- Interesting column from Dave Perkins this morning in the Toronto Star. Perkins argues it was a mistake for the RCGA to support taking the Presidents Cup to Royal Montreal in 2007. Mind you, Perkins doesn’t seem to be fully aware of the extent of the changes at the club, which amount to a Rees Jones overhaul. Gutting, some might call it. Perkins argues the tournament would have been better off going to the exclusive Magna Golf Club, but I don’t see that. Magna benefited from the lobbying of former GM Dave Kaufman, but hardly anyone actually thinks it is a great golf course. Sure Magna would have spent a lot of money (probably a lot of it would have been Magna shareholders’ cash…), but I’m sure Royal Montreal isn’t going to be a spendthrift about the tournament either. Angus Glen wanted the tournament as well, but the decision seems to have been closed — it wasn’t coming to Toronto. Too bad. They should have used this opportunity to take it to St. George’s, and benefited from the success the RCGA has had in taking the Canadian Open to a great old course.
Toronto Star columnist blasts Royal Montreal selection
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Jeff Lancaster
Jeff Lancaster is the Publisher of CanadianGolfer.com.
Not to be cynical, because I don’t mean to imply any impropriety. I am sure a good reporter will find that Montreal was chosen in large part because the sposnor dollars, i.e., provincial and federal contributions, were forthcoming and were not available in Ontario.
Why would the RCGA benefit from taking the President’s Cup to a great old course like St George’s but not benefit from a great old course like Royal Montreal? Perhaps, you’re a little “Toronto” centric?
Royal Montreal is neither great, nor old. It is now a really dull Rees Jones course, given the recent makeover. St. George’s is in a different league — and this is the kind of event where the logistics could have worked to take it to the famed Stanley Thompson track. Regarding financing and the Pres. Cup, apparently the holdup in announcing the event was gov’t money. The adgate scandal frightened the gov’t away for a bit….
I think Robert Thompson is smoking dope if he thinks Royal Montreal is not a great course and not worthy of the President’s Cup. Montreal is a great city and the players would love to come up here.
Robert is entitled to his opinion, that’s for sure. The problem I have is he wrote these comments about RMGC in August, when only the Front 9 had been completed, with the Back 9 only starting its reno in late Sept with an expected unveiling well into the summer of ’06. How does he know it’s a “dull Rees Jones” reno. It’s not even close to being finished.
This sort of trolling is typical of journalism today. It’s all about selling newspapers and selling toronto as ‘world class’. He talks about the blue being dull, having never seen the back nine which is one of the finest in golf, and yet continues to dull his audience to tears with this overrated technique. If the torunament was at St. George’s he would have thrown out some barbs about tired old curmudgeonly courses and lamented that the national was overlooked…
I think that Angus Glen was the BIGest mistake for RCGA and The Open. RM is a great course and Montreal is good for the PC.
Although I would like it to be in Toronto:-))
Jamie: I’ve seen all of Royal Montreal, so I have no idea what you are talking about…
I wonder how he feels about the course now that Johnny Miller referred to it as Augusta North and Jim Huber of TBS called it Augusta without the make up.
Geoff Ogilvy said the greens were as perfect as he has ever seen and PGA Tour VP Mike Bodney called course superintendant, Blake McMaster the best he has ever dealt with in all his years with the PGA Tour.
The course was set up easy for scoring and excitement in this type of event, but let us not forget that the winning score of the Canadian Open at this venue in 1997 was -5 and some fellow named Tiger missed the cut. Now that it has been remodeled and presented to the world with such rave reviews, Mr. Thompson would seem to be in a very lonely minority with his opinion of 2 years ago.
Clearly, Mr. Thompson does not know what he is talking about. RM back nine is as good as it gets. The fans are amazing and the city is the nicest in North America and truly has an International flair. Even the players liked the course and city more than any other in Ontario.
Hey Mr. Thompson, no shame admitting that you are dead wrong. It was a great President’s Cup.
Hope RM gets another great stage real soon.