There is a problem in Canadian golf that does not receive enough attention: we need more of our country’s leading golf clubs to host championships.
Not necessarily the RBC Canadian Open or CPKC Women’s Open, with their enormous infrastructure requirements, but the Canadian Men’s and Women’s Amateurs, Mid-Amateurs and Juniors, plus the provincial championships that form the competitive backbone of the game in this country.
There are legitimate reasons clubs hesitate to do so. Our golf season is short. Members understandably value every week they have access to their course, particularly as clubs have become busier since COVID. Not every facility has the course, staff or volunteer base necessary to host a national or provincial championship.
But at some point, Canadian golf must confront a simple question: if the country’s leading clubs do not support amateur golf, who will?
The contrast with the United States is difficult to ignore.
This week, Merion (and nearby Philadelphia Country Club) hosted 312 of the best amateur golfers in the world for the U.S. Amateur. Merion has hosted five U.S. Opens and some of the most memorable moments in American golf history, among them Ben Hogan’s famous 1-iron into the 18th green that became the most famous golf photograph ever taken. This U.S. Amateur is the 20th USGA championship held there — more than any club — and its sixth U.S. Amateur.
Oakmont tells a similar story, having hosted 18 USGA championships, including six U.S. Amateurs dating back to 1919.
Clearly, these clubs do not view hosting amateur championships as an inconvenience or a burden. They take pride in it and view it as part of their responsibility to the game.
Canada certainly does not lack worthy venues. You need only look at SCOREGolf’s recently released Top 100 to appreciate the depth and quality of golf courses we have in this country. In fact, some of our greatest golf courses may be better suited to amateur championship golf than to the modern professional game.
Think of Capilano, Fairmont Banff Springs, Fairmont Jasper Park, Mount Bruno or Rosedale. Add the courses at Cabot and many other great venues across the country. Some are too short for today’s pros. Others don’t have the space or infrastructure required for a tour event. But those limitations do not prevent them from providing an exceptional test for the country’s best amateur golfers.
A national or provincial amateur championship doesn’t need grandstands, hospitality villages, television compounds or room for tens of thousands of spectators. It needs a great golf course and a club willing to open its doors.
The lack of infrastructure also means the impact on the golf course is considerably different from hosting a professional event. In many cases, the golf course may actually see less traffic than it would during a normal week of member play. And with the additional work and attention that goes into preparing a course for a championship, host courses often emerge from the week in exceptional condition.
Canada has remarkable golf courses from coast to coast to coast that most competitive golfers will otherwise never have the opportunity to experience under championship conditions. The clubs fortunate enough to steward those courses have an opportunity — and, I would argue, some responsibility — to occasionally make them available to the country’s best amateur players.
Imagine a Canadian Men’s Amateur at St. George’s, undoubtedly one of the country’s most celebrated championship courses, yet one that has never hosted that event. Or a Canadian Women’s Amateur returning there for the first time since 1959. Think of what competing for a national championship at such a distinguished club would mean to the players in the field.
There is also something to be said for testing our best amateurs on our best golf courses, which ask more than simply who can hit it the farthest, or the highest. They test angles, positioning, patience and decision-making. If we are serious about developing Canadian players capable of competing internationally, there is value in testing them on the country’s strongest layouts.
Beyond that, the venue becomes part of the championship itself. Winning the U.S. Amateur at Oakmont means something more. So does winning it at Merion or The Country Club. The trophy may be the same regardless of the venue, but the experience and memory are not.
I know that firsthand.
In 2018, I competed in the Canadian Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Victoria Golf Club. For a week, 156 amateur golfers were given the opportunity to play a national championship at one of Canada’s great historic clubs, on an extraordinary piece of seaside property.
The author has fond memories of competing in the 2018 Canadian Mid-Amateur Championship at the historic Victoria Golf Club.
Nearly a decade later, what I remember most is how special the entire experience felt. The reception from the club and its members was remarkable. We weren’t made to feel as though we were inconveniencing them. We were made to feel that our being there mattered. I will forever be grateful to Victoria Golf Club and its members for that week. Whenever I think of the club, that championship is what I remember.
Fortunately, there are Canadian clubs that understand this, and few have demonstrated it better than The Toronto Golf Club and Royal Ottawa.
Royal Ottawa welcomed the inaugural Canadian Amateur in 1895 and has returned as host repeatedly throughout the championship’s history, including last year. Toronto has an equally remarkable record of supporting national championship golf and earlier this month it once again opened its gates for the Canadian Women’s Amateur. Quite fittingly, in a year when Toronto Golf Club is celebrating its 150th anniversary, more than 150 members raised their hands to volunteer for the championship.
For Donovan Fraser, head professional at Toronto, that willingness to host is closely tied to the club’s identity and its longstanding commitment to the amateur game.
“For 150 years, The Toronto Golf Club has been committed to advancing the game of golf, and hosting the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship was a privilege,” Fraser said. “To welcome such an outstanding field of players from across Canada and around the world was a fitting celebration of our club’s tradition of supporting amateur golf.”
The club’s recently approved strategic plan goes a step further, specifically calling for TGC to be more proactive and deliberate in supporting amateur golf and to plan championship opportunities well in advance rather than considering them on an ad hoc basis.
There may be a lesson in that for both clubs and our governing bodies. Part of the problem may simply be awareness. Hosting a national or provincial championship may not be something many club boards are actively thinking about until the request arrives. Golf Canada and the provincial associations have a role to play in changing that. They can communicate the need more clearly, identifying suitable clubs and working with them years in advance so championships can become part of long-term planning rather than an unexpected disruption to the calendar.
Again, this is another area where the USGA provides a useful comparison. Golf Canada’s current competition calendar lists only a limited number of confirmed venues beyond this year, although it is nice to see clubs like St. Charles, Cutten Fields and Brantford on the docket. Conversely, the USGA has already announced U.S. Amateur venues decades into the future, including Saucon Valley for 2051. That kind of long-range planning gives clubs ample time to work championships into their calendars. It also builds anticipation. A junior golfer can look ahead and see a U.S. Amateur at Pinehurst, Baltusrol or Oakland Hills and dream about one day earning a place in that field.
Toronto and Royal Ottawa’s examples are particularly interesting because Canadian golf once seemed to understand this responsibility more broadly. Look through the early history of Canadian championship golf and the names are extraordinary: Toronto, Royal Ottawa, Royal Montreal, Hamilton, Royal Quebec and others. Canada’s leading clubs were actively involved in building competitive golf in this country.
Royal Montreal, for example, was instrumental in the development of golf in this country and has one of the richest championship histories of any Canadian club. Between 1897 and 1957, it hosted the Canadian Men’s and Women’s Amateurs a combined 14 times — seven of each. It has not hosted either championship since. That is not to single out one club — and to be fair, Royal Montreal was slated to host the 2020 Canadian Women’s Amateur before it was cancelled due to the pandemic — but there are many similar examples across the country, illustrating just how much more regularly Canada’s leading clubs once opened their doors to amateur championship golf.
Many of those clubs still take considerable pride in that history. Walk through old clubhouses across Canada and you will see photographs of Canadian Amateurs and Opens held generations ago. Club histories proudly list championship winners. Websites tell prospective members about the great players who once competed over their courses.
And rightly so. Those championships helped establish the reputation and prestige those clubs continue to enjoy today. But there is an uncomfortable question worth asking: how long can a club celebrate its championship history without contributing to it? We can’t simply rely on previous generations to have built that history for us.
The obvious obstacle is member disruption, particularly during Canada’s short summer. But what if capable clubs simply adopted the philosophy that they should host a meaningful provincial or national amateur championship approximately once every eight to 10 years? A handful of days in the context of a decade is a minimal amount of disruption. And if enough clubs participated, that disruption would be widely distributed rather than falling repeatedly on the relatively small group of clubs willing to say yes.
Golf La Tempête in Quebec recently provided an ambitious example, committing to host three Golf Canada national amateur championships over eight years: the Canadian University/College Championship in 2026, Canadian Men’s Amateur in 2031 and Canadian Women’s Amateur in 2033. Not every club needs to make that level of commitment. But more need to make some commitment.
Golf La Tempête has three future national amateur championships scheduled.
That responsibility extends to provincial championships as well. Consider that this year’s Ontario Men’s Amateur was played at Otter Creek, a popular public course but far from a leading club in a province with so many.
“There is a long tradition of Ontario’s great clubs supporting amateur golf by opening their doors to provincial championships that we would love to see continue,” said Claire Welsh, Golf Ontario’s chief sport officer. “These championships connect the history of our clubs with the next generation of players and create experiences athletes remember for the rest of their lives. Hosting isn’t a small undertaking, but when clubs make that commitment, they are making a meaningful contribution to the game well beyond their own membership.”
And that contribution can take many forms. A course might be ideally suited to the Canadian Mid-Amateur, Senior or Junior, while another might be a natural fit for a provincial championship. The point is not that every club should host the biggest event available, but that those capable of contributing should find an appropriate way to do so.
Golf clubs talk a lot about stewardship, usually in the context of preserving their golf courses and leaving them in better condition for the next generation. That matters. But there is also a responsibility to the game beyond our own memberships. Clubs across the United States and Great Britain have understood that for generations. Some Canadian clubs clearly do as well. We just need more of them.
Not every golf course in this country can host a national open, but almost every one of them can contribute to amateur championship golf. If Canada’s leading clubs each did their part, even just once a decade, we wouldn’t have a shortage of championship venues. We might have one of the finest championship rotations in the world.
Rodney Morgan is a member of Beaconsfield Golf Club and The Toronto Golf Club.