Organizers already teeing up for Hamilton’s Open

Organizers of next year’s RBC Canadian Open at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club aren’t letting any grass grow under their feet.

Staff and volunteers from the golf club have been working on the 2019 PGA Tour event (June 6-9) for weeks, even before Golf Canada began tearing down the grandstands at this year’s championship which ended Sunday at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville. “The local community and the membership are buying into the tournament and we’ve already been extremely successful, internally with corporate sales,” said Scott Shannon, who is the committee chair for next year’s tournament.

Shannon and Peter Holt, the golf club’s general manager and chief operating officer, spent Saturday at Glen Abbey in meetings and checking out how this year’s event was conducted. Throughout the week, most of the committee chairs for next year’s tournament as well as key staff from the club were on scouting missions at Glen Abbey. Shannon said he found the footprint of the tournament’s infrastructure to be much larger than when it was played at the Hamilton club in 2003, 2006 and 2012, but there also may be more usable and saleable space on the golf course because of the number of trees that are no longer there. The fact that the Hamilton golf club is off and running is no surprise to Bill Paul, who is in charge of professional championships for Golf Canada.

“We’ve challenged each other on what we want to do with corporate sales,” said Paul. “They’re off to a great start and our sales guys are off to a great start renewing customers at Glen Abbey but Hamilton has always gotten of to a good start a year out from the tournament.”

When the PGA Tour agreed to give the RBC Canadian Open new dates in early June next year, just prior to the U.S Open, that will also change things for local organizers because students will still be in class. “When we drove in we saw a bunch of school buses that they were using for (spectator) shuttles,” said Shannon. “Next year, especially during the week, they’ll be running their bus routes. It will affect our volunteers as well. A lot of our standard bearers have been Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12 students and they may not be able to get out for the full week or we may have to be careful how we schedule them.”

In the seven years since the last Canadian Open was held in Ancaster, merchandizing has changed dramatically with the advent of online sales and Shannon says they realized this weekend they have to get a handle on that.

“The ability to sell logoed merchandise pre-tournament online was a non-event in 2012,” said Shannon.

Holt added that they are now working with Golf Canada to see how they can offer merchandise packages that include tickets as well as a hat or a flag and have them ready for Christmas. Both Shannon and Holt are anxious to get the word out that this is not just a Hamilton Golf and Country Club event and that they’re eager to hear from the community at large.

“Someone may want to do some sort of sponsorship or promotion at the Open and they don’t have to be a member at the club,” said Shannon.

Anyone who is interested can contact Holt at pholt@hgcc.ca