If you think the 99th Grey Cup in November is the next national sports championship to be decided in Vancouver, think again.
Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club is celebrating its centennial with the 2011 RBC Canadian Open July 18 to 24. Shaughnessy was actually founded in 1911 as the Shaughnessy Heights Golf Course, but moved to 162 acres of land leased from the Musqueam Indian Band in the fall of 1960.
A lot has changed since the tournament was last played there in 2005.
“The breadth and depth of the sponsors have changed and improved for the better,” said Golf Canada chief commercial officer Larry Thomas.
When Mark Calcavecchia won, he raised the trophy on September 13, after the peak of the PGA Tour season. This time the Canadian Open is the first tournament after the British Open and three weeks before the last major of the year, the PGA Championship, in Johns Creek, Georgia.
BMW has signed on as a luxury automobile partner. Previous title sponsor Bell is a premier sponsor and, thanks to a new PGA Tour policy, has a new on-course activation opportunity.
Shaughnessy club rules include a blanket ban on cellphones and laptop computers. That will be lifted during tournament week. The Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, introduced the first PGA Tour phone zones in February. The six areas, sponsored by Verizon, permitted voice calls.
Elsewhere on the course, phones set on silent could be used for texting, emailing and tweeting, except when the marshals raised their authoritative “quiet” paddles.
Audio and video recording were both banned, but still photography was allowed on the Wednesday.
Golf Canada is expecting 90,000 to 100,000 attendees and is opening gates for free to children under 17.
Despite the market dominance of the Vancouver Canucks, the Vancouver Whitecaps ascension to Major League Soccer and this fall’s Grey Cup, Thomas is satisfied with the corporate hospitality sales.
Of the 25 catered ninth-green tables for $20,000 each, one remained last week. The inventory of 24 $65,000 catered skyboxes on the 18th green is sold out.
“There are great properties within the Vancouver marketplace people can use for hospitality and entertainment, but they all bring different elements to the table,” Thomas said. “The wonderful thing about golf, and particularly a national championship, we have six million golfers in the country, 21% of the country golfs at some point of the year, so many people are engaged with the sport personally.”
That interest may be sparked by the likelihood of seeing top golfers compete.
“Who’s that man?” instead of “you the man!” was the knock against the Greater Vancouver Open/Air Canada Championship PGA Tour stop from 1996 to 2002 at Surrey’s Northview Golf and Country Club.
The Canadian Open was once considered golf’s fifth, unofficial major. RBC sought a solution by signing bag sponsorships with the likes of top world-ranked golfer Luke Donald, 2006 and 2007 winner Jim Furyk, Canadian contenders Stephen Ames and Mike Weir, PGA Tour mainstays Ernie Els and Fred Couples and Matt Kuchar, who led the PGA Tour with $4.91 million in winnings last year. They were also declared Team RBC ambassadors.
Of course, convincing U.S. Open winner Rory McIlroy to play would be a major coup.
“He may want to spend some time at home after he finishes (the British Open),” said Thomas, who joined Golf Canada in February after 30 years with Readers Digest. “Our fingers are crossed.”
Golf Canada is also hosting the CN Canadian Women’s Open August 20 to 26, 2012, at Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam.
During the Vancouver Olympics, PyeongChang 2018’s bid team won the hospitality battle with Annecy and Munich by hosting hospitality events at Korea House in the Hyatt Regency.
The glitzy show that included scantily clad dancers and magicians was a small part of the campaign to sway the International Olympic Committee members who ultimately voted July 6 in Durban, South Africa.
The mastermind of the winning South Korean strategy was Mike Lee of Vero Campaigning Communications. Lee also was behind London 2012, Rio 2016 and Qatar 2022.
On the road to 2018, the global sidebar will be about relations between South Korea and North Korea, which suffers under dictator Kim Jong-Il.
For Canadians, it could speed up negotiations for a free-trade deal. Ottawa and Seoul have been talking since 2004.
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