Women’s Open tourney in dire straits
Because it keeps missing its drop-dead date, our country’s women’s open golf championship is alive. Barely, though. The Royal Canadian Golf Association still is negotiating with a sponsor — one begging not to be identified — so it can hold the championship next year at the London Hunt Club. Even if no angel signs up, the RCGA is considering making sure the championship takes place, one way or the other. As well it should. The question of historical continuity is at stake here. How could there not be a national women’s open golf championship, whether it’s an LPGA Tour event or not?
“ The process is taking longer than we had expected,” RCGA chief operating officer Rick Desrochers said yesterday. “ We’re still in discussions with our only prospect. Our drop-dead date was September, then we extended it to Oct. 1. If we have to squeeze out a couple more weeks to save the event, we will.” There are several interested parties awaiting a decision he said might still be a week away. The LPGA Tour needs to know what’s up. London Hunt has been waiting for months for word, one way or the other. Desrochers said he might urge the club to put it to its members for a vote “ on a what- if basis.” There is talk that even if a sponsor is obtained, the event might be skipped a year and restored for 2007 — a path that should be clearly unacceptable, for obvious reasons.
“ It would include ’ 06. That’s why we’re hanging on,” Desrochers said. “ But our board has talked about it and for ’ 06 we feel we would have some form of event ( even without a new sponsor), perhaps as a part of the Canadian Women’s Tour. We might do that for the sake of a year. We would not want to abandon it.”
It’s inconceivable the RCGA could, particularly in the same calendar year it amalgamated with the Canadian Ladies Golf Association, allegedly for the good of women’s golf. Some good that would be, to dump the national championship. The event, around for decades, fell on hard times in 2000 when it lost its major championship status due to federal anti- tobacco legislation. At this point, who cares if it’s not part of the LPGA Tour for a year? What has the LPGA Tour done for Canadian women’s golf lately? The answer, since it took away the major designation, is nothing.
This year’s date ran right into the men’s British Open and next year’s, tentatively, matches the men’s U.S. Open. There’s not much TV time or newspaper space left over. No wonder Bank of Montreal bailed out and new sponsors aren’t lined up. Sponsors need bang for their bucks, especially when the tab could be as much as $ 2.5 million a year on a long- term deal.
Still, it’s slightly surprising that no Canadian company is stepping up, given that women’s golf has a chance to get hot in the next few years. The official announcement comes tomorrow that Michelle Wie is turning pro, with $ 10 million ( U. S.) in corporate start- up backing. The question: where does she play? But the LPGA Tour will surely find her a commissioner’s exemption, or some such thing. Wie will keep playing against men until everyone is completely tired of that idea, but the LPGA would be crazy to let her get away. It won’t.
Sooner or later, too, Wie will have to stop ducking Morgan Pressel. There’s a delicious rivalry out there, waiting to be played out several times a season. With any luck, a rebuilt and revitalized Canadian Open would be one of the potential stages. That’s provided it survives and think of the hell the RCGA will catch if it doesn’t. GOOD LUCK, FRANK:
Wish a fond farewell to long- time Woodbine and Mohawk announcer Frank Salive, who is moving on to London’s Western Fair after 14 years calling the trots. A nice guy who did a good job and will be missed.