Pro Shop magazine and the Golf Industry Network recently had the opportunity to spend some time (virtually) with Chief Executive Officer of Golf Canada Laurence Applebaum, to talk about the issues that are facing the sport in Canada right now.
Here is our question-and-answer with him.
Q: What are the challenges facing golf in Canada and Golf Canada in the post-Covid world?
Applebaum: I think we are living through one of the most exciting and interesting, yet complex, times for golf. Covid had a silver lining in that it was a boon for our sport across the country and, in fact, around the world.
It’s been well documented that golf was very well suited as an amazing activity for people to do safely, and to be a respite for people to do the last two years. The game is experiencing a boom and that’s nowhere more evident than here in Canada, and play is at the highest levels it’s been in recorded history.
I hear so much about memberships being full and waiting lists, tee sheets being full, and one of the buzzwords now is retention. How do we keep people playing at this level and maybe even growing it? And how do we open up the doors of golf to more women and more under-represented populations and more kids. That’s a major challenge that we’re focusing on.
But I also know that a lot of golf managers and operators are dealing with all the macro-economic factors, labour supply, wages, and cost of doing business, that are affecting many, many businesses right now.
I think 2022 is going to be so important to us to continue the momentum.
Q: How do you maintain that momentum?
Applebaum: We’re spending a lot of time talking with people inside the golf business, experts in many different areas. We’re trying to figure out how we drive value within our Golf Canada membership and to keep the sport more top of mind.
We’re very fortunate that Canadians on the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour have been in the mix, and of course we’re all rooting for our Canadians to get into the winners’ circle.
And the RBC Canadian Open is gearing up to be a spectacle of a summer event of golf and food and music; really a celebration for all Canadians to enjoy the best golfers in the world coming to play in Canada.
Q: What’s the status of your contracts with RBC to sponsor the Men’s Open and CP as sponsor of the Women’s Open?
Applebaum: Overall, we’re very fortunate to have two longstanding long term, deeply committed partners in Canadian Pacific Railways and RBC.
On the CP side, they’ve had some really interesting developments on the business side, bringing in Kansas City Southern Railway, and they’ve been very occupied with that acquisition, as well as running a supply-chain business that’s been vital to the economy.
We remain exceptionally close to the management team at CP and we have long-term plans that we’re continuing to talk about, and we look forward to ramping those up as we get closer to the CP Women’s Open in August.
In the same vein, our work with RBC goes from strength to strength and we’ve been very lucky. In the last year alone, you can see RBC being even further committed to golf with their support of RBC Community Junior Golf, which is a program that works hand in hand with First Tee.
You’ve also seen their commitments to Canadians on both the PGA and LPGA Tour and their overall investment in the RBCxMusic event at our event.
The grandiosity of the Canadian Open is a reflection of RBC’s commitment to golf in this country. We’ve had outstanding discussions about the future of our partnership together and it looks very encouraging.
Q: Is Golf Canada still committed to a rotation schedule for the Canadian Open, especially since there appears to be only three courses on that rotation?
Applebaum: That’s a fair question. We are committed. We will be at Oakdale in 2023, Hamilton in 2024, and Oakdale in 2026.
Going into this year, we have four of the next six years taken care of. We have a few openings that we’re looking at. We really love the golf courses that we’re currently playing at. We know that they’ve been very well vetted, successful golf courses and we’re thrilled to be bringing in a new one in Oakdale Golf and Country Club that the PGA Tour thinks will be exceptional.
Our goal is to provide years of runway. The event is getting so grandiose in size and scale that we want to make sure we provide a great venue that is great for fans, and exquisite for players.
Q: There are rumours out there that Golf Canada is considering moving its headquarters (from Glen Abbey in Oakville) to TPC Toronto at Osprey in Caledon. Is there anything to that?
Applebaum: We continue to do due diligence about the future home for Golf Canada. It’s something we have our eye on as mid to long term development for our organization. That’s all I can say at this point.
Q: Now that you’ve launched First Tee are you getting any buy-in from the National Golf Course Owners’ Association because there’s nothing about it on their website?
Applebaum: That’s an interesting look at it. We’ve been looking for three or four years at bringing First Tee into Canada after almost 25 years of success in the United States. Finally, in 2021, we were able to execute on those plans with pilot locations in B.C., Ontario, and Quebec.
This program is starting to get some real momentum. We’ve opened up two more provincial chapters in Atlantic Canada and in Alberta later this year. Our goal is to have 100,000 kids participating in First Tee.
The message that we like to share with people is that it’s a life-skills program that uses golf as a medium rather than being a golf program.
We’ve had encouraging discussions with the NGCOA and the PGA of Canada, and the club managers and the superintendents. We’ve had very nice conversations with all of our (National Allied Golf Associations of Canada) partners.
The last year in particular, people have been so focused on being able to operate their golf courses safely and to bring people on, it hasn’t been the most conducive environment for new programs.
I would say that the NGCOA has been very supportive of First Tee and are looking for ways they can engage on it. They have eagerly reached out to see if they can find ways to plug in to this program and we just haven’t found the right way yet.
Q: Golf Canada recently announced a huge expansion of the National Teams Program and you’ve announced that the goal is to have 30 players by 2032 on the PGA and LPGA Tours. Aren’t you opening yourself up for failure with a statement like that?
Applebaum: It’s a very un-Canadian thing to do to put out lofty targets before you’ve achieved them. The Canadian thing is to do it first and then look back on it, but we felt it was really time for us to drive towards a goal.
I get asked this more than almost any other question, about our Canadians on tour and how successful we are, and it’s very encouraging to see Canadian flags on leader boards, but we think we can do more.
We think there’s another couple of gears we can go to. When Kevin Blue, our chief sport officer, came on board, he did a most comprehensive and thorough analysis of our opportunity, speaking with nearly a hundred different stakeholders, and he set out a plan, and we are laser focused on having 30 Canadians on the PGA and LPGA Tours by 2032.
