Glendale Golfs – Winnipeg

Lexi Thompson, all of 16, nearly made LPGA Tour history this week.

She shared the 54-hole lead of the Avent LPGA Classic and if she would’ve won, she would’ve been the youngest winner in LPGA Tour history by almost two years.

Thompson isn’t a member of the LPGA Tour. She’s not allowed to be based on the tour’s rule that doesn’t permit players under the age of 18.

Per the tour, “women between the ages of 15 and 18 may be granted special permission to apply for membership by satisfactorily demonstrating to the Commissioner their capacity to assume professional and financial responsibilities of the association’s Tour Division members.”

So, Thompson isn’t a member of the tour because of her birth date. Had she won Sunday, she wouldn’t have been a full member, but she had options.

Once again, per LPGA Tour policy: “If a non-LPGA member professional, younger than 18 years of age, wins an event: as with amateurs less than 18 years of age, she has the option to petition the LPGA Commissioner for early entrance onto the LPGA Tour. If that permission is granted, she would then have the same options as a professional 18 years or older.”

The LPGA Tour dodged a bullet when Thompson struggled badly on Sunday. She shot a six-over 78 and fell well down the leaderboard. So LPGA Tour Commissioner Mike Whan didn’t have to make what would have been a tough call.

But should it even have been a call to begin with?

The LPGA Tour, more than the PGA Tour, has had accomplished youngsters compete at very high levels. Michelle Wie comes to mind, but there’s precedent. Morgan Pressel and Aree Song were both granted early membership before they could legally vote in the United States. Jessica Korda was granted the early membership, but that was for just one or two events since she turned 18 a few months into this season.

Last year, Thompson, then 15, petitioned the tour for more than the standard six sponsor’s exemptions, but was denied. The tour allows now for non-members to try and Monday qualify for domestic events.

When Commissioner Whan denied her request he said, “Lexi has remarkable skills for a 15-year-old, and if she continues to grow and develop, I believe that she should have a great future both on and off the golf course. I appreciate the thought and passion that Lexi, her family and her management team at Blue Giraffe Sports put into their petition. It’s clear to me that Lexi and her team have a quality, long-term vision.”

Why Thompson didn’t petition for the early membership instead of the doubled sponsor’s exemptions is a curious decision. Maybe her team didn’t think she was ready for full membership, who knows?

Is the age policy necessary, that’s the real question.

First of all, the tour is certainly aware the policy generates concerns.

“It’s something that obviously is kind of a hot-button issue so we definitely stay on top of it and make sure we’re current,” Chief Communications Officer for the LPGA Tour David Higdon told The Sports Network. “It’s a policy that we look at regularly, not necessarily based on the play of particular players, but more on how the overall influx of players over the course of years and age differences.”

If we examine the wording of the rule, players have to “satisfactorily demonstrate to the Commissioner their capacity to assume professional and financial responsibilities of the association’s Tour Division members,” that’s a pretty broad stroke.

Commissioner Whan has full discretion when it comes to who gets this membership. While the policy is firm, Whan judges on a case-by-case basis and there are plenty of concerns.

“It isn’t just about how well you play within the ropes,” said Higdon. “Clearly Lexi has talent and will be a great pro. To be a member, to be on the tour, there’s so much more that goes into that. It’s playing pro-ams, it’s traveling around the world, it’s meeting obligations for sponsors. It’s a wide range of activities.

“The LPGA’s been around for 60 years. It’s taxing on young players. That’s what he has to look at as the commissioner – have the players demonstrated the full scope and range and understanding of what it takes to be a member of the tour and what comes with that.”

Let’s look at Thompson. She qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open when she was 12. She finished second last year at the Evian Masters, which is one of the biggest events, both in stature and purse, on the LPGA Tour.

On Saturday, Thompson put herself in position to win. She didn’t and in fact, played poorly on Sunday, so maybe the tour’s position made sense in this instance. But Thompson has clearly shown the chops to play at this level.

And stumbling away a tournament on Sunday isn’t age specific. Greg Norman was 41 when he blew the 1996 Masters. Rory McIlroy was five years older than Thompson this year at Augusta when he hit it into someone’s day room.

Showing “financial responsibilities” isn’t something just 16-year-olds have to worry about. Jack Nicklaus spread himself too thin financially during his career.

There aren’t many 16-year-olds in charge of their own finances. Thompson’s family clearly is involved in her career. Her father caddies for her, so is family interest part of the mix?

“Mike acknowledged when he turned down their initial decision this year that he felt very positive about the family, very positive about the team that’s working with her and believed they had a good long-term vision for her,” Higdon said. “They weren’t looking for something from a short-term perspective. That bodes well for the future for her.”

It seems, and this isn’t anyone’s call, but that of Commissioner Whan, that Thompson meets the criteria. Again, Thompson’s team never petitioned for early membership, so we’ll never know what Whan would have done.

If Thompson continues to play well and possibly get that tour record for youngest winner, it would be hard to imagine Whan turning down a request for membership.

The tour is trying to protect young players from making mistakes and that’s commendable. The broad wording of its policy leaves Whan with all of the power.

If a player, even one who can just barely legally drive, can compete and represent the tour in a positive fashion (there have never been knocks against Thompson on that front), it seems anyone, not just Thompson, should be able to make her living as a full member.

Age restrictions don’t always make sense. The NBA has its policy about having to be 19 and it’s worked fine. But what did guys like John Wall or Derrick Rose learn from their one year in college.

What about child prodigies in areas like music? Not just teenagers like Miley Cyrus, but there are very young kids who are talented classical musicians. Should they not be allowed to play with the Boston Philharmonic because of their age.

There are big-picture implications and specific ones when it comes to Thompson, but it seems the tour and Thompson would both be fine if she were a full member.

Maybe she should’ve asked for that.

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2011/05/02/lpga-age-policy-may-need-some-changing

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Woe, Canada!

We seem to be in a world of hurt these days on the golf globe.

Mike Weir is struggling to find his form after an elbow injury, the up-and-comers have suddenly up and faded, and Stephen Ames — by his own standards — is coming off his worst season in five years.

But don’t tell the Calgary golfer there’s trouble in the Great White North. Ames says he isn’t feeling the heat of being the only swinger from Canada with a legitimate shot at PGA Tour success this season, and he’s got the ego — in particular, a handle on his ego — to prove it.

So he intends to give it a shot.

“I feel the rooting part, but I don’t feel the pressure,” said Ames, a Trinidad and Tobago native who’s lived in Calgary for two decades and is a Canadian citizen. “It’s an individual game, and I’m still playing for myself, in some respects. But playing well, yeah … you definitely get recognized and you’re very much recognized in Canada, and that’s where the rooting part and the cheering part comes along. It’s more of a positive than anything else.”

Give Ames credit for seeing such a silver lining.

After all, there seems little to celebrate right now when it comes to Canadian golf.

Weir, of course, continues to stumble — from Masters blaster to Augusta awful two weeks ago — in what seems to be an ongoing agonizing effort to rediscover his touch after suffering a torn elbow ligament last year.

Despite so much promise, Calgary-born Chris Baryla has failed to make any money in six tour appearances this season and has only pocketed $24,254 since the beginning of the 2010 PGA campaign.

And who knows if we can expect a significant 2011 recovery from back surgery by Graham DeLaet, last year’s top Canuck on tour with $954,011?

Sure, Ontario’s David Hearn surprised many with a sixth-place finish for US$205,025 at the Shell Houston Open earlier this month and his stock continues to rise weekly, but his previous top payday was $81,000 for winning the 2004 Alberta Open on the Nationwide Tour.

That brings us back to Ames. Although his earnings are anything but gaudy — he boasts $266,603 on this year’s money ladder, thanks mostly to a third-place $203,000 take at Puerto Rico Open in March — and he’s nearly two seasons removed from his last PGA Tour win, it’s his own personal growth that makes him Canada’s best bet weekly on the world’s top golf circuit.

Not only did Ames rededicate himself to the game in the off-season, but he learned heady stuff about himself that he’s determined to address.

“This year is about the ego — I’m trying to get rid of that,” said Ames, who turns 47 next Thursday. “That’s interesting how that gets involved with messing up your shot or your shot pattern. You can’t hit the shot because your ego is involved too much, and that’s been interesting trying to get rid of it. But it’s always going to be there, for everybody.

“But it’s a nice battle.
I like the battle because it’s always inside. It’s not on the outside.”

Essentially, it’s an aspect of the game Ames himself can control.

“I didn’t understand what is was,” Ames said. “And then when it was pointed out by my psychologist, it was like, ‘Oh, my god — it’s there on almost every shot.’ It was checking my stance, and checking to see that my posture was right. It was like, ‘Can I just stand by the golf ball and hit it?’ And he says, ‘No, that’s your ego getting involved there.’ You want to make sure that you’re right. That’s the typical ego — always telling you that you’re right. And I didn’t know that.

“Now I’m just trying to play within myself and be a little more relaxed and be aware of what I’m thinking or how I’m thinking and getting up and executing the shot, and I’m hitting the ball a lot better,” Ames continued. “I’m a little bit more free-wheeling, as they say, and a lot of people are seeing that now, which is nice.

“That’s the beauty of the game, isn’t it? You’re always learning something, which is great. I enjoy that.”

Whether he’ll enjoy a campaign Canadian golf fans — and even himself — are used to remains to be seen. Certainly, Ames is looking forward to the bulk of the PGA Tour season, which includes another shot at the Canadian Open at Vancouver’s Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club, where he finished seventh in 2005.

By that tour stop in mid-July, the Calgarian hopes his 25th PGA season will be a success story in full swing.

“The rededication part is because I realized what I did last year — it was my worst year in five years, and it still wasn’t that bad, but
I think I needed to rededicate myself to be able to play the way I’m capable of playing,” said Ames, after his 115th-place, $916,527 standing in 2010. “I’ve done that, and I’m reaping rewards.

“I’m feeling a lot better, and I’m hitting it a lot better, and all those things are coming out now.”

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2011/05/01/ames–canadas-best-bet

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Rain not only hurts the car wash business, it cripples golf, too.

But, sooner or later the rain is going to stop and the gloom is going to be gone. It just can’t get much worse than this, can it?

Really, it won’t be long before ‘Quiet Please, golfers on the tee’ will be a familiar chant locally.

Truth is, half of the 14 New Brunswick Class 1 tournaments scheduled this summer will be contested in Metro Moncton.

Yes, it’s always about location, location, location and Metro Moncton is one of the keenest golfing destinations in Atlantic Canada.

It all begins next month (June 11-12) with the Molson New Brunswick men’s four-ball championship at the Country Meadows Golf Club.

Then, the Royal Oaks Estates and Golf Club will host the RBC Dominion Securities men’s amateur and mid-amateur championship, July 3-5.

It’s the first ever provincial championship contested at Royal Oaks. It hosted the Royale Canadian women’s amateur but this is the first high profile men’s event.

Two events are set for the Maplewood Golf Club. First, it’s the ServiceMaster For the Cure championship on Aug. 14 and a week later the New Brunswick mixed championship, Aug. 20-21.

The New Brunswick Senior men’s four-ball championship will be played at the Memramcook Resort Golf Club, Aug. 23-24, and the Estabrooks Cup, pitting the premier players from the south of the province against the best from the north, will be played at the Moncton Golf and Country Club, Oct. 1-2.

County Meadows is keen to host the men’s four-ball.

In the past, the Doug Sullivan-owned facility has hosted the Royale New Brunswick women’s amateur, the New Brunswick junior championship, the mixed and the provincial Family Classic.

Maybe the bad news has been the rain, but the good news is because of all the water Metro courses are all in excellent condition and just waiting to welcome more players.

“We think it’s going to be a terrific event and we’re excited because our course should be in the best condition possible. Looking out there now it’s simply beautiful,” said Country Meadows manager Leanne Richardson yesterday.

Richardson said hosting a high-calibre men’s event carries a special meaning for the club. She explains the facility is nearing full maturation so it should offer a good test to the players.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how the scoring goes,” she said. “I expect they will use the moderate tees. We can stretch it back quite a bit here now but I think the moderate tees still offer a good test of championship golf.”

The Country Meadows manager said her facility is always ready to take on new events.

“Part of our business is about presenting ourselves to as many new players as possible and this is definitely one way to do it. Already some of the best players in the province have travelled here to get a first-hand look at the course,” she said.

* New leadership changes were announced at the Memramcook Valley Golf Club recently.

Gerard Belliveau is the new manager of the Memramcook Institute and Resort and Charles-Henri LeBlanc is returning, after a two-year absence, to head up the overall operations of the golf course.

It was also announced that professional Louis Melanson will be assisting the course as an overall consultant.

A few of the new changes are memberships for mid-week and afternoon players, plus new rates in other categories.

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/sports/article/1407842

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Six semi-private Winnipeg golf clubs are bracing for a potential rent hike after auditors found they each pay the city’s cash-strapped golf agency only $1 a year.

An audit report released this week flagged the city’s six lease agreements with semi-private golf clubs as “significantly adverse” to Winnipeg’s financial interests. Winnipeg Golf Services is $8 million in debt, but auditors found it collects only $1 every year in rent from
Assiniboine, Canoe Club, Rossmere, Transcona, St. Boniface and Wildewood golf courses.

Winnipeg could collect upwards of $500,000 annually on these lease agreements, auditors said. Lease-holders failed to produce financial statements, the report states, and do not maintain the courses with the required capital investments.

Winnipeg Golf Services is a special operating agency that runs 12 local golf courses under five different management arrangements. Other golf courses on city-owned land, including Harbour View and Tuxedo golf courses, are contracted out to management firms that pay the city between $50,000 and $150,000 a year in rent, a percentage of their total revenues, and will invest about $1 million over the next 10 to 15 years.

Iain Day, acting chief operating officer for Winnipeg Golf Services, said the original leases for the semi-private courses were signed before municipalities amalgamated to form Winnipeg in 1972. They initially stipulated they will pay the city $1 per year to lease the land and did not pay property taxes.

Winnipeg renegotiated the agreements around 2002, but Day said golf services decided to collect property taxes instead of rent. Last year, Winnipeg collected $214,147 in property taxes from the semi-private clubs.

Winnipeg Golf Services is projected to lose another $1 million in 2011.

“If we had them paying rent at that time, there would have been a big uproar so we said, ‘Let’s get them paying taxes.’,” Day said, noting parts of the agreement are due to a “historical quirk”.

Auditors recommend Winnipeg move to renegotiate its leases with semi-private golf clubs in the short term and consider selling some of its golf courses or converting them into parks in the long run. On Friday, council’s audit committee referred the report to the alternate service delivery committee for further review.

“I can see our lease going up or the club having an opportunity to purchase the land,” said Geoff Kehler, director of operations at St. Boniface Golf Club. “It sounds like it’s more of a when than an if.”

The leases were part of a troubled financial picture delivered by auditors, who found the special operating agency has not adopted best
management practices. The report states the agency did not implement accounting systems to create meaningful financial reports and the price charged to the golfer “exceeds the value provided.”

Auditors say financial losses will continue to mount unless Winnipeg takes swift action to contract out the management of Crescent View, Kildonan Park and Windsor Park golf courses. The report said Winnipeg should consider selling Assiniboine, Wildewood and Canoe Club golf courses when their leases expire.

Assiniboine Golf Club director Glen Mills said his facility is profitable and the city will spend more money to maintain the land if they plan to convert it into park space. Mills said the city has contemplated selling its golf courses before, and hasn’t acted on it. The 93-year-old golf course’s lease expires in 2025, and Mills said he hopes club staff and members will have input before the city makes any decisions.

“We’re providing a service and if the city wants to take it away, they have to provide logical reasons as to why they’re doing it,” he said. “I’ve got a couple members who are 86 years old and they’re bringing out their six-year-old grandkids.”

Colin Craig, Prairie director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, said it sounds like the lease agreements were not negotiated properly in the first place and that Winnipeg should get out of the golf business. He said there’s no reason for the city to subsidize golf, when it complains it has no money to fix roads.

“The city should focus its efforts on fixing our roads and keeping people safe,” Craig said. “If you’re going to go play golf, you should pay for it. Why should the city subsidize it?”

Auditors found the city is subsidizing recreation programs for fewer than 20 per cent of Winnipeggers. While the number of playable days has dropped seven per cent between 2000 and 2009, the total number of rounds played declined by 40 per cent during the same time period.
“If you want people to come and spend their hard-earned money on your golf course, you’ve got to make it attractive, which means you have to continue to invest money in it,” Mayor Sam Katz said. “I think from what I’ve seen there’s been a lack of investment.”

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/city-to-take-a-swing-at-golf-121432779.html

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Winnipeg’s Scott Mazur overcame inclement weather to win the Manitoba Junior Golf’s season opener on the weekend.

The University of Manitoba golf team member shot a 4-under par 140 over at The Meadows at East St. Paul Golf Course.

Mazur, 18, turned in scores of 71 and 69 despite the blustery conditions to win the Boys 17-19 division by 10 strokes — which puts him in the running for an exemption into the Junior World Championships in San Diego, the 59th East Aurora International Junior Masters (EAIJM) in New York, and a PGA Junior Series stop.

“I made some key putts when I was struggling to make par that really kept my momentum going,” Mazur said in a release. “I made two eagles on par fives. It felt nice to play well throughout both rounds and finish with a solid score.”

Alex McDonald of Devlin, Ont., finished second at 5-over 149. Winnipeg’s Bret Thompson, 17, was third with a 152, which makes him eligible for a paid entry into a PGA Junior Series event in the States.

Thunder Bay’s Evan DeGrazia, 16, won the Boys 14-16 division at 151, which makes him an eligible qualifier for the Junior World Championships. Selkirk’s Travis Fredborg, 14, took second, just two strokes back, and Stony Mountain’s Darren Kelpin was third at 154.

In the Girls Division, Winnipeg’s Bri-Ann Tokariwski, 18, fired a 165 to win. Breanne Fredette, 17, and Dana Todd, 15 — both of Winnipeg — finished second and third at 170 and 174, respectively.

Headingley’s Brendan Kesterke, 11, needed a playoff hole to beat Winnipeg’s Rayan Soni, 13, in the Boys 13 and under division. Both shot 159 in regulation.

“My tournament highlight was my putt on the playoff hole,” Kesterke said.

Winnipeg’s Sam Diamond, who had opened with a 99, took third at 174.

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2011/05/09/junior-golfers-win-puts-him-in-running-for-worlds-exemption

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Beginning this year, these two teams will be determined through the new Moosehead Players Series. The series is comprised of eight tournaments beginning in May, and running through September.

“The Prince Edward Island Golf Association is excited about this new format for the selection of our amateur and mid-amateur men’s teams,” said PEIGA executive director Ron MacNeill. “We think it will be fun for fans to follow, and that it will provide an interesting new element to our Moosehead Series.

“Similar to the FedEx Cup, players can decide which tournaments they want to play. With double points up for grabs, the provincial amateur championship at Belvedere will be our major.”

Awarded points

Players will be awarded points based on their finish at each of these tournaments. The points count towards the Moosehead player-of-the-year award. This year, the three players who have the most points, as of July 11th following the Summerside Lobster Carnival tournament, will be invited to represent the province at the Canadian amateur championship in Winnipeg in August.

The top three mid-amateur players, as of that date, will travel to the Canadian mid-amateur championship in Oxbridge, Ont., in September.

All other provincial teams, including the women’s amateur and senior men and women, will be selected through player performance at the P.E.I. amateur championship at the Belvedere Golf Club on July 2 and 3. The provincial amateur championship will be worth double points for players competing in the Moosehead Players Series.

“The competition committee felt that the results of five tournaments would produce our best, most consistent competitive golfers,” said MacNeill. “They also believe that this format will add new excitement and meaning to the tournaments that make up the Moosehead Series.”

Two players

The competition committee also announced that the Island’s three player mid-amateur team will include two players over the age of 40.
“Although the age limit for the mid-amateurs starts at 25, most provinces have implemented a policy to permit more players over 40 to compete at national tournaments,” said MacNeill. “The objective is to offer top-level 40-year-old players the experience of playing in a Canadian championship.”

All teams, including the men’s, women’s, mid-amateur, seniors and juniors, have been reduced to three players across the country, effective this year.

http://www.journalpioneer.com/Sports/2011-04-26/article-2456283/PEI-Golf-Assoc-announces-new-format-for-team-selection/1

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No contracts have been signed and discussions remain at the broad-strokes stage, but it has a tentative name and, as Rick Janes puts it, a trophy looking for a golf tournament.

The commissioner and other Canadian Tour representatives are in Ottawa for the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance Congress, and are angling for meetings with tourism, political and sports officials in a bid to return the tour to the capital region after a decade-long absence.

The project’s working title is Governor Generals Cup, and the target is August 2012. Janes says its 50-50 at this point.

“We know what we have in our court,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “We have a lot of friends in this marketplace, and we have opportunities to develop those relationships, or redevelop those relationships. Sponsorship is all about relationships.

Lack of title sponsorship was a significant factor in the demise of the 1998-2001 Eagle Creek Classic. Janes wasn’t commissioner at that time, but knows the Classic’ story and says the time is right to try again as the tour tries to enhance a schedule light on events east of the Manitoba-Ontario border.

There are 12 official-earnings tournaments on the 2011 schedule, with two played in Colombia in March, next week’s Mexican PGA Championship and a November event in California, and there’s nothing this side of Toronto.

A successful Montreal tournament fell off the schedule when its promoter switched to the U.S.-based, 50-and-older Champions Tour, which in July will hold its second Montreal Championship at the west-end Fontainebleau course.

Janes, who also planned to meet a Montreal group this week, says there are four critical factors.

The list starts with principal corporate sponsorship, a core group of organizers to develop the tournament and a championship-calibre golf course, of which there’s no shortage in the capital region, Janes said.

No. 4 on the list is a rallying point, which is often charity- and, here in Canada, hockey-related.

For example, Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews is the official host for the Canadian Tour Players Cup in Winnipeg, and tournament week in July will include both the Jonathan Toews FORE Kids Golf Classic, which last year raised $100,000 for the Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation, and a new Jonathan Toews and Friends Celebrity Pro-Am.

Janes would love to explore possibilities with the Ottawa Senators or the Sens Foundation.

“Hockey and golf go hand in hand,” he said. “We see that in Winnipeg. It has worked very well with Jonathan.”

Some of the discussions about an Ottawa tournament will include whether it should be a strictly Canadian Tour stop or something involving the European Challenge Tour, which co-sponsored the Colombian events, with the idea that an international flavour might resonate in this region.

Whatever happens, it will have to happen rather quickly, given the time required to sell local sponsorships for a tournament that would be on the 2012 schedule.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/Golf+Canadian+Tour+coming+back+Ottawa/4685261/story.html#ixzz1KovdwOk7

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Reigning U.S. Open champion Paula Creamer and world No. 2 Jiyai Shin will be teeing it up at the 2011 CN Canadian Women’s Open.

Creamer, Shin and Christina Kim on Monday confirmed their early entry for the LPGA Tour’s lone stop in Canada, set for Aug. 22-28 at Hillsdale G&CC in Mirabel, Que.

Michelle Wie is the reigning champion after picking up her second career victory on tour in Winnipeg last year.

“Our field is one of, if not the strongest on tour and should once again feature a mix of established veterans, notable Canadians and emerging superstars that will treat Canadian fans to a tremendous golf showcase later this summer,” tournament director Sean Van Kesteren said in a release.

The tournament boasts a US $2.25 million purse.

http://scoregolf.com/articles/news/2011/April/Creamer-Shin-commit-to-Canadian-Open

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