First Priority: Education Or Golf?

There are many of us across Canada who wish Doug Roxburgh well as he steps away from his post as director of high performance for Golf Canada. Elite golfers and their development have been a focus for Roxburgh for the past dozen years.

During a discussion for this blog last week, Roxburgh got talking about the challenges facing Canada in developing its golfers and one of the topics the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member touched on was the effect of U.S. collegiate golf. Read more

U.S. College Golf A Challenge For Canadian Development: Roxburgh

It wasn’t a hasty decision to leave Golf Canada as director of high performance, but Doug Roxburgh had a couple of good reasons, not the least of which was continuing an amateur career that has already landed him in the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame.

“I’m going to be turning 60,” said the four-time Canadian Amateur champion and 1970 Canadian Junior champ.

“I just got to thinking about the program and the things that are ahead of it and the things that I wanted to do and I just realized if I wanted to play some golf and enjoy the senior side of it, I was going to have to do that,” added the 13-time British Columbia Amateur winner.

“It’s also to the point where I think we are entering another phase of the player development with golf in the Olympics coming up (in 2016) and the Pan-Am Games and we’re in the youth Olympics and things like that,” said the two-time B.C. junior winner.

“It’s an opportunity to get somebody in that can work with (Golf Canada chief sport development officer) Jeff Thompson and spend the time and energy,” said Roxburgh, a member of 21 B.C. Willingdon Cup teams. Read more

Amateur Standout Retires From High Performance Program

After 12 years with Golf Canada’s high performance program Doug Roxburgh is retiring.

Roxburgh, 59, also played an important role in the development of the CN Future Links junior program and has also contributed to the development of Canada’s Long Term Player Development Guide and the Golf Canada national team program.

“My time with Golf Canada’s High Performance Program has been extremely rewarding both personally and professionally,” said Roxburgh.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of this country’s most gifted young athletes as well as an incredible number of very committed coaches and administrators determined to build Canada into a leading golf nation,” he added.

“It is a difficult decision to step away as Golf Canada heads toward exciting new competitions such as the Pan Am and Olympic Games,” he said.

“However, it is the right one as the association begins this next phase of player development,” he said.

Roxburgh also compiled numerous provincial, national and international victories throughout his 40-year amateur golfing career.

Inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1990, Roxburgh’s accomplished amateur career spans nearly four decades.

He won the 1970 Canadian Junior Championship and is a four-time Canadian Amateur champion (1972, 1974, 1982, and 1988).

He is also a two-time British Columbia Junior champion (1969, 1970), a 13-time B.C. Amateur champion (1969, 1972, 1973, 1976-1978, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1995, 1996); and a member of 21 B.C. Willingdon Cup teams.

He has also represented Canada at several international team and individual competitions throughout his playing career. including seven World Amateur Team Championships.

A longtime member at Marine Drive Golf Club in Vancouver, Roxburgh is also a member of the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame, the British Columbia Golf Hall of Fame and Pacific Northwest Golf Association Hall of Fame.

“As a competitor and an administrator, Doug Roxburgh has been an outstanding ambassador for Canada and a driving force behind high performance golf in this country,” said Golf Canada executive director Scott Simmons.

“His contributions to the game and leadership in the areas of long term player development, junior competition and high performance have been simply outstanding,” added Simmons.

“Throughout his career, he has earned the respect of his peers and fellow golfers in Canada and around the world,” he added.

Roxburgh will remain in his position as director of high performance with Team Canada until the end of the year.

After his retirement, he will assume a consulting role with Golf Canada’s High Performance Program.

Team Canada Named For 2012

The 2012 national amateur golf team has been named by Golf Canada, with 11 players, six men and five women, comprising the team, which has five returnees and four newcomers from the development squad.

The following athletes have been selected to Team Canada:

MEN’S NATIONAL AMATEUR TEAM

Mackenzie Hughes, Dundas, Ont.

Albin Choi, Toronto

Mitch Sutton, London, Ont.

Eric Banks, Truro, N.S.

Charlie Hughes, Maple Ridge, B.C.

Garrett Rank, Elmira, Ont.

WOMEN’S NATIONAL AMATEUR TEAM

Christine Wong, Richmond, B.C.

Jennifer Kirby, Paris, Ont.

Augusta James, Bath, Ont.

Jisoo Keel, Coquitlam, B.C.

Brittany Marchand, Orangeville, Ont.

Golf Canada has also named a 22-and-under development team. Below are those players:

MEN’S DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Kevin Kwon, Pitt Meadows, B.C.

Adam Svensson, Surrey, B.C.

Riley Fleming, Airdrie, Alta.

Blair Hamilton, Burlington, Ont.

WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT TEAM

Mackenzie Brooke Henderson, Smiths Falls, Ont.

Anna Kim, Toronto

Anica Yoo, Port Coquitlam, B.C.

Taylor Kim, Surrey, B.C.

Brogan McKinnon, Mississauga, Ont.

The first event for the newly announced Team Canada athletes will be the 2011 Spirit International Amateur Golf Championship, Nov. 2-5 at Whispering Pines Golf Club in Texas.

Mackenzie Hughes and Garrett Rank will comprise the men’s team, while Taylor Kim and Mackenzie Brooke Henderson will challenge for the women’s title.

Rules Of Golf Revised

The Royal Canadian Golf Association (Golf Canada) has announced the publication of the new Rules of Golf for 2012-15.

Following a four-year review of golf’s 34 playing rules, nine principal rules have been amended to improve clarity and ensure penalties are proportionate.  Notable changes include:

Ball Moving After Address (Rule 18-2b). A new exception is added which exonerates the player from penalty if the ball moves after it has been addressed, when it is known or virtually certain that the player did not cause the ball to move. For example, if it is a gust of wind that moves the ball after it has been addressed, there is no penalty and the ball is played from its new position.

Ball in Hazard; Prohibited Actions (Rule 13-4). Exception two to this rule is amended to permit a player to smooth sand or soil in a hazard at any time, including before playing from that hazard, provided it is for the sole purpose of caring for the course and Rule 13-2 (improving lie, area of intended stance or swing or line of play) is not breached.

Time of Starting (Rule 6-3a). The rule is amended to provide that the penalty for starting late, but within five minutes of the starting time, is reduced from disqualification to loss of the first hole in match play or two strokes at the first hole in stroke play. Previously, this penalty reduction could be introduced as a condition of competition.

“Fundamentally, the Rules of Golf will remain the same,” said Brent McLaughlin, Golf Canada’s director of rules, competitions, and amateur status.

“The Joint Rules Committee conducted an extensive review and substantive changes were kept to a minimum,” added McLaughlin.

“The Rules of Golf are constantly reviewed and our hope is that the 2012-15 publication is clear to golfers and reflective of the demands of the modern game,” he said.

The Rules of Amateur Status also underwent revision with the most notable change relating to hole-in-one prizes.

Until now, prizes for holing a tee shot in amateur golf have been subject to the same restrictions as other competitions.

However, a Rule change which acknowledges the special nature of a hole in one during a round of golf means that restrictions on the prizes offered have been lifted.

The RCGA will publish in English and French a total of 85,000 copies of the Rules of Golf 2012-15, available which will be available on January 1.

A companion publication to the Rules of Golf, Decisions on the Rules of Golf 2012 – 2013 will also be available January 1.

More information about the Rules of Golf can be found by clicking here.

Industry Notes: October 11, 2011

Team Quebec defeated Team Ontario 17-7 in the Titleist Cup held last week at Toronto Golf Club in Mississauga, Ont. … Golf historian Jim Barclay has been inducted as a builder into the St. George’s Golf and Country Club Hall of Fame in Toronto. Barclay is also a member of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and is best known for his book Golf In Canada: A History … A successful grant application submitted by Golf Canada and Golf Quebec to the Quebec Ministry of Education, Recreation and Sport in connection with the province hosting the 2011 CN Canadian Women’s Open will go to the National Golf In Schools program. The grant funding will allow Golf Canada and Golf Quebec to bring the Golf In Schools program to more than 100 elementary schools in the province.

Henry’s A Hall Of Famer

Henry Brunton, former national men’s coach for Golf Canada, will be a 2011 inductee into the North Grenville Sports Hall of Fame.

Brunton, who goes into the hall as a builder, will be inducted at a ceremony on Oct. 27 in Kemptville, Ont.

For more information, contact Tammy Hurlbert at (613) 258-9569, ext. 123.

New LPGA Event Names Tournament Director

Former Golf Canada staffer Richard Kuypers has been named tournament director for the new Manulife LPGA Classic.

The inaugural LPGA Tour event will be played next June at Grey Silo Golf Club in Waterloo, Ont.

Kuypers was manager of professional championships at Golf Canada and was assistant tournament director of the CN Canadian Women’s Open. He also served as tournament director for Royal Canadian Golf Association amateur competitions.

Kuypers will be responsible for the promotion, sales and strategic planning of all aspects of the event. He will also be in charge of the development and coaching of a team of tournament staff and volunteers.

Ingram Named National Men’s Coach

Winnipeg’s Derek Ingram, 41, has been named head coach of Golf Canada’s national men’s amateur team.

A two-time recipient of the PGA of Canada’s Teacher of the Year Award, Ingram has spent the past two years as Team Canada’s women’s head coach, a post he took in 2009, after five years as men’s assistant coach.

Ingram replaces Henry Brunton, who leaves a position he held for 12 years. Brunton’s final day is Sept. 30.

“I’ve really enjoyed the last two years with the women’s program and have learned a great deal that I believe I can bring to my new role as men’s head coach with Team Canada,” said Ingram, a recent inductee into the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame.

“With a great deal of young, up-and-coming talent in Canadian women’s golf, I’m proud of the progress we made with the program and believe the groundwork is laid for a new coach to come in and hit the ground running,” he added.

“Now, I’m excited for this next challenge in my coaching career and look forward to helping to develop more Canadian world class athletes,” said Ingram, adding he has been left a solid foundation with the men’s team by Brunton.

“Henry was a driving force with Team Canada and the men’s national team program,” said Ingram.

“Not only has he done so much for Canadian high performance golf, he is a great coach and teacher as well as a friend.  I wish him the very best of success in the next phase of his coaching career and personal journey,” he added.

For Golf Canada’s Chief Sport Officer Jeff Thompson, Ingram’s knowledge of the men’s game and previous experience with the national team program made Ingram the logical candidate to lead the men’s team.

“Derek has been a valuable member of our Team Canada coaching staff over the past 11 years and has proven himself to be a world-calibre coach and gifted teacher with the ability to both educate and motivate high performance athletes,” said Thompson.

“We conducted a comprehensive search of potential candidates and felt that Derek had the coaching expertise, playing experience from his time competing on the Canadian Tour and comprehensive knowledge of high performance golf to move the men’s national team program forward,” he said.

Golf Canada has begun the search to fill the women’s head coaching position.  The posting will be circulated within the PGA of Canada and also sent to international golf federations. That position is expected to be filled by the end of September.

LPGA Major Status Isn’t Important

It sounds like a pat answer, but Golf Canada is taking the proper approach with its attitude that it will just go about the business of making the CN Canadian Women’s Open the best tournament it can be after the Evian in France was announced recently as the fifth major on the LPGA Tour.

The decision was announced overseas when the RBC Canadian Open was being played in Vancouver, so it didn’t get much attention, even if the Canadian event, which held major status until 2000 when the du Maurier Classic was snuffed by federal anti-smoking legislation, had long been mentioned as a fifth major.

Tournament director Sean Van Kesteren said he wasn’t surprised by the Evian announcement. Read more

Brunton Exits Team Canada

Henry Brunton is leaving his post as head coach of Golf Canada’s men’s national amateur team.

Brunton joined the high performance program in 1999 and has led the national team over the past 12 years.

 “My time with Golf Canada’s high performance program, especially the past six years, as the Men’s head oach of Team Canada has been extremely rewarding both professional and personally,” said Brunton. 

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with some of this country’s most gifted young athletes, as well as a number of very committed coaches and administrators determined to build Canada into a leading golf nation,” he said, adding the decision is for family reasons and other business pursuits. 

“It is a difficult decision to step away, but I know with the growth of Henry Brunton Golf and the time that is required to perform all of my responsibilities, including my family, that I am making the right decision,” he said. 

In 2009, Brunton published Journey to Excellence: The Young Golfer’s Complete Guide to Achievement and Personal Growth, a guide to competitive junior golf for both juniors and their parents. 

A Canadian PGA Master Professional, Brunton also authored the RCGA Achievement Guide, a comprehensive manual for high performance players and coaches and was also in on the Canadian PGA’s Teaching and Coaching Certification Program (TCCP), a mandatory training program for all CPGA professionals.

“Henry Brunton has been an outstanding ambassador for Canadian golf, both nationally and internationally and a driving force behind high performance golf in this country,” said Jeff Thompson, Golf Canada’s chief sport officer. 

“Henry has developed into one of this country’s foremost golf coaches and has deservedly earned the respect of this country’s top athletes as well as his coaching peers across the country and around the world,” added Thompson. 

Brunton will remain in his position with Team Canada until Sept. 30.

Waterloo Event Needs Fast Planning

These probably won’t be the first suggestions thrown at Hugh Morrow, the CEO and chairman of Sports Properties International, or the good folks at Manulife Financial, and I’ll bet you a tankard of ale at Oktoberfest, the annual German beer bash in Kitchener-Waterloo, they won’t be the last.

Now that Canada’s second LPGA Tour event in Waterloo is official, even though it wasn’t a well-kept secret, Morrow and Manulife will be hearing from all over how to run the tournament, which you can read about by clicking here.

As we get closer to the week of June 18-24 next year, the subject of exemptions will surely become a topic of conversation and one that I would like to see would go to the winner of the Canadian PGA Women’s Championship to be played at the end of August at Bayview Golf and Country Club in Thornhill, Ont. Read more

University Titles Go To Traditional Winners

The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds captured their third consecutive national women’s title, while the Humber College Hawks earned their third national men’s title in the last eight years at the Canadian University/College Championship last week at The Royal Ashburn Golf Club in Ashburn, Ont.

The Thunderbirds posted a four-day total of 132, outlasting the University of Victoria Vikings by a single stroke to win their eighth national title in the championship’s nine-year history.

UBC’s Kylie Barros of Edmonton carded a final round two-over-par 74, finishing at 18-over for the tournament to secure the women’s individual division.

Barros, who was recently crowned the 2011 NAIA women’s champion, finished nine shots ahead of Digby, N.S., native Anne Balser of the University of Victoria.

“I’ve had a good couple of weeks coming in, so I was able to build on that and have some good course management out there,” said Barros. “The win means a lot because last year, I came out and lost to Anne in a playoff, so I was happy to come back and get some redemption.”

The Humber Hawks earned the men’s division title with an 18-stroke victory over UBC, posting a four-day score of plus 38.

The reigning Canadian Colleges Athletic Association (CCAA) National and Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) champions finished with three players in the top 10, including individual champion, Mark Hoffman,of Thornhill, Ont.

Hoffman shot a three-under-par 69 in the final round to finish at one under for the championship, six shots better than Elmira, Ont.’s Garrett Rank of the University of Waterloo.  

Hoffman, Humber’s co-male athlete of the year, noted that the Hawks’ outstanding season was the result of extensive preparation and a long-term vision.

“We’ve put so much work into this past spring and fall, even going back to last year, to just get ready for this because for most of us, this was our last shot and we wanted to come out with a bang,” Hoffman said.

Golf Needs Course Rats

On the heels of my previous blog about growing the game through people who don’t give a damn, I was editing a contribution by Kevin Thistle, who is excited about the Coppinwood operation where he works getting involved with Golf Canada’s national Golf in Schools program.

I’ll let Kevin tell that story because I thought it would be good to run that article with this one, so drop by Kevin’s Blog for a read as well.

The Golf in Schools program is planted in good intentions on the part of Golf Canada. The plan is to introduce the game to kids through the physical education curriculums in their schools, just like basketball, lacrosse or even dodge ball.

From an industry perspective, we should all be in support of planting the seed to sprout new golfers, but the long-term question is, and it’s this way in any sport, does it do enough to hold that student’s interest in the game past graduation? Read more

We’re Happy To Get Behind Golf In Schools

I’m proud to say that Coppinwood is helping Golf Canada’s Golf in Schools program, which I’ve admired since its inception.

What we’ve done is adopt 16 schools and the way I look at it is it’s one thing to say I’m going to help junior golf, but another to figure out how to do that. This program goes right to the schools and the kids and the Canadian PGA is also involved, along with Golf Canada.

Personally, I wasn’t introduced to golf until my teens. My dad didn’t golf, but I was lucky enough to have friends in the neighbourhood and they introduced me to golf. If I’d been introduced in Grades 4, 5 or 6, it would have been great.

I love the old adage that the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second-best time to plant a tree is right now. In this case, we should have done something similar to the Golf in Schools program 20 years ago, but the second-best time to do it is right now.

Golf has been great to me and to a lot of us and it’s time to give back by introducing the game to potential young golfers in our country.

Who knows? We might get the next Mike Weir or Lorie Kane out of it, but the main thing is that we’ll be introducing a lifetime of enjoyment to a new generation and growing the game at the same time.

Industry Notes: May 12, 2011

A number of well-known names have joined Golf Canada’s Golf Fore the Cure program as ambassadors, including Celine Dion, former WWE star and fitness instructor Trish Stratus and LPGA Tour players Alena Sharp and Stephanie Sherlock. Golf Fore the Cure is a recreational golf participation program for women in Canada that partners with the Canadian Cancer Society and Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation to raise money for the fight against breast cancer …  Phil Rankin will represent Tournament Sports in the Ottawa Valley and Northern Ontario. He can be reached at (613) 435-0575, or via e-mail at prankin12@yahoo.ca … Dillon Black has also joined Tournament Sports and will represent the company in Southwest Ontario/Niagara. He can be reached at (519) 451-9494, or by e-mail at djbgolf@hotmail.com.

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