Southwood the host with the most

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This article was published 19/08/2018 (2694 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT was a year of major change for Manitoba’s biggest golf tournament, one that landed the annual summer event both a new home and a new spot on the calendar.

But with the Players Cup now in the rear-view mirror — and the focus quickly shifting to next year’s milestone 100th-anniversary celebration — players and organizers were quick to declare the latest edition a success.

Sure, members of the Mackenzie Tour — PGA Tour Canada may have feasted on Southwood Golf & Country Club as rather favourable weather conditions made for prime scoring conditions. But it appears the overall experience left everyone involved hungry for more.

“Any time you move from a venue that you’ve been at for a number of years into a new venue, there’s a few uncertainties, in terms of are you going to keep the core volunteers that were at Pine Ridge and are they going to come here, what’s the reception going to be like at the new facility. But from our perspective, it’s been tremendous,” Mackenzie Tour vice-president Scott Pritchard said Sunday.

Pine Ridge hosted the tournament last year, as they have primarily since 2000. Niakwa was the 2016 home. Southwood, which moved locations from the University of Manitoba to St. Norbert in 2011, took on a three-year commitment beginning this past week. It was a homecoming of sorts, as Southwood held the tournament 11 times in their history at their former course.

“We checked off all the boxes and it was a good week,” said Adam Boge, executive director of The Players Cup. “The tour is really happy with how things went this week. A lot of spectators, more than we thought, which was awesome. Obviously, Mark Scheifele coming into the tournament on Thursday and Friday helped with that. We had close to 400 volunteers, including the caddies, so that was a fantastic number. The Southwood maintenance staff and the (tournament) committee have been just phenomenal to work with.”

Scheifele certainly brought more eyeballs to the product as a marquee sponsor’s exemption, which is why he was given one despite knowing he’d be in tough on the course. The star Winnipeg Jets centre finished last after shooting rounds of 87 and 86, missing the cut by 35 strokes.

“I think Mark handled himself extremely well. I was very impressed with him, I had never met him before and had only heard about him. I had heard great things. I was very proud of the way he handled himself,” Pritchard said. “I don’t think he knew what he was getting into, quite frankly. But any time you can add a player to the field that is going to draw interest to the event, I think it’s a good thing.”

The Players Cup traditionally has been held in early July, but moving it to mid-August added a sense of urgency to the event. With only one more tournament following this in Montreal, players were scrambling to solidify their spots. The top five money winners earn Web.com Tour cards, while six through 20 all skip to later stages of Web qualifying school. As well, the top 60 get automatic exemptions into the 2019 Mackenzie Tour.

“For the date, I think it worked out really well, not only to get more volunteers but also for the spectators to be able to come and watch the golf. It gives us, The Players Cup, a little more time to advertise and promote the tournament,” Boge said.

As for the course itself, Southwood played long and afforded players the freedom and flexibility to let loose.

“From what I’ve heard from the players, they’re absolutely loving it. They like playing long courses where they can hit driver. They have the opportunity out here where if they want they can hit driver on 14 holes. So that, for them, is important,” Pritchard said. “It’s also important for us, from a developmental perspective, in that when they get to the next level they’re playing courses where it’s demanding and they need that experience hitting driver under pressure, that kind of thing. So, this course suits perfectly for us. Outside of the golf course itself the facility is great.”

Third-place finisher Drew Weaver described Southwood as being in “immaculate” condition, while four-place finisher Michael Gligic also raved about it.

“Course was awesome. I think the guys really enjoyed it. I think it was a bigger challenge than guys at first thought. I think when guys first showed up, I heard guys saying it would be 30 under to win if there was no wind. If there was no wind at all and played soft, it could maybe get there. But the wind on the weekend, it started to firm up a little bit and played pretty tricky,” said Gligic.

Organizers will now meet in the coming days to go over how things went operationally and review what changes can be made going forward. There will also be discussions about how to make next year’s centennial event truly special.

“We’re going to have a lot of new things for next year and we’re going to get a lot more golf facilities involved next year to really promote it and celebrate it and have (some) past champions involved,” said Boge. “We’re looking forward to keeping it here for the next two years and then kind of seeing what happens.”

Pritchard said it’s nice to have some stability for the tournament going forward.

“Now the members here have one year of experience, the volunteers here have one year of experience, the staff have one year of experience. So when you have that experience and are able to build on it and build that strong foundation, then you’re only going to grow the event in all the key areas,” he said. “I would say all in all, we’re very pleased with the week and are very much looking forward to our partnership and continuing to build on the partnership.” 

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg