Canadian Women’s Open still seeking major status
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
When you break down the CN Canadian Women’s Open – which will be held this year at Winnipeg’s St. Charles Country Club Aug. 26-29 – here’s what you get:
- An LPGA Tour event with the financial support of a title sponsor that is one of the biggest and strongest corporate entities in North America.
- An event run by the Royal Canadian Golf Association, which was officially re-branded today as Golf Canada and has set a benchmark for tournament organization few can match.
- An event that consistently attracts the majority – if not all – of the top 50 female golfers in the world.
- An event that raises record amounts for charities at every venue in an annual rotation of the best courses in the country.
- So, why doesn’t the CN Canadian Women’s Open have status of an LPGA major championship – even if it means increasing the number of majors from four to five?
Golf Canada executive-director Scott Simmons, CN president Claude Mongeau and LPGA chief communications officer David Higdon collectively said giving the tournament major status wasn’t a priority.
That’s a hard pill to swallow.
Tour veteran Lorie Kane of Charlottetown, who has been leading the charge on this issue, must have felt the pain deeply from those words during a conference call to announce CN had extended its sponsorship of the country’s only LPGA event until at least 2013, with an additional two-year option.
Major status wasn’t even a topic of discussion when the three principals started talking at the start of the year about the future of the Canadian event with CN and its importance to the LPGA.
Higdon said the “CN-RCGA extension was Priority One” for the Tour because of the importance of renewing with partners who have “demonstrated a commitment to the Tour.” Instead of “major,” he used “unique” to describe the event’s significance.
“This is a very unique event on the LPGA Tour,” Higdon said. “It’s considered clearly among the best in class. It’s among the top five purses every year. We can count on having the best players there every single year. The rotation is brilliant. The players look at it as clearly top-notch. The tournament is not only a reflection of the organization in the RCGA that runs it, but also in the partner in CN.”
Mongeau, whose company became title sponsor in 2006 – after a five-year run when the tournament was known as the BMO Canadian Women’s Open – said: “In our heart, it has always been ‘Canada’s major.’ It’s clearly a premier event in ladies’ golf, so we’re pleased with the status we have today. We feel it’s a very good tournament the way it is.”
Simmons agreed with Mongeau, adding he didn’t think major designation was important because the feeling was it’s “the best event in the world” and he couldn’t be happier.
“Major is just a word,” Simmons added.
The Canadian event dates to 1973 at Montreal Municipal, where Jocelyne Bourassa won. She remains the only Canadian to win an LPGA event in this country.
The tournament was known as the Peter Jackson Classic from 1979-83, and the du Maurier Classic from 1984 to 2000. From 1979 to 2000, it was one of the Tour’s four majors, along with the Kraft Nabisco Championship, U.S. Women’s Open and LPGA Championship.
The 2000 event, held at Royal Ottawa in Gatineau, was the last year of du Maurier’s sponsorship because of federal legislation banning tobacco advertising. Subsequently, the Women’s British Open – already a major on the Ladies European Tour – replaced the Canadian Women’s Open as the LPGA’s fourth major.
From our perspective, Golf Canada and CN missed an opportunity to use what could have been a bargaining chip to get back a distinction the tournament deserves.
Major might be just a word, but try telling that to Kane as she continues to fight “to put the CN Canadian Women’s Open on a little bit of higher note, and that is major status.”
Hopefully, it will happen. And hopefully, some time during CN’s extended term as title sponsor the championship will return to the Montreal area for the first time since 2002, when it was held at Summerlea.
http://www.theprovince.com/sports/golf/Canadian+Women+Open+still+seeking+major+status/2937802/story.html
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