program that is even more stable today than it was yesterday. For all the criticism the national program seems to take, there aren’t many around to give kudos when one of its graduates – say, a Graham DeLaet – enjoys a breakthrough pro season and high-tails it to the PGA Tour.
With RBC now involved in the program, expect the cynics to not be nearly as vocal.
Aside from the announcement that Mike Weir and Stephen Ames have joined Team RBC, there was also some welcome news on the pro front when it was unveiled that Canada’s up-and-coming professionals should get their piece of the RBC pie. Players like DeLaet, Chris Baryla, Lisa Meldrum and Samantha Richdale are sure to capitalize on new funding initiatives offered by the RBC Sports Professionals program. One can only assume – and hope – that the program will filter down golf’s food chain to support players on feeder circuits like the Canadian, Nationwide and FUTURES Tours. Those are the players that, for the most part, are in serious need of financial help before, as Canadian Tour Commissioner Rick Janes tends to point out, they fall through the cracks.
You’ve got to hand it to RBC. For all the whining that goes on in this country about trying to fix what ails the sport, at least one corporate giant – albeit one with some pretty deep pockets to begin with – is putting their money where their proverbial mouth is.
RBC is now THE player in Canadian golf – and one has to think they’re not quite done yet.
Yikes…even Daly having fun at Tiger’s expense…
Wasn’t it only yesterday – and by that we mean more literally than figuratively – that most of the golf world was shaking their head in sympathy at one John Daly?
Well, either that or outright laughing.
You know, the same Big John that had a tough time finding his way out of a Hooters restaurant. Or lost his temper and smashed a fan’s camera against a tree in Australia. Or was hawking his wares from his tour bus outside the front gate at Augusta National during the Masters. Or…well, you get the idea.
My, how the tables have turned. Seems the gang over at Sports Soup saw an opening and corralled JD to do a standup bit taking aim at this other guy who has been having his own fair share of personal issues away from the tee deck. Maybe you’ve heard of him.
Hey, if you can’t make fun of the best player on the planet when he isn’t around to humiliate you by ten or twelve shots, who can you make fun of, right?
Oh, and JD isn’t all that bad when it comes to that standup thing. Seeing how his golf game is going these days, he may want to keep that career change option on the front burner.
Perhaps even more impressive than Daly’s comedy prowess is the fact they were able to keep him out of Hooters long enough to do that shoot.
Speaking of poking fun at Tiger, Cameron Morfit of Golf.com takes a look at the next golf wardrobe must-have in the PGA Tour Confidential. Hmmmm….Morfit. Shirt. Get it?
Gee, they won’t sell any of these, will they?
Tiger can’t win with Haiti help
It is now becoming increasingly obvious that, no matter how good his intentions may be, Tiger Woods has painted himself into a no-win corner.
Thanks to shoddy crack reporting from non-sports media, like this piece of garbage from a writer who labels Tiger “shameless” for a possible donation which could be as high as $3 million for the victims of the Haiti earthquake tragedy, the perception among many is going to be Tiger is doing this as a publicity stunt to help repair his image.
What a load.
Case in point:
Millions of Americans have responded to the disaster in Haiti by opening their hearts and their wallets to help the stricken island nation of Haiti. I know some persons who are barely getting by on unemployment benefits who have donated money to help the relief effort in Haiti.
These good-hearted Americans deserve our praise and admiration, but I have nothing but contempt for Tiger Woods’ meager donation. The disgraced golfer is perhaps the wealthiest athlete in the world, three million isn’t even pocket change for him. The scumbag should have privately donated at least 30 million.
This from a clown whose bio states he writes on “Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating.”
Well, he got one thing right – the pointless part. Anyone who knows the different between a wedge and a wedgie is well aware of Tiger’s selfless donations. This guy has apparently never heard of the Tiger Woods Foundation, which has raised countless millions – helping more than 10 million children along the way – since 1996.
But, alas, this is what happens when you get caught with your proverbial pants down. Very few want to talk about the good you’ve done in the world. Piling on Woods right now is the in thing to do.
I’m trying to avoid taking an up-on-the-soapbox, rah-rah Tiger stance. I’ve read the papers, heard the endless trash being printed since American Thanksgiving, but as could almost be expected, the non-sports media sensationlists have crossed a line. Millions of citizens – from normal, everyday ham and eggers like us to the richest celebrities on the planet – have been touched by the heartbreak in Haiti and have donated what they can. There is no ulterior motive for any one of us. It is about trying to help a nation, and its people, brought to their knees.
Why, then, is it a different playing field for Woods?
Since when is $3 million “measly”? Two extremely wealthy sports LEAGUES – the NBA and NFL – donated $1 million each. Madonna reportedly donated $250,000, which to most of us is a lot of money. To Robert Reyes, however, it’s probably what would you would hand to the down-on-his-luck panhandler curled up on the sidewalk.
The Tiger crack journalism is everywhere. For instance, here.
Maybe Tiger Woods is unfaithful. As I’ve said before, that may make him a cheater or a fake to some, a jerk to others. But to suggest, like many seem to be, that Woods’ is looking to repair an image with his generous act of kindness towards the people of Haiti is not only irresponsible, but complete garbage.
This isn’t about golf, nor is about a guy who allegedly cheated on his wife. No, the only ones Tiger has to answer to on that are his wife and kids. This is about a tragedy on a scale that not many of us can fully comprehend. If you aren’t touched, aren’t heartbroken, by what is happening in Haiti, you’ve got an ‘off’ switch that not many of us have.
Most of us, regardless of who we are, just want to try to stop the bleeding.
Contrary to what some want you to think, Tiger Woods is no different.
***
Tip of the cap to Saskatchewan’s Graham DeLaet, who lingered near the top of the leaderboard all week in his first start as a PGA Tour member at the Sony Open.
DeLaet fired three sub-70 rounds before carding 71 Sunday to wind up with a share of 25th, which would certainly have to be considered an outstanding debut.
Somehow, we get a feeling there will be plenty more.
So far, so good for DeLaet, Baryla
If Canuck freshmen Graham DeLaet and Chris Baryla were supposed to be feeling a sense of the rookie jitters Thursday, someone forgot to let them know.
The duo more than held their own in their maiden starts as full-fledged PGA Tour members at the Sony Open, with DeLaet posting a 1-under 69 and Baryla a 70. For those keeping track, the opening day leaders are in a logjam at 5-down so, looking at the big picture, things could have gone a lot worse for the Canadians in their debuts. Just ask Nicholas Thompson, who is looking up at 143 players in a 144-player field.
OK, so while we may be feeling a little warm and fuzzy inside seeing three Canucks inside the top 50 at a PGA Tour event (some guy named Ames is 20th), we’re not about to go streaking down the first fairway at St. George’s waving the Maple Leaf just yet.
Mind you, had Baryla and/or DeLaet stumbled out of the gate Thursday, the glass-half-empty unsilent majority in this country would be lighting up the phone lines on the sports talk shows today. Imagine the squawking coming from the beaks of the pessimists had DeLaet and Baryla opened with, say, 79. You’d hear about how the rookies aren’t cut out for life with the big boys, the field in Hawaii is watered down and how the future of Canadian golf is in absolute shambles. Only when the youngsters start strong are we supposed to keep things in perspective and remember it’s only one round.
Hyperbole? Watch the next time Weir or Ames open with 76 or 77 and the Kleenex Klan is out in full force ridiculing everything in Canadian golf.
So, yes, I for one enjoying this one, no matter how insignificant it may seem.
For Baryla and DeLaet, it was a great way to start their official PGA Tour run. Of course, the jury will be out for years before the verdict comes in on their careers. Their ride is just beginning.
But, darnit, for one day anyway, it was fun to see.
Anna Rawson giving magazine pointers? Go figure…
OK, we’ll admit throwing up Anna Rawson’s GoDaddy.com commercial is just a rather shameless way of getting your attention.
Now that we undoubtedly have it, meet Anna Rawson who, as we sit here, is golf’s version of Anna Kournikova or Sarah Palin. Not exactly hard on the eyes but still waiting to make that first victory speech.
That matters not to the folks at Golf Digest, who, in the February issue, have Rawson in a four-page spread telling others how to hit golf shots. Yep, there’s Anna, giving instruction alongside Tom Watson, Hank Haney, Justin Leonard and Jim Flick. Easy to pick out the square peg trying to fit in a round hole in that group, isn’t it?
We’re guessing Natalie Gulbis – who is not only a looker but has actually done a thing or two on the golf course – was busy during this photo shoot.
“Three Shots You Need To Score.” Seriously, that’s the headline of the spread. Coming from a winless third-year player on tour who, according to her Golf Digest bio, took up golf 13 years ago in the “hopes of meeting her brother’s cute friends at a local country club in her native Australia.” We’re guessing she did OK in that regard. As for the pro career, when you are best-known for referring to ex-LPGA Tour players as “ a lot of dykes and unattractive females nobody wanted to watch”, you know you should be doing a little less talkin’ and a lot more playin’.
All right, maybe we’re being a little hard on Anna. After all, there has to be added incentive for men to pick up a copy of the magazine off the news rack and, let’s be honest, Rawson is mighty fine incentive. Maybe they editors could have changed the header to, say, “Well, She Really Isn’t That Good But We’ll Let Her Give Instruction Because She Is Super-Hot.”
For some people – like, for instance, me – this pro golf thing is just never going to work. Maybe Anna needs something to fall back on, and there could be worse gigs than posing for photo shoots, right?
And hey, there’s always the GoDaddy career.
Mr. January strikes again, Tiger could make major statement and Baryla, DeLaet set to make debuts
Like that 50-1 longshot down at the neighbourhood racetrack, Geoff Ogilvy is pretty quick out of the gate but has a tendency to fade down the stretch.
As I write this late Sunday evening, Ogilvy, who is now cleverly being dubbed Mr. January, has just put to finishing touches on his second straight Mercedes Benz Championship SBS Championship in the Land of the Lei.
This time around, the Aussie is looking to show a little more stamina once the ground starts to thaw on this side of the continent. By March 1 last year, Ogilvy already had a pair of wins under his belt in 2009 – winning at Kapalua and then the WGC-Accenture Match Play a month and change later. Suddenly the hottest golfer on the planet, many wondered if Ogilvy was ready to make a charge at that Tiger guy.
Not so fast.
Over his final 16 events, Ogilvy had four top tens but truly only had a sniff of a third win of the year at the Shell Houston Open (T6) and the Deutsche Bank (7th).
In this season of uncertainty, at least when it comes to that guy sitting on the PGA Tour’s top perch, Ogilvy knows that opportunity is knocking in 2010 – and he’s ready to make a rather loud statement.
And he’s hoping it will be as loud in June or October as it is in January.
***
Just a couple of days after Jack Nicklaus suggested that this could turn out to be a very memorable year for Tiger on the major front, many still seem to be wondering if Woods will show up for any majors at all.
Put your mind at ease, we say.
Three of this year’s majors will be played on courses that Woods adores: Augusta National, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews.
These days, not much is a sure bet when it comes to Woods, but it says here this is about as close as you’re going to get. Fall off your horse, you get back on, right?
And Tiger says giddyup. He’ll play all three.
***
It’s showtime this week for Canucks Chris Baryla and Graham DeLaet.
While both have experience playing in PGA Tour events, most notably the RBC Canadian Open, Canada’s two newest PGA Tour regulars will get their first crack at making an impression as full-fledged members at the Sony Open in Hawaii.
Three of the four Canadians on tour – Baryla, DeLaet and Stephen Ames – will be in Honolulu this week, with only Mike Weir taking a pass. Making a cheque in their season-openers could go a long way to helping the rookies when it comes to getting into events later in the year. Like most freshmen, Baryla and DeLaet will rely on the reshuffle to improve their chances of seeing a few extra starts.
As we said in our 2010 predictions, we’re betting DeLaet and Baryla will both have successful rookie campaigns with the big boys.
Fairways Web Editor Marty Henwood spent more than six years as the Media Relations Director with the Canadian Tour and has been involved in sports journalism for more than a decade, including stints in newspaper, radio, new media and media relations. He will offer his unique take on the world of golf, with nothing and no one off limits.