By ADAM SCHUPAK
Senior WriterShe is one of the grande dames of tournament golf, with a winner’s list that reads like the Hall of Fame roll call.
Byron Nelson won the event. So did Arnold Palmer. Sam Snead claimed three of his record 82 PGA Tour victories here. And who can forget Tiger Woods in 2000, smoking a 218-yard 6-iron shot from a fairway bunker, over a pond, to 18 feet on the 72nd hole? He won, too.
Yet a year ago, the Canadian Open, once considered by some as the fifth major, seemed on the verge of extinction.
The Royal Canadian Golf Association’s crown jewel had lost its title sponsor, endured financial losses and suffered the curse of an unfavorable date on the PGA Tour calendar. Add a rota of national championship venues that seldom strayed from Ontario, and it’s no surprise that player participation and fan interest plummeted.
Canada’s favorite son, Mike Weir, summed up the dire situation: “I was worried that it could disappear.”
With a week to go before its 99th rendition, however, the Canadian Open and the RCGA have made a remarkable recovery. Credit the turnaround, in part, to new leadership and a revamped business plan. But could the strategy to restore prestige to golf’s third-oldest national championship – behind the British and U.S. Opens – come at the expense of other RCGA tournaments?
Scott Simmons, the association’s new executive director, dismisses such concerns. So far, he has had an answer for every problem, and he insists his strategic plan – the first implemented by the RCGA since 2000 – also includes means to finance the association’s many events. Simmons, a former RCGA marketing director who left the organization for the brewing industry, has acted quickly out of necessity.
In March 2007, Stephen Ross resigned as the RCGA’s executive director after 18 years at the helm and 30 years with the association in what Canadian golf writer Robert Thompson called “the equivalent of a palace coup.” When Ross failed to land a title sponsor for the Canadian Open after Bell Canada relinquished the role in 2005, his tenure’s end became inevitable.
Without a sponsor, the tournament began tapping the RCGA’s unrestricted reserves. (The association also has $34 million in restricted reserves that can be used only to support initiatives “for the betterment of the game.”)
According to its 2007 annual report, the RCGA posted a net loss of $5.6 million – $2.5 million of which resulted from professional tournaments.
As of Oct. 31, unrestricted reserves totaled $2.3 million to cover operational losses. But those funds are expected to be depleted by the end of this year, Simmons says.
In November, Simmons addressed the RCGA’s most pressing problem: He recruited a title sponsor, the Royal Bank of Canada, which has plans to grow south of the border, to back the Canadian Open through 2012.
Simmons achieved what his predecessor could not by selling RBC executives on a rebranding campaign for the Canadian Open. The agreement with RBC requires the tournament to be operated as a break-even venture, which means all profits will either be reinvested to enhance the event or be designated for charities.
The new conditions mark a significant departure from past practices, which enabled the RCGA to use Canadian Open proceeds to subsidize the organization’s other initiatives.
(The Tour’s requirement of the RCGA to pay for U.S. network TV coverage – about $2 million – also has limited the tournament’s profitability.)
In short, that left Simmons needing new revenue sources that would help finance the RCGA, its 14 amateur and junior tournaments annually and various grow-the-game programs.
His plan? Grow the association’s other primary revenue source – membership fees.
There are 6 million golfers in Canada (an impressive one in five Canadians plays the game), 2.5 million of whom are defined as core golfers (play more than eight times a year). The RCGA says it has 377,000 members – roughly 6 percent of its potential audience – who pay $10 for handicaps and other privileges. Rather than offering one basic fee as it does now, the RCGA plans to introduce tiered membership pricing, each offering different levels of benefits and services. Such a plan is expected to net the RCGA an additional 100,000 members and help the organization break even by the end of fiscal 2010.
“The secret is to become relevant to the core golfers across the nation,” Simmons says. “That could be the future health of the association without burdening the Canadian Open.”
With the RCGA’s finances in order – at least on paper – Simmons says the Canadian Open’s profits can be used to make the event “best in class.”
Officials intend to create a festival atmosphere, featuring concerts by Canadian rocker Tom Cochrane and bands 54-40 and Blue Rodeo following the first three rounds in the spectators village. The goal is to attract more than 100,000 fans for the week, up from 90,000 a year ago.
To counter its unappealing date following the British Open, the tournament once again will charter a flight to whisk British Open competitors to the event at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario.
Perhaps most important to players, the RCGA is trying to stage the event at some of the country’s top tracks. It has secured Toronto’s St. George’s G&CC for 2010 and is targeting returns to Shaughnessy GC in Vancouver, British Columbia; Hamilton G&CC in Ancaster, Ontario; and Royal Montreal GC, which hosted the last Presidents Cup.
Officials hope to announce sites through 2014 before the end of this year.
Says Calgary’s Stephen Ames: “It’s getting back to . . . where it used to be the fifth major.”
• • •
Adam Schupak is a
Golfweek senior writer. To reach him e-mail
aschupak@golfweek.com.
Posted: 7/21/2008
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