Prepping for the LPGA

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/09/2009 (6131 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s still 11 months away but the wheels of action have been turning at St. Charles Country Club in advance of the 2010 Canadian Women’s Open.

The LPGA event has been awarded to Winnipeg’s grand old club for Aug. 26-29.

General admission tickets for the event won’t likely be on sale until the spring but already, 70 per cent of the tournament’s corporate entertainment and sponsorship inventory has been sold, Open chairman Ken Matchett said on Monday.

Matchett, vice-chairwoman Wendy Waggoner and club manager Cameron Gray were among the St. Charles officials in Calgary two weeks ago for this year’s CN Canadian Women’s Open.

"One of the things we really liked was the attractiveness of all the seating, standing and corporate areas," Matchett said. "It was very striking, the detail that went into them. Very impressive."

You can bet that will also be a goal at St. Charles, to make one of the LPGA’s biggest-purse events of the season look the part of a national championship, even if it technically isn’t a major.

This year’s Open, won by Suzann Pettersen in Calgary, was played for $2.75 million and there’s no reason to believe that title sponsor CN will decrease the purse. The only tournaments this season played for more money were the U.S. Open and the Evian Masters.

And that’s one of the reasons that the 2009 CN Canadian Women’s Open attracted the top 50 players on the tour’s money list — every one of them — and the top 20 players on the Rolex world ranking list.

"CN really steps up," when it comes to player comforts and hospitality, Gray said Monday.

The golf course the world’s best female players will face will be St. Charles’ traditional layout, its MacKenzie and Ross Nines.

The setting of the 18th hole, then, will be a challenge, given the mature trees and the hole’s proximity to the Assiniboine River, the clubhouse and pro shop.

"The RCGA has already done a lot of work on it and they’ve managed to shoehorn it in there," Gray said Monday. Planning diagrams show at least six skyboxes directly behind the 18th green, and corporate hospitality and spectator bleachers and viewing close by.

The 17th green will also be a major viewing and hospitality area, with good space for skyboxes and other entertainment and hospitality tents.

The club will use some of its West (Woods) Nine to stage the spectators’ village, which will include interactive areas and other conveniences needed at such a large championship.

Given the limited space for cars available at or near the club, a park-and-shuttle service is bound to be needed for the majority of spectators. Expect a short shuttle ride from a nearby location in the west part of the city.

Matchett also said Monday that there are only a handful of spots left for either pro-am next August, the Monday women-only pro-am or the full Wednesday championship pro-am.

Several major announcements about the Open are still to come.

One of them, confirming the official purse, isn’t likely until sometime early next year.

Another, naming the official children’s hospital that will benefit from CN’s Miracle Match program, will also come later. Already, the championship has raised more than $3.5 million for children’s hospitals since 2006 and the St. Charles event will follow a bar set very high. This year, the Calgary event raised $1.6 million for the Alberta Childrens Hospital Foundation.

The Open will require 19 or 20 subcommittees, most of which are already established, and will need 1,400 volunteers to run smoothly. It does cost $65 to be a volunteer but it includes the uniform and a weekly pass as well as other goodies.

The tournament also needs hole marshals and hoping to attract local clubs — not just golf clubs — to adopt a hole. Two are already signed up.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca

What to expect

 

What: CN Canadian Women’s Open

When: Aug. 26-29, 2010

Where: St. Charles Country Club

Who: LPGA Tour plus Canada’s best female golfers.

How much: This year’s purse $2.75 million, third-highest on tour. Winner Suzann Pettersen earned US$412,500.

Volunteers: 1,400 needed. Application form at www.cncanadianwomensopen.com or www.stcharlescountryclub.ca or www.golfmanitoba.mb.ca