Open for Business

The eyes of the golf world will be focused on St. Andrews this week for one of golf's major championships, the British Open. Considerably fewer eyes will stray to St. George's Golf and Country Club in Toronto for the following week's event, the RBC Canadian Open. It's just a fact of life on the PGA Tour that if your tournament isn't a major, a World Golf Championship, or doesn't have certain fellows named Woods or MIckelson in the field, you're going to be somewhat overshadowed.

The Canadian Open, though, is still alive and well as it approaches its 101st edition. Though golf's two biggest stars rarely tee it up in our national tournament (Tiger Woods hasn't played in the Open since 2001, Phil Mickelson since 2004), several of the other top golfers in the world have played the event on at least a few occasions in recent years.

Non-golf fans may get their patriotic dander up over why the Canadian Open isn't a signature PGA Tour stop for every top pro, but just as in real estate, it comes to location, location, location. Not the tournament venues themselves -- if anything, top players are attracted by the challenge of quality courses like Glen Abbey, Royal Montreal and St. George's. The Open's locations are just fine, but it's the tournament's location on the Tour schedule that's the problem.

Consider: over the next 11 weeks, the Tour will host seven tournaments that will draw all the best players in the world. Of greatest import are the two remaining major championships of the golf season, the British Open and the PGA Championship. In between the two majors you have the Bridgestone Invitational, a World Golf Championship event that boasts a prize purse of almost $9 million. Finally, there are the four tournaments that comprise the FedEx Cup playoff series that (theoretically) determines the year's best golfer and unofficially brings the PGA Tour season to a close.

It's unfortunate enough that the Canadian Open follows the British Open on the schedule, and many pros (after going through the grind of a major and making one cross-Atlantic flight) aren't keen on zipping back across the ocean and immediately getting back into the mix of a tournament. But with all of the other big events stacked right behind it, it's even harder for Canadian Open organizers to convince top players to add yet another event to an already-packed stretch of time.

And yet, more often than not, the Open's organizers are able to do just that. In the last few years alone, when the Open has been caught with this less-than-ideal date, the tournament has featured the likes of Fred Couples, Jim Furyk, Retief Goosen, Anthony Kim, Vijay Singh, Camilo Villegas and (naturally) Canada's own Mike Weir.

The title sponsor's contribution to the tournament should not be overlooked. If it wasn't for RBC stepping up to put their name on the event, the Canadian Open might have gone the way of the Buick Open or the International -- notable summer tournaments that are now defunct due to a lack of steady sponsorship. As much as some golf fans complain about a lack of ‘star power’ at any given Canadian Open, a tournament with a handful of top players is infinitely preferable to no tournament at all.

RBC's stability is also important given how many other Tour sponsors are hurting thanks to the economy. Should another tournament or two go by the wayside, the Canadian Open could be moved into a more favourable date on the schedule. Something in May or June would be the best option -- though big events like the Players Championship, Memorial and U.S. Open are played in this period, there's not nearly the crunch that exists in the Canadian Open's current slot.

The Canadian Open may not have the 'fifth major' cache that it owned at other times in its long history, but no matter the star power, it still promises to be an exciting event on a fantastic golf course. Is it too bad that Phil and Tiger aren't going to be playing on Islington Avenue in two weeks? Sure, but look on the bright side: with Woods absent, female golf fans attending the event won't be bothered by a stream of incoming texts.