A little bit of golf magic right before your eyes

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/08/2010 (5851 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Must be the Johnny Hayseed in your humble agent that stirs the juices every time the big leagues come to town.

It may be quite pedestrian to all the cool kids, but when CBC and Golf Channel trailer trucks start rolling in and people whose faces grace Sports Illustrated arrive in our humble prairie burg, that’s not just another day in River City.

Yes, an 18-hole circus is coming to town, white tents and all, and it’s about to unfold at the swank St. Charles Country Club when the CN Canadian Women’s Open tees off this week and 48 of the top 50 women’s players on the planet — and we mean planet, given that the LPGA Tour is a United Nations of golf, with 28 countries represented — converge on our fair city.

It’s going to be an eye-opener, because professional golf is a little bit like magic. You know how you watch some guy make a Buick disappear on the TV and it’s impressive, right? But to see it happen right before your eyes is another matter entirely.

That’s because while a large portion of the population has golfed, or watched every week on television, very few of us have witnessed the sport played at a world-class level.

Seriously, it’s another world. And this week, it’s in our backyard.

After all, how often can you roll out of bed in West Kildonan or St. Boniface and jump in the car to go watch Paula Creamer and Michelle Wie from a couple club lengths away?

“I think they (spectators) will be completely amazed at what’s involved in the golf tournament,” said Open director Sean Van Kesteren. “People think there may be a couple concessions selling Tim Hortons coffee and they’ll come here and go, ‘Whoa, what’s going on here?’ “

You see, the Canadian Open is different from a lot of LPGA stops.

It’s bigger, with 1,400 volunteers and 2,500 bleacher seats spread around the track. There’s more prize money ($2.25 million), the fourth-highest purse on the tour.

And there’s only one top player, pin-up girl Natalie Gulbis, not in attendance (along with recently retired ex-No. 1 player Lorena Ochoa).

In other words, it’s the exact opposite of the men’s Canadian Open, which can’t draw flies. Or Tigers, for that matter.

No, it’s not a major on the LPGA Tour. But for the average spectator, that’s mere semantics, given that it’s the world’s best female golfers on display, with the winner taking home one of those oversized cheques for $335,000-plus.

“There might not be as many people (at the CN Open as opposed to the U.S. Open),” Kesteren added, “but we’re catching up to them.”

At best, weather permitting, they’re hoping to attract upwards of 70,000 spectators to St. Charles this week — and that includes yesterday’s pro-am and practices leading up to Thursday’s opening round.

Open officials will brag about the accessibility to the players. They will tell you that you’ll get an up-close access to the game that television, despite it’s omnipresence, can’t provide. Said Van Kesteren: “You can hear what they’re saying to their caddies. You can see their emotions. You almost get in their shoes for a round of golf.”

Me? I don’t want to get in Ai Miyazato’s shoes. That would be awkward and really, really uncomfortable. But I would like to get an notion of what the No. 1 women’s golfer in the entire world can do with the dimples.

Perceptions will be altered. Just as when the PGA seniors tour rolled into town a few years back, with the legendary Jack Nicklaus on the marquee. Naturally, all eyes were on the Golden Bear. But in the process you saw 50-something after 60-something players launch their drives seemingly effortlessly over 250-300 yards off the tee box, again at St. Charles.

On one hand, it’s impressive. On the other hand, you begin to seriously question why you would even bother to expose what you do on a public golf course — which itself can be a victim — ever again. Like we said, it’s another world, and only the very best have a passport.

So you might want to come to the Open because it’s a national championship. Or because it raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Manitoba Children’s Hospital Foundation.

That’s fine, too.

But it’s not every day you get to golf in Michelle Wie’s shoes (I hear she’s a size 11).

And it is very much like magic with these once-in-a-decade or so world-class events.

Now they’re here.

Poof, now they’re gone.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca