HAMILTON, Ont. –  Golf Canada and title sponsor RBC today announced that the historic Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Ancaster, Ont., will host the RBC Canadian Open in 2019 and 2023.

The tournament’s return to the Harry Colt designed course in 2019 is timed perfectly – marking the 100-year anniversary since the renowned club originally hosted Canada’s National Open Golf Championship.

“Together with our partners at RBC and the PGA TOUR, we are extremely proud to be bringing the RBC Canadian Open back to the Hamilton Golf and Country Club in both 2019 and 2023,” said Laurence Applebaum, CEO of Golf Canada.  “There are few courses in the country that can equal Hamilton in terms of excellence and storied history and I am delighted that the club’s membership and the City of Hamilton have joined us to bring the RBC Canadian Open back to Hamilton twice over the next five years.”

Consistently ranked among Canada’s best courses, Hamilton’s parkland setting, which includes winding fairways, multi-elevations and undulating greens, have made the club a favourite of the PGA TOUR pros who’ve played it throughout the years.

“Returning to Hamilton Golf and Country Club in 2019 and 2023 is a great fit for RBC and the RBC Canadian Open,” said Matt McGlynn, Vice President, Brand Marketing for RBC. “Our clients and all Canadian golf fans want to see the world’s best golfers playing the world’s best courses and by having Team RBC challenge the PGA TOUR’s best at Hamilton, we will accomplish just that.”

We’re thrilled to be hosting the 2019 & 2023 #RBCCO @HamiltonGolf ??

Read ➡️https://t.co/t2zk4mggR4#OurOpen pic.twitter.com/yQNh9myrZq

— RBC Canadian Open (@RBCCanadianOpen) June 6, 2018

The Hamilton Golf and Country Club previously hosted five Canadian Opens, with the first taking place in 1919 – a championship featured two of the most legendary names in golf – Bobby Jones and Francis Ouimet. J. Douglas Edgar would go on to earn a 16-stroke win – a PGA TOUR record that stands to this day as the largest margin of victory.

Other players to have won the Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf and Country Club include Tommy Armour (1930), Bob Tway (2003), Team RBC member Jim Furyk (2006) and Scott Piercy (2012).

In addition, Hamilton has hosted many other prestigious events including the (former) Canadian Senior Championship in 1996 as well as several Ontario (1932, 1974 and 1991) and Canadian Amateur Championships (1922, 1927, 1935, 1948, 1977 and 1994).

“We are proud to host the most prestigious championship in Canadian golf and welcome the RBC Canadian Open and the stars of the PGA TOUR to Hamilton Golf and Country Club twice over the next five years,” said Hamilton Golf and Country Club’s President Chris Hamel. “Our members are honoured to have the opportunity to help write additional chapters in the long and storied history of Canadian golf and the RBC Canadian Open in 2019 and 2023 and are especially pleased to celebrate a centennial connection in 2019 between our club and Canada’s National Open.”

The confirmation of the Hamilton Golf and Country Club as the host venue for 2019 and 2023 was also made possible through a new partnership between the city of Hamilton and Golf Canada. This partnership will result in Canada’s National Sport Federation bringing multiple events and golf championships to the city to complement the two RBC Canadian Opens.

“We are thrilled to welcome the stars of the PGA TOUR back to Hamilton for two more years,” said Fred Eisenberger, Mayor of Hamilton. “The RBC Canadian Open is a world class event and I know our citizens take great pride in hosting the championship here in their backyard. In addition, through our partnership with Golf Canada, our region will welcome numerous national and regional golf championships between 2019 and 2023. With a goal to leave an economic, charitable and social legacy through golf, we look forward to becoming a hub community for Canadian golf.”

The stars of the PGA TOUR won’t be the only ones having fun during tournament week when the RBC Canadian Open stops in Hamilton. Golf Canada, RBC and all tournament partners have embraced the PGA TOUR’s new fans first mantra, highlighted in the Tour’s new “Live Under Par” campaign. The event has become much more than just 72 holes of world-class golf – it’s one of Canada’s most prolific sporting events, chocked-full of activities for spectators, whether they are core golf fans or new to the sport.

This year’s RBC Canadian Open will take place east of Hamilton at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont., from July 20-26, 2018. Ticket, volunteering, sponsorship and corporate hospitality info is available online at www.rbccanadianopen.com.

The fourth annual Swinging for STARS fundraising golf tournament will take place later this month in Saskatoon.

There is still room for approximately 10 teams in the June 21 event at the Greenbryre Golf & Country Club. STARS foundation event and development officer Ashlyn Yablonski said hosting events and generating revenue is key to the air ambulance’s service.

“The Government of Saskatchewan provides 50 per cent of our funding and the other 50 per cent (or $10.5 million) is what we need to raise each year to operate from our Saskatoon and Regina bases. Events such as this golf tournament are important to help us continue to keep STARS in our prairie skies, ready to help the next patient who needs us,” she said.

The entry fee is $185 per golfer, that includes 12 holes of golf, power cart, prizes from sponsors, a bar-b-cue lunch on the course, and a ticket to the dinner plus a commemorative program. New this year to the event is an outside partnership with another not-for-profit group. STARS will team up with the Saskatoon Millennium Lions Club. Yablonski said the collaboration has injected some excitement into the tournament.

“They are an amazing group to work with; passionate, dedicated, and the club make it fun. STARS is very lucky to have the group as partners on this event and hope to continue this partnership with them for future years,” Yablonski said.

The deadline to enter the tournament is June 18, contact Yablonski at 306-659-1525 or email ayablonski@stars.ca

STARS air ambulance provided emergency services in almost 200 Saskatchewan communities or regions in 2016-17 according to their website. In total they responded 874 times during that fiscal year.

Decision 13-2/10: Pitch-Mark in Dropping Area Repaired Before Ball Dropped

QUESTION:
Dave was playing golf after a day of rain. The course was wet but playable. Through the green, Dave’s ball embedded in its own pitch-mark in a closely mowed area. Dave lifted his ball under Rule 25-2 (Embedded ball) but, before dropping it, repaired the pitch-mark. Is such repair permissible?

ANSWER:
No. Dave was in breach of Rule 13-2 when he improved the area in which his ball was to be dropped by eliminating an irregularity of surface. In this case, Dave would be penalized 2 strokes in stroke play or loss of hole in match play. In the instance above, Dave was required to drop the ball on the pitch mark, play the stroke and then repair the pitch mark. Unfortunate for Dave, he made a mistake which is done almost every day on the golf course.

Reminder: Golf has a few fundamental principles. Hit it, find it and play it. Keep it simple and you can avoid most Rules breaches. Happy golfing and remember the rules matter.

The Regina City Junior golf tournament will take place over two days this weekend in the Queen City.

The event, open to both girls and boys has three age groups for competitors ranging from under-14 to under-18. This year the tournament will take place at the Royal Regina Golf Club and the Murray Municipal Golf Course on June 9 and 10. Organizer Garrett McMillan said the committee is working hard to revitalize the competition which is back for a third year following a decade long hiatus.

“We’re trying to create an event featuring competitive golf in Regina,” he said. “We don’t get to see competitive golf here often and it’s nice to have.”

The event is now part of the Order of Merit (OOM) schedule with players gaining points in the standings. McMillan said there is extra incentive for the boys that register too.

“Our winner gets an exemption into the Regina City Amateur just so there is a feeder program from our tournament to theirs. It shows the winner of our event what they are up against once they aren’t juniors anymore,” McMillan said.

Cole Obrigewitsch was the boy’s winner last year, Alex Schmidt is the two-time defending champion on the female side. Many of the competitors entering the tournament are making their first attempt at competitive golf. McMillan said the basis of the event is still fun.

“Standing over a drive with your buddies is different than standing over a drive when every shot counts but the biggest thing we want is fun for everybody. I think we’ve done a good job with that,” he said.

The cost to enter is just $110, that includes two rounds of golf, prizes, and supper on the second day of the tournament. The deadline to register is June 7, you can do so by downloading an entry form and emailing reginacityjunior@hotmail.com

A skills competition will be held on the second day as well.

Josh Nagy is already a two-time winner on the Maple Leaf Junior Tour (MJT) this season following a two-round score of 152 this past weekend at the Lloydminster Golf and Curling Centre.

The 16-year-old Saskatoon product fired back-to-back 76’s to take the juvenile boy’s division by six strokes over Edmonton’s Nicholas Rimmer. Estevan’s Chase Gedak shot 163 over the 36 holes to finish in third place. 25 golfers competed in the category, 19 hailing from Saskatchewan.

Will Blake, 14, of Regina was the winner in the bantam boy’s division, the Regina golfer shot 81 and 77 for a one-stroke margin over Jace Shannon of Forestburg, Alta. La Ronge athlete Parker Layton placed third just a pair of strokes behind the leader. 20 players competed in the bantam age group.

In the junior boy’s division, Estevan Woodlawn member Logan Chernoff was victorious shooting 157 over the two days. He edged Swift Current’s Griffin Wilson by a stroke. Kindersley product Brody Istace was third with a score of 159. A dozen golfers competed in the junior boy’s category.

Jordan Unger, 19, of Saskatoon took top spot in the collegiate category, he shot 86 on Saturday and followed that with an 82 on Sunday for a four-stroke win over Lloydminster’s Jason Kim. Martensville’s Jax Gipman placed third with a 176.

In the peewee boy’s group, Edmonton athlete Tate Brugggeman picked up a nine-stroke win over Weyburn’s Darien Herlick. Solomon Ness from Saskatoon was third place with a 196.

On the girl’s side there were a pair of categories with competitors, in the U15 age group Brooklin Fry was the low score shooting 189. In the 15-18 division, Alyshia Suleman of Sherwood Park, Alta. won by six strokes over Saskatoon’s Sarah Grieve.

To see the Order of Merit (OOM) points standings, click here.

The next MJT event in Saskatchewan is June 16 and 17 in North Battleford.

Saskatoon’s Dave Stewart can check the Scotia Wealth Management Open off his bucket list.

The Saskatoon Golf and Country Club member tore up the Evergreen in Nipawin on the weekend securing a three-stroke victory over Clint Schiller. Stewart, 32, has placed second at the tournament on three separate occasions in the seven times he’s entered the event. He said it was nice to finally be victorious.

“It’s a tournament I’ve wanted to win for a long time,” he said. “I’ve known Dean (Prosky of the host committee) very well, we all recognize this is one of the better if not best tournaments we have in the province. This is the one that’s been looming over me for a few years.”

Stewart collected two birdies and a bogey to go along with 15 pars in round one for a 71 total, on Sunday he birdied seven holes on route to a 67, securing the victory. A self admitted slow starter, Stewart said his entire arsenal was working.

“Everything seemed to click this week, the driving was good, I never put myself in trouble all week and the putter came around. It is a sense of relief I can check off this box,” he said.

Stewart said his short game has struggled over the last few seasons. He said he worked hard to tighten that part of his game up and it paid off over the 36 holes.

“I’ve always felt comfortable driving the ball and tee-to-green, but the Achilles Heel was always my short game and this week it was the strength,” he said.

The tournament had a special feel to it this year. The host committee asked the golfers to wear green or yellow over the weekend paying respect to the community of Humboldt following the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s Broncos bus crash on April 6. Stewart said all the players felt moved by the host committee’s request.

“There was a sense that everyone is pretty grateful to play a game we love. It was extra special to win it on a year something so tragic has happened,” he said.

Stewart is playing a tournament in Melfort this upcoming weekend and is registered for the Saskatchewan Mid-Amateur and Amateur later this summer.

To see the complete field results from the Scotia Wealth Management Open can be found here.

The Kim Brown dynasty continues at the Ladies Northern golf championship. She picked up her third straight title at Cooke Municipal Golf Course on Saturday and Sunday and beat the field by a whopping 14 strokes.

The streak may have been even longer, but she had her son four years ago and had to skip out on the tournament that year.

“It’s been a good run since,” Saskatoon’s Brown laughed, who grew up playing and working at Cooke as a youngster. “I think it’s just the first tournament of the year and I’m always looking forward to getting out and playing. When you haven’t been out on the golf course, you just want to go out and have fun.

“I think that helps you play your best. You’re enjoying the people, the company, the course. You’re just glad to be out playing again.”

As far as the course is concerned, Cooke is going through some renovations and repairs to the irrigation system. The tournament was still able to run a full 18-holes, just two weeks after the May Day Masters tournament was restricted to 16-holes.

“It was fantastic, the course is in excellent shape. I rarely remember a year when it was in this good of shape,” Brown said. “With all the construction, they did a great job in maneuvering us around the construction and still giving us 18 holes to play so kudos to the grounds crew and the club for making that work. The construction didn’t really have a big impact, it was really well done.”

Ann Kirkland won her second straight Senior Ladies Championship. Not only that, but she was also in a three-way tie for second place overall along with Pauline McDougall and Abra Thompson.

Here are all the prize winners in each of the six flights.

Championship Flight

1. Kim Brown, 152
2. Ann Kirkland (senior’s winner), Pauline McDougall and Abra Thompson, 166

First Flight

1. Dianna Sutton and Andrea Ring, 175
2. Dawn MacAuley and Charene Kozak, 177

Second Flight

1. Maureen Bowerman, 180
2. Shelley Ruecker and Del Soulier, 184
3. Carol Spanks and Lorna Gilbert, 190

Third Flight

1. Donna Morin, 191
2. Debbie Krawchuk, 196
3. Donna Dyck and Deb Thierman, 198

Fourth Flight

1. Joyce Bowers, 208
2. Gill Gracie, 220

Fifth Flight

1. Sandra Isbister, 220
2. Ollie Kelly, 226
3. Terry Krzak, 230

This article is courtesy www.paNOW.com sports editor Jeff D’Andrea in Prince Albert.

Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member Sandra Post turns 70 this week and celebrates another milestone this month as well – the 50th anniversary of her first LPGA Tour win.

Reflecting back, Post, who has had a lengthy list of accomplishment in her career including winning the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year, twice winning the Canadian Press Female Athlete of the Year, and appointed to the Order of Canada, says winning the LPGA Championship, a major in her first try, is what’s been the focal point of her on-course legacy.

But with 50 years now passed, Post realizes she had a greater mission off the course to help promote and advance the status of women in sport.

“It wasn’t just sport,” she says. “I knew that early on. I knew there was other issues to it.”

Post says she hasn’t grasped how monumental her major win was until this anniversary has come up. She won a couple of tournaments later in her career that have since become majors (Post won the ANA Inspiration twice, when it was known as the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle and not yet a major) but didn’t realize then that majors really define one’s career.

“Those moments live with you,” she says. “If you’re a U.S. Open champion or an LPGA Champion… it really is fabulous.”

Post was just 20 years old when she teed it up in the 1968 LPGA Championship at Pleasant Valley Country Club, about an hour outside Boston.

She finished at 2-over after 72 holes, tied with Kathy Whitworth – one of her idols and who, up to that point, had won 27 times on the LPGA Tour (she would go on to win 88 times in her career, the most ever) – and there would be an 18-hole playoff to decide the champion on the Monday.

Post remembers calling her father back in Toronto to say there was going to be a playoff the following day and he caught the last flight to Boston on Sunday along with some members of the Canadian press corps who had just finished covering Bob Charles win the Canadian Open at St. George’s.

Post wasn’t able to sleep that night, so she jumped in her car and drove to Boston to pick up her dad. The members of the press who were also on the flight couldn’t believe Post, who was about to play the biggest round of her life, was there at midnight to drive the two-plus hours back and forth from Boston, but she says she had nothing else to do so decided to make the trip.

At a dinner earlier that night, she remembers sitting with Mickey Wright (World Golf Hall of Fame member and 82-time LPGA Tour winner) and Susie Berning (four-time LPGA Tour major winner) and asked what would she need to do in order to beat Whitworth the next day.

“I remember Susie saying, ‘fire everything you’ve got at her, right off the top. And I go, ‘Really? Ok.’ I’ll never forget those words,” says Post.

“I didn’t really have a strategy but I was thrilled to death I was going to finish second at the LPGA Championship,” she continues with a laugh.

Huge crowds had showed up for this David vs. Goliath match-up, Post says. She remembers her caddie being a young teenager, maybe 14, and their combined ages barely eclipsed Whitworth’s age of 29 at the time.

Post started the day with three straight birdies, but Whitworth made an eagle and a birdie in the first four holes and they were tied.

“I looked up on the hill after the fourth hole and I saw Susie and I said, ‘That’s all I got! Now what do I do?” says Post. “She just put her hands up.”

As the day chugged along, it looked like a foregone conclusion that Post was going to be the champion, extending her lead to five shots at one point.

But Wright was already one of the winningest golfers on the LPGA Tour, and Post wasn’t going to count her out. However, late in the round it was all but settled Post was going to win.

Post had dunked her approach from 90 yards out on the par-4 15th for a birdie to get to 7-under for the day. When they got to No. 17, Whitworth ended up in the trees with her tee shot. She couldn’t make it out, made quadruple bogey, and Post would go on to win by seven, finishing at 5-under to Whitworth’s 2-over.

Post won a “whopping” US$3,000 in first-place prize money, the most she had ever won at one time. She says she still has a copy of that cheque.

“I had a bonus with Spalding too. I got in my car and went down the road to Baltimore (where the next event was) thinking I was pretty rich,” she says, laughing.

Looking back on that victory 50 years ago, Post says there were a ton of great memories on the course, but it was off the course where she really learned her place in the world.

She knows they were playing for money and needed money to make a living, but all the women on the LPGA Tour at the time were trying to elevate the status of women in sport, and says they were all very conscious of their role in that.

Post says the voting for the Lou Marsh Trophy in 1968 was a big point in her realization that she needed to do more for the advancement of women in professional sport. She finished fifth in the voting that year.

“I took that very seriously. I was Rookie of the Year, I had won a major, and I was the first Canadian woman to really play golf professionally and get to that level. For a woman to play any sport professionally, and to see I was ranked fifth… I didn’t ever think it wasn’t fair, but I knew I had so much more work to do,” she says. “I had to get the message across to our country.”

Post says it was an honour to pass the baton in Canadian professional golf to Gail Graham and Dawn Coe-Jones, and then to see them pass it along to Lorie Kane and A.J. Eathorne, who then passed it to Alena Sharp and Brooke Henderson.

She’s happy to see there has been more done in women’s golf on the scholarship side and with purse increases on the LPGA Tour, and has no doubt Henderson is going to end up passing the baton sooner rather than later, given the talent on the LPGA Tour is getting younger and younger each year.

“I see the social issues and I see so many things we’ve been able to achieve. Absolutely we have a lot of work to do with the disparity of the purses and all that, but I tend to look more on the positive side,” she says.

At 70 Post remains as sharp as ever. Her victory half a century ago was the turning point for Canadian women’s golf and opened the door to many others who followed. And although she was a “young 20” when she found the winner’s circle, she says being a part of that group of women was something she’ll never forget.

“When I look back I have such admiration for those founders of the LPGA Tour and what they accomplished. Talk about pure pioneers of not only golf, but of women. To help move the needle for women,” she says. “I would not trade my time for any other time.”

Almost $15,000 is being handed out through the 2018 Saskatchewan Academic and Golf Excellence (SAGE) scholarship program this year.

The funding is dispersed to the recipients based on academics, sporting excellence, and being a Golf Saskatchewan member while being a high school or post-secondary education student.

There are a pair of Graham DeLaet Scholarships each valued at $1,500; Yorkton’s Kade Johnson and Prince Albert’s Cory Selander are this year’s beneficiaries. Carson Harcourt of Kipling is the Golf Saskatchewan Scholarship winner. The Kenosee Golf Club member receives $1,000. The $1,000 Ron Young Scholarship is going to Willows Golf Club member Marc Sweeney. The Kozy Scholarship recipient, also worth $1,000 is Moose Jaw’s Michael Flagel.

Andrew Campbell of Saskatoon, Estevan’s Logan Chernoff, Prince Albert golfer Joshua Guthrie, and Deer Park/Melville Golf Club player Chloe Sies will all receive $1,000 in funding for academics. Campbell is a member at the Willows, he received the Cooke-Kinnear Scholarship. Chernoff calls the Woodlawn Golf Club home, he gets the Fletcher-Reid Scholarship. Guthrie golfs at the Cooke Municipal Golf Club; his bursary is named in honour of Bill Gordon and Sies of Melville claims the Leddy-Heywood Scholarship.

Evergreen Golf Club in Nipawin member Tenesha Pompu is the recipient of the Meredith MacPherson-Stalwick Memorial Scholarship valued at just over $1,034. The Dr. Garry Hayes Memorial Scholarship benefits a pair of golfers, Royal Regina Golf Club members Jacob Kydd and Alexandra Schmidt each receive almost $550 each.

The Golf Saskatchewan High School Bursary worth $400 each is being awarded to Evergreen member Veronika Duchscherer and Lauren Fox of Creighton.

You can find more information of the SAGE scholarships here.

Course ratings and handicaps are integral tools to developing golf and making the world’s greatest social game more fun.

Volunteer course raters provide governing agencies, such as Golf Canada, Golf Saskatchewan or the United States Golf Association (USGA) with data to give courses a rating. Ratings coincide with handicaps that players possess as their scores get posted throughout the golf season. Craig Loughry is the director of handicapping and course rating for Golf Canada, he said ratings and handicapping are intertwined.

“That’s when we can form relativity to how good or how bad a score is for each individual as they post their scores for handicap purposes,” Loughry said.

Courses are rated every ten years, Loughry estimates a jurisdiction such as Saskatchewan likely has about 20 volunteer course raters. New golf courses are rated in their first year, another rating is provided after five years. The course then moves to a ten-year cycle to align with course rating policy. Loughry said early course development can alter a courses’ rating.

“Courses mature and change over time,” he said. “They might have renovations, trees mature, greens might creep a little bit (extended cuts). Fairways might get a different mowing pattern, widths could change, those are the things we look at when providing a course and slope rating.”

Courses are rated from each tee box on a course and for both women and men. Loughry said the days of using the term “women’s tee” are pretty much gone. He said using appropriate tee distances for your ability helps provide golfers a good experience.

“We have seen a movement of some players wanting to play a more forward tee, and by rating each tee for both men and woman it allows those golfers who do want to move forward to do so, and still maintain a handicap and post their scores” he said.

Handicaps are in place to allow golfers of different calibres to be competitive with each other. You must be a member of a recognized golf association to obtain an official Golf Canada Handicap Factor. Loughry said it allows rounds of golf to be more enjoyable.

“If player A (say a handicap of 20) happened to play better to his or her own ability than player B (with a handicap of 7) did to his/hers then chances are player A would have a better net score that day. That’s what makes it so fun, you don’t have to have the same skill to have a friendly match” he said.

Currently there are subtle differences between the USGA system and the Golf Canada system. Handicaps in the US only change every 15 days in what is called a revision cycle, no matter how many rounds are played/posted, but here in Canada handicaps change with each round played/posted. At the start of 2020, a universal handicapping system will be in place for all golfers across the world. Loughry said Golf Canada has a say input to the development of the new World Handicap System. He said some aspects of the system will stay as they are, but there will be some alterations to the system however.

“There will be some sections that remain the same or similar, but other areas that will be completely rewritten. There will be people who will be used to things that haven’t changed in 20+ years that will be evolving, there will be some adjustment for everyone” he said.

The new system is to be put in place on Jan. 1, 2020.