The title sponsor of the CN Canadian Women’s Open has helped rebuild the national championship into one of the marquee events on the LPGA Tour, but its support beyond 2010 is up in the air because of the recession.
“I think you can appreciate that these are difficult times, and certainly we will be evaluating what we do,” said Stan Jablonski, senior vice-president of sales for Canadian National Railway. “We have a lot of decisions to make.”
Montreal-based CN has been the title sponsor since 2001. Its contract with tournament organizers expires after the 2010 playing of the event.
Jablonski said CN has begun discussions with organizers at the Royal Canadian Golf Association but nothing has been decided about “what the future may bring.”
The LPGA Tour has been whacked recently by the recession. The tour has at least three fewer events on its calendar this year because of sponsorship loss and the historic Corning Classic was played for the 31st and final time last week.
Despite the dark clouds, the Canadian event has been gaining ground this decade under CN’s watch, regaining the lustre it had when it was a major.
The purse has climbed dramatically – to $2.75-million (U.S.) this year, the third-biggest on the tour, behind only the U.S. Women’s Open and the Evian Masters – and the fields have strengthened. Last year, 48 of the world’s top 50 women entered when the tournament was held at the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club and won by Australian Katherine Hull.
Choosing classic venues for the Canadian Women’s Open recently has also contributed to the event’s rising status. That trend continued yesterday when the RCGA announced the 2010 tournament will be held at St. Charles Country Club in Winnipeg.
The private course opened in 1904 and has staged some of Canada’s biggest tournaments, including the 1952 Canadian Open, the 1992 Canadian Women’s Open (when it was a major and known as the du Maurier Classic) and the 2000 AT&T Senior PGA Championship.
Tour players should be just as pleased as they have been in recent years when the championship was held at such other venerable tracks as Ottawa Hunt, the Royal Mayfair Golf Club and the London Hunt and Country Club.
“I love playing the old courses, as I grew up playing at Brantford [Golf and Country Club],” Alena Sharp of Hamilton said yesterday. “I love the old trees and the usually-narrow driving areas.”
This year’s edition will be played at Priddis Greens Golf & Country Club in Calgary, beginning Sept. 3.
St. Charles, which has 27 holes, will use its Mackenzie course for the front nine and the Ross course for the back. They are named after the esteemed architects who designed them – Alister Mackenzie, who also co-created Augusta National Golf Club, and Donald Ross.
The same pair of nines were used in 1992, when Sherri Steinhauer won, and little will need to be done to get them ready for 2010.
“It’s perfect the way it is,” tournament director Sean Van Kesteren said yesterday during a conference call. “We’ve spoken with the LPGA Tour, and they still need to make the trip up there. But they trust our judgment. We’re going to play it as is.”
The tournament is expected to bring $10-million into the Winnipeg and area economy and will coincide with Manitoba Homecoming 2010, a year-long civic celebration.
