Here’s hoping we’ll see Wie in 2010

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/05/2009 (6292 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Spurned at least twice in the last four years, Winnipeg may finally be getting somewhere when it comes to staging the CN Canadian Women’s Open.

Next year’s tournament was slated for the eastern half of Canada, likely Montreal, but clubhouse construction issues at a course that had been selected but not announced have scuttled that plan.

Now, Winnipeg’s persistence may pay off as the Royal Canadian Golf Association is in a late scramble to find a location for the 2010 LPGA Tour event.

A report suggested Monday that St. Charles Country Club has all but locked up the tournament for next year but Rick Desrochers, the RCGA’s senior director of corporate planning, cautioned in an interview that “you shouldn’t believe half of what you hear.”

Desrochers said, however, he was in Winnipeg last week for discussions about this very event.

“I was there but I will tell you now we have no signed agreement for that (2010) tournament,” Desrochers said. “We have more things to check out and this decision will take a little while yet. So many things go into making this decision.”

The tournament has generally been conducted in an east-west alternation but that, too, may be broken in order to find a suitable location at the last minute.

This year’s championship, to be staged in late summer, will be held near Calgary. Winnipeg is reported to be up against at least Vancouver for the 2010 Open, and possibly Montreal and Toronto.

Whichever city lands the championship — played last year for US$2.25 million, an elite purse on the LPGA Tour — will be treated to the tour’s best.

At the 2008 championship in Ottawa, the money attracted 48 of the tour’s top 50 players, including eventual winner Katherine Hull, Se Ri Pak, Lorena Ochoa, Paula Creamer and Suzann Pettersen, who all finished in the top 10.

Adding to the star power of the field in Ottawa — where a record 68,000-plus fans took in the action — were Michelle Wie, Karrie Webb, Cristie Kerr, the since-retired Annika Sorenstam, Julie Inkster, Morgan Pressel, Natalie Gulbis, Brittany Lincicome and Canadian star Lorie Kane.

St. Charles general manager Cameron Gray said Monday that he’s not aware of any deal for next year’s championship but the club remains keenly interested.

“We’ve been encouraging the RCGA, CN and LPGA to look at us and look at Winnipeg but I’m not aware that anything is set as of yet,” Gray said. “We are thrilled that Winnipeg has found its way back into the latest consideration.”

Last year, RCGA officials told the Free Press that despite being rebuffed, eager bidders from Winnipeg would still be in the queue for the tournament — and have a very good chance for 2011 — but that nothing beyond 2010 could be announced until CN and the RCGA extended their agreement for the sponsorship of the national women’s open. That deal runs through the end of 2010.

The reason they said 2011 was a possibility for Winnipeg was because of the unofficial east-west alternation.

Desrochers said that one of the reasons Vancouver could be in the mix for 2010 was because of its market size.

“CN has sponsored this event for four years now and we have not actually yet been to one of the three largest cities in Canada (Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver),” he said. “At some point, one might think one of those will get the nod.”

Desrochers also said that a potential Olympic corporate hangover in the Vancouver region won’t affect the RCGA’s decision for 2010.

“It really doesn’t have any bearing,” Desrochers said. “Post-Olympics in a place like Vancouver, the danger is that everything goes flat, but city officials there are doing all kinds of things to make sure some activities are continuing in their city.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca