The National Open is Dead (Unless it’s a Major)
Following the week of the Canadian Open, golf contributor Austin Evans tells us why national championships of countries not named the United States or the United Kingdom are struggling to be relevant.
This title is not a new statement. The national 0pen has been dead for a while.
If it wasn’t for scheduling and sponsors, the Canadian Open may not even exist anymore. Yet somehow it does, and Jhonattan Vegas was able to defend his title in a playoff over Charley Hoffman. Glen Abbey yielded extremely low scores, leaving Vegas and Hoffman only one shot short of tying the tournament record (Eldrick, 2000). But as always, there were three key story lines from the week.
- Is Glenn Abbey going to be sold and demolished for real estate?
- Why can’t the Canadian Open be played at some of the great courses that Canada has to offer?
- This spot on the schedule remains unfortunate, and if not for RBC players contractual obligations, would anyone show up?
The first storyline, which has been rumoured for some time now, was put on the back burner for at least one more year. Glen Abbey will host again next year and possibly again in 2019.
For story line two, despite the players expressing their perpetual loathing of the course year after year, the continual return to Glen Abbey has simply reasoning. Having the infrastructure in place to hold fans and have a good spectating course that was built for tour golf makes it a more fan friendly and tour efficient setup than some of the great old Canadian courses (see Royal Montreal, St George’s, Rideau View). Also, the proximity to Toronto enables one of the biggest markets in the world to be exposed to the tournament, making it easier to have healthy attendance. It is not ideal for any golf purist, but the tournament needs to protect its bottom line to stay relevant.
The third storyline stems from a problem that has faced global golf for years.
The national open is dead, unless you are the US Open or Open Championship. Tournaments like the Canadian Open, the South African Open, and the Australian Open have all existed since the turn of the 20th century, and they now struggle every year to get star players to partake, all because of money and prestige.
The Canadian Open was the 5th biggest tournament in the world during large stretches of the 20th century. In the 1970’s, it was given a prime location between the US Open and Open Championship in the middle of the summer schedule, which was much less crowded with the PGA Championship being played in February. However, with the advent of the lucrative WGC events and Fed Ex Cup playoffs, players plan their schedules around these events and the majors. Consequently, the PGA Tour tries to schedule these tournaments so that there are not too many stretches with multiple big tournaments consecutively and sponsors aren’t complaining about player disinterest or fatigue.
Conclusion: more money = more prestige= Canadian Open after Open Championship and before Bridgestone/PGA.
Should we blame the players or the golf media for putting more onus on tournaments with higher titles and purses over national opens? Not as long as playing privileges are based on money and Fed Ex Cup points.
Right now, this generation of tour players lacks the tournament saviour in the ilk of Ben Hogan going to the Open in 1953 for the Triple Crown, or Arnold Palmer going to the Open in 1960 to restart the onslaught of Americans going over. The closest comparable in the modern day is Jordan Spieth’s commitment to playing the Australian Open each year, or Rory playing in the South African Open earlier this year.
With the rumours of the PGA Championship potentially moving to earlier in the calendar in future scheduled years, this could open up the opportunity for the Canadian Open to regain a less populated spot on the schedule and alleviate some of the barriers to getting a strong field to participate. Hopefully this will open up the possibility of being able to play better courses and rebuild the importance of the national open.
Austin is TheOcho.ca’s golf contributor. He also writes about basketball and hosts The Ocho Top Ten podcast with TheOcho.ca EIC Riley Evans. Follow Austin on Twitter at @austevans24.
