The news is nothing but bad north of the border up there in the land of Molson and ice hockey.
The Canadian Open, one of golf’s oldest championships, right behind the Open Championship and the U.S. Open has been thrown into a black hole by the PGA Tour.
All the big-name players showed up at this event over the years. Tiger Woods and Lee Trevino are the only players to win all three — Canadian, U.S. and British.
The event has been held at Glen Abbey for the past 29 years. Glen Abbey itself is historic. It was Jack Nicklaus’ first solo design.
Fast forward and the championship has been relegated to a death-slot on the PGA Tour schedule — week after the Open Championship — week before a WGC (Bridgestone) event and two weeks before the PGA.
Sad, very sad.
Now it gets even worse.
ClubLink Corp., the company that now owns Glen Abbey, is looking to bulldoze the property and build new housing!
Arrrrggghhhhhhhh!!!
Giant eyeball roll on that one.
Nicklaus was there this week, trying to lend some punch to the week with a personal appearance.
Nicklaus is very aware of the pending destruction of his first design.
It is what it is,” he said. “Glen Abbey is under pressure from that standpoint. I’d hate to see it torn down, but progress moves on. But, you know, we did this golf course 41 years ago, and I think we could do something better today.”
Nicklaus is in discussion with some groups to design a new layout that could host future Canadian Opens. That, at least, is some decent news in the wake of what’s transpiring up there in Oakville.
In the meantime, this week’s Canadian Open goes on — a proud national championship that has been totally undone by the PGA Tour.
