Southwood tourney proves golf alive and well

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/08/2022 (1444 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three years ago I drove away from Southwood having just covered the 100th anniversary of one of the longest-running golf tournaments in North America, with one major thought swirling through my mind.

Would there even be a 101st version of the Manitoba Open, which was known at the time as the Players Cup?

That’s not hyperbole. It truly felt like the prestigious event I used to caddy for as a teenager more than three decades ago was on life support. Despite tremendous competition, terrific weather, no shortage of energetic volunteers and free admission — that’s speaking the language locals love — almost nobody had come out to watch at the sprawling, 300-acre course that runs adjacent to the Trappist Monastery Ruins in St. Norbert.

And that, folks, was a significant red flag. Not to mention an alarming sight for anyone who loves golf.

With no lucrative television contract, the PGA Tour Canada and the various courses where tournaments are held depend on revenue from ticket sales, concessions and merchandise to help keep the lights on, along with the generous support of corporate partners.

All of that appeared to be drying up around here, as the sport itself seemed to be sputtering along.

The answer to my question would have to wait a couple years, thanks to a global pandemic which wiped out scheduled tournaments in 2020 and 2021. But now, having covered the 2022 Open over the past week, I’m happy to report that not only did it go ahead as planned, but it also has a pulse.

No, the patient isn’t completely out of the woods. But this will go down as the year it got up off the mat, dusted itself off and showed it can still be a force to be reckoned with.

Crowds were up, going from a few hundred non-paying ones to a few thousand over the shortened week. At one point during Sunday afternoon’s fourth and final round, there was a call for additional volunteers on the holes featuring the final two groups because of crowd sizes. Put that one down under a welcome problem to have.

There was a noticeable increase in pre-tournament promotion for the event which certainly helped, along with the resurgence of golf over the past two years in this community. In a funny way, COVID ended up being a very good thing for the sport, with memberships and waiting lists booming. No doubt that also created a boost in local interest.

Organizers also did a stellar job lining more than two dozen strong local sponsors, led by CentrePort Canada Railpark. Partnering with the True North Youth Foundation as the charity wing was a smart move, too, as illustrated by the successful pro-am event last Wednesday which included both morning and afternoon flights due to demand.

A cheque for $115,000, representing the net proceeds from the tournament, was given to the charity Sunday evening.

And not enough can be said about the dedicated work of staff and more than 200 volunteers from Southwood, who had to contend with a curveball courtesy of Mother Nature. Several inches of rain on Monday, and again on Thursday, pushed the start of the four-day event to Friday. More than 1.7 million gallons of water were pumped off the course over a 12-hour period starting Thursday night, and the praise from players over the course conditions was notable. And well-deserved.

Sunday was the icing on the cake, with a marathon 36-hole finish in sweltering heat that wasn’t easy to pull off. But they passed the test, and with flying colours. Our media work area was adjacent to the volunteer centre, so I was privy to plenty of chatter amongst the masses about how it was going. Despite the challenges, nary a complaint was heard.

I’ve had the honour of covering three different professional golf tournaments this summer involving three different professional golf tours. I was in Hamburg, Germany, at the beginning of June to follow local product Aaron Cockerill teeing it up in the Porsche European Open on the DP World Tour. A week later I joined the Stony Mountain golfer in Toronto, where he made his PGA Tour debut in the RBC Canadian Open. And now the long-awaited return of the PGA Tour Canada to Manitoba.

No, the Southwood event didn’t have the same pomp and circumstance of the other two, which are on much bigger stages and with much bigger budgets, of course. But it absolutely held its own, and then some. Plenty of players I chatted with in the clubhouse during the week went out of their way to speak about how well-run this tournament was, stating it was among the best they’d seen on tour all summer.

The par-three 17th, which was turned into the “Party Hole” complete with grandstands, food and alcohol service and a live DJ, was a particular highlight, as worthy champion Parker Coody pointed out in his speech on the 18th green early Sunday evening.

A tip of the cap to tournament chair Neil Taylor and his staff, Southwood COO Jeff Scott and his crew, and the countless others who made it a success.

As I drove away from the course on Sunday night, it was nice knowing the Manitoba Open is in better shape than it had been recently. Not to mention in very good hands.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg