Golf Canada is pleased to announce that Kevin Blue has joined the National Sport Federation as its new Chief Sport Officer.

A dynamic and accomplished executive, coach, and high-performance golfer, Blue joins the Executive Team of the National Sport Federation after serving nearly five years as Director of Athletics for the University of California, Davis, an NCAA Division I institute.

His responsibilities with Golf Canada as Chief Sport Officer include the oversight, management and strategic development of key functional areas including golf services with a focus on membership; high-performance player development; sport and junior programs including First Tee – Canada; amateur competitions; and governing body activities across the Rules of Golf, Handicapping, Course Rating and Amateur Status. Blue will be a lead contact with numerous provincial, national, and international stakeholders.

“Kevin brings a depth of executive leadership experience across business, education, coaching and high-performance sport, and we are thrilled to have him elevate our sport, golf services and player development activities,” said Golf Canada CEO Laurence Applebaum. “He is a transformative leader and passionate advocate for Canadian golf who will bring tremendous energy and enthusiasm to improving the golfer, facility and athlete experience at all levels.”

For Blue, born in Montreal and raised in Toronto, the opportunity to return to Canada to champion the growth of golf was an opportunity to apply his executive leadership experiences across the sport that has been a lifelong passion.

“Golf has impacted my life in extraordinary ways,” said Blue. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to return home and help to extend the reach of our sport to more Canadians. I’m also very excited to partner with our athletes, coaches, and many others in the golf community nation-wide to continue building Canada’s global prominence in the sport we love.”

As Director of Athletics for the University of California, Davis, Blue oversaw a $41M athletic department featuring 25 collegiate teams. He led record-setting fundraising campaigns at UC Davis that supported coaching endowments, athlete scholarships, and the construction of multi-million-dollar facilities including a $52M student-athlete performance centre currently under construction. In addition to facilitating all-time academic results for student-athletes and competitive success on the field of play, he implemented a formal diversity, equity and inclusion strategy for coaches and senior-level hires as well as mandatory implicit bias training for all employees.

Prior to joining UC Davis, Blue honed his executive management skills over three years as the Senior Associate Athletic Director, External Relations with Stanford University where he had oversight of key external business units including ticket sales, sponsorships, marketing, communications, business strategy, ticket operations, fan experience, and video. As a key member of the athletic department senior executive team, he contributed to strategic planning, policy, personnel, sponsor relations, and university integration in addition to launching the Pac-12 Network at Stanford. As a Lecturer at Stanford, he taught an introductory Sport Psychology course and constructed a curriculum that surveyed topics related to peak performance, talent development and mental health. He also taught a graduate level course on Strategic Management for Sport Business at the University of San Francisco.

Other leadership roles during his time at Stanford included three years as Associate Athletic Director and two years as an Athletics Department Fellow. Prior to Stanford, Blue was involved in high-performance golf, providing sport psychology and short game coaching to professional and elite amateur golfers.

An accomplished amateur golfer growing up in Toronto, Blue played in numerous provincial and national amateur competitions and spent time with Golf Canada’s National Junior Golf Team (prior to the formation of the Team Canada program) and represented Canada at the 2001 Toyota Junior Golf World Cup in Japan. He attended Stanford University on a varsity golf scholarship where he earned his B.A. in Psychology, was a captain on the golf team, and was an NCAA Academic All-American.

He went on to attend Michigan State University where earned his Ph.D. in Sport Psychology and then completed an executive education program at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. Blue has authored a multitude of articles on topics related to sport, education, and business.

Blue will be returning to Canada with his wife Betsy and their four children and is set to begin his role as Golf Canada’s Chief Sport Officer in early January 2021.

NOTE: pictures of Kevin Blue are available here.

WINNIPEG – After 23 years with Golf Manitoba, Garth Goodbrandson will retire as the Director of Player Development at the end of 2020.

Goodbrandson first began his career with Golf Manitoba in 1997 after 16 years as a PGA of Canada club professional. The move into coaching and leadership as the Director of Player Development for Golf Manitoba made him the first full time coach hired by any provincial golf association.

During his tenure with Golf Manitoba, Garth introduced thousands of young people to the sport of golf through golf in schools and rural instruction programs. In addition to grassroots programming, Garth became one of the top high-performance golf coaches in the country with many of his athletes achieving success at the junior, collegiate, amateur, and professional levels.

Photo: Bison Sports

In 1999, Goodbrandson, along with co-founder Derek Ingram, had a vision to expand high-performance golf opportunities by establishing the University of Manitoba golf program. Since the program’s inception, Goodbrandson has coached every Bison team until his retirement in the fall of 2019.  During his 20-year career with the Bisons, Goodbrandson’s teams amassed over 30 wins with the most notable coming in 2014 when the men’s team won the Canadian University & College Championship.  In recognition for winning the national championship, Goodbrandson was named Canadian University Golf Coach of the Year in 2014 and received the City of Winnipeg Outstanding Achievement Award in the same year.  The golf team was names as a finalist for the 2014 Manitoba Sportswriter/Sportscaster Team of the Year.

Throughout his career, Goodbrandson has been recognized by his peers and numerous golf and sports associations for his dedication and commitment to coaching.

Some notable highlights include being inducted to the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame in 2016, awarded the PGA of Manitoba Coach of the Year in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and most recently, he was honored as the Sport Manitoba Male Coach of the Year in the spring of 2020.

“As the long-time coach of Golf Manitoba’s Development programs, Garth was a leader and pioneer in many areas.  Passion, dedication and care went into every program he developed but he was also extremely successful at the provincial and national level,” said Derek Ingram, Golf Canada Men’s National Amateur and Olympic Team Coach when reflecting on his fellow professional and long-time friend.

“Garth is an expert coach and has one of the best records over a long career, consistently punching above the provinces weight class. A lot of provincial and even national programs that exist now are an offshoot of Garth’s Golf Manitoba programs that he crafted. More important than his record, Garth is of the highest character, caring, thoughtful and loved by students, coaches, professionals and industry leaders alike.”

“Garth’s contributions to golfers in Manitoba are unmatched and we are thankful to have had him on our team for the past 23 years,” Golf Manitoba President Ken Warwick said, “He will be greatly missed.”

“Golf Manitoba owes a debt of gratitude to Garth for all he has done for our association and our golf community,” Golf Manitoba Executive Director Jared Ladobruk said. “Throughout his career, Garth has shown an incredible passion for coaching and has created many wonderful opportunities for young Manitoba golfers. He is a gentleman, a consummate professional and has been a tremendous ambassador of our association and of golf over the years. We are sad to see him move on but at the same time extremely happy for him as he begins this new adventure.”

The PGA Tour has acquired a minority stake in the European Tour’s media production company as part of an alliance announced Friday, a big first step toward developing a more unified golf schedule around the world.

The deal effectively makes the two leading tours more partners than rivals. The tours said in a statement the alliance would allow them to collaborate on commercial opportunities and global media rights in certain territories.

“The PGA Tour moves from a competitor to a partner,” Keith Pelley, chief executive for the European Tour, said on a conference call.

While seen as a pivotal first step, any notion of a world tour _ which golf executives have contemplated for more than a decade _ remains some years away. The immediate goal is to figure out a schedule that keeps the tours from competing against each other and strengthening events on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond.

Pelley offered few details on scheduling, access to tours or even negotiating media rights.

As part of the agreement, PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan will join the European Tour board as a non-executive member who would have a vote. “They have a monetary investment in our business,” he said of the PGA Tour.

Pelley said the board’s approval of the partnership was unanimous.

The announcement is likely to put an end to the Premier Golf League, which a year ago was courting the world’s best players for a team-based circuit and funded in part by Saudi money. Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka rejected the idea right before the pandemic.

Pelley said The Raine Group, a private equity firm behind the Premier Golf League, presented a “compelling offer to take the European Tour to another level but in a different direction.”

“We felt partnering with the PGA Tour was the best option,” he said.

Pelley said the partnership grew out of golf organizations having to work together at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to rearrange the major championship season for men and women.

“We shared the challenges of working through a year neither of us could have ever imagined and we found definite synergies in many areas of our respective tours,” Pelley said.

The announcement comes toward the end of a devastating year financially for both tours. The PGA Tour has lost more money than the European one because of its size, though it had more in reserve to handle the crisis.

The PGA Tour shut down for three months, and then resumed June 8 and played a tournament every week except for this one, with no reduction in prize money. Two of its Asia tournaments, in South Korean and Japan, moved to the western U.S. with a purse of $9.75 million (CJ Cup at Shadow Creek) and $8 million (Zozo Championship at Sherwood).

The European Tour resumed in July with a series of new tournaments geared toward giving its members events to play while maintaining a strict bubble to protect against the spread of the coronavirus. Players would stay in regions such as the Iberian peninsula and the U.K., though the total purse was rarely more than 1 million euros.

The exceptions were the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, the flagship event at its headquarters, the Scottish Open and the DP World Tour Championship next month in Dubai.

The gap between the tours has grown so much in the last decade there have been rumblings of a merger of the tours, or even a takeover, given the PGA Tour’s wealth. Monahan referred only to a partnership, and said “we look forward to working together for the benefit of the men’s professional game and for golf fans around the world.”

Pelley strongly disputed the notion of a merger, suggesting that would happen only if the tour had financial difficulties or there were significant benefits for the players. He said the European Tour had a strong balance sheet, which allowed it to create 15 new events during the pandemic and spend $3 million on a health and safety plan.

“This is not a merger,” he said.

A week before the pandemic, the PGA Tour announced a new media rights deal that starts in 2022 and is said to be worth $7 billion over nine years, which includes digital. The tour also has a 12-year deal with Discovery, which owns Golf TV.

London-based Discovery also is a rights holder for the European Tour, which has various contracts with TV companies, given its schedule that plays in more countries than any tour.

The PGA Tour has become so lucrative that Europe’s best players have taken up membership on both tours. Of the 20 Europeans among the top 75 in the world, only four are not PGA Tour members.

CHICAGO – (November 24, 2020) – Canadian golfer Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., has won $300,000 through RSM’s Birdies Fore Love charitable giving competition. Conners won for recording the most birdies (or better) over the first 11 events of the 2020-21 PGA TOUR Season.

The top three players who accumulated the most birdies (or better) throughout the fall, concluding with The RSM Classic at Sea Island, Georgia, were awarded with $300,000, $150,000 and $50,000, respectively, for charitable donations to the players’ choice of children- and/or family-focused charitable organizations.

Patton Kizzire recorded the most birdies (or better) at this year’s RSM Classic, winning $50,000 for his charity of choice to wrap up the 2020 RSM Birdies Fore Love program.

In addition, players who recorded the most birdies (or better) in each fall event earned $50,000 for charities of their choice, bringing the total raised through the Birdies Fore Love on-course competition to $950,000 through this year’s program.

For a list of the weekly Birdies Fore Love winners from this year’s fall events, as well as final scoring results, visit the PGA TOUR website.

Winning players donated funds to charitable organizations focused on building tomorrow’s middle market business leaders through programs that support education, as well as organizations committed to improving the lives of youth through a focus on hunger, housing and/or health.

“This year’s RSM Classic has certainly been like no other,” said Davis Love III, 21-time PGA TOUR winner and RSM Classic tournament host. “I am extremely proud and humbled by the success of the RSM Birdies Fore Love competition. The generosity of the RSM team, its clients and friends is truly remarkable. Our tournament and the charitable dollars we raise would not be possible without RSM, one of the best Title Sponsors in golf.”

Over the past three years, RSM’s Birdies Fore Love has helped PGA TOUR players support more than 30 deserving nonprofit organizations. Since The RSM Classic began in 2010, RSM and the Davis Love Foundation have donated more than $21.6 million to deserving charities.

OAKVILLE, Ont. – Golf Canada is pleased to announce the names of the 29 athletes, male and female, who have been selected to represent Team Canada as part of the 2021 National Amateur and Junior Squads.

Fifteen athletes will compete on Team Canada’s National Amateur Squad, consisting of eight players on the men’s squad and seven on the women’s squad.

The announcement marks a significant increase in roster size, adding six athletes to the previous year’s team. The roster expansion is due in large part to a restructuring of team resources in addition to increased funding support from the Golf Canada Foundation’s network of Trustee partners.

“We are very pleased to extend the reach of the Team Canada program to support more of the country’s top athletes,” said Derek Ingram, Head Coach of the National Men’s Squads. “The new program structure allows our coaching staff to focus more resources on training and sport science with each athlete’s individual results used to determine their respective competitive schedule.”

Team Canada’s 2021 Squad members have all competed and achieved impressive results at regional, national, and international competitions, including medals at the Pan-Am Games, NCAA tournament wins and victories at prestigious amateur competitions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all athletes from the 2020 Squad were able to return in 2021, provided they met team eligibility criteria.

“We are very excited with the athletes selected – they represent a mix of returning team members as well as talented up-and-coming athletes,” said Tristan Mullally, Head Coach of the National Women’s Squads. “It is a new chapter for amateur golf in Canada and we have a tremendous group of ambassadors representing our country.”

The following athletes have been selected to Team Canada’s 2021 Amateur Squad:

WOMEN’S AMATEUR SQUAD

Taylor Kehoe | Strathroy, Ont. – West Haven Golf & Country Club
Alisha Lau | Richmond, B.C. – Marine Drive Golf Club
Noémie Paré | Victoriaville, Qué. – Club de golf de Victoriaville
Mary Parsons | Delta, B.C. – Mayfair Lakes Golf Club
Sarah-Ève Rhéaume | Québec, Qué. – Club de golf Royal Québec
Brigitte Thibault | Rosemère, Qué. – Club de golf de Rosemère
Brooke Rivers | Brampton, Ont. – Brampton Golf Club

MEN’S AMATEUR SQUAD

Matthew Anderson | Mississauga, Ont. – Credit Valley Golf & Country Club
Cougar Collins | Caledon, Ont. – TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley
Laurent Desmarchais | Longueuil, Qué. – Club de golf de la Vallée du Richelieu
Noah Steele | Kingston, Ont. – Cataraqui Golf & Country Club
Henry Lee | Coquitlam, B.C. – Public Player
Brendan MacDougall | Calgary, Alta. – Glencoe Golf and Country Club
Étienne Papineau | St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Qué. – Club de golf Pinegrove
Johnny Travale | Hamilton, Ont. – Glendale Golf & Country Club

Click here to read full player bios.

National Junior Squads

The National Junior Squad—a U19 program—features fourteen athletes (seven girls and seven boys).

In September, Golf Canada hosted a selection camp at Bear Mountain Resort in Victoria, B.C., to evaluate Canada’s top juniors. In partnership with the Provincial Golf Associations, all golfers were run through a series of testing modules followed by a 54-hole competition.

From March through early June, the Junior Squad will practice out of Golf Canada’s National Training Centre at Bear Mountain—the fourth year that the program has provided centralized training, accommodation and education for athletes during the second semester of their school year. Team members will be immersed in a focused centre of excellence, surrounded by world-class technical coaching staff and experts in the areas of mental performance, physiotherapy, biomechanics, and nutrition.

The following athletes have been selected to Team Canada’s 2021 Junior Squad:

JUNIOR GIRLS SQUAD

Angela Arora | Surrey, B.C. – Beach Grove Golf Club
Katie Cranston | Oakville, Ont. – Oakville Golf Club
Nicole Gal | Oakville, Ont. – Oakville Golf Club
Jennifer Gu | West Vancouver, B.C. – Seymour Golf & Country Club
Lauren Kim | Surrey, B.C. –  Morgan Creek Golf Club
Michelle Liu | Vancouver, B.C. – Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club
Emily Zhu | Richmond Hill, Ont. – National Pines Golf Club

JUNIOR BOYS SQUAD

Willy Bishop | Victoria, B.C. – Victoria Golf Club
Félix Bouchard | Otterburn Park, Que. –  Club de golf de la Vallée du Richelieu
Malik Dao | Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Qué. – Summerlea Golf & Country Club
Ashton McCulloch | Kingston, Ont. – Cataraqui Golf & Country Club
Owen Mullen | Shortts Lake, N.S. – Truro Golf Club
JP Parr | St-Célestin, Qué. – Club de golf Ki-8-eb Golf
Hunter Thomson | Calgary, Alta. – Glencoe Golf & Country Club

Click here to read full player bios.

Team Canada Coaching Staff Announced 

Golf Canada is pleased to announce the 2021 Team Canada coaching staff that will support both the National Amateur and Junior Squads.

For the amateur squads, Derek Ingram of Winnipeg returns as men’s head coach with support from assistant coach Andrew Parr of London, Ont. On the women’s side, Tristan Mullally of Dundas, Ont., returns as head coach.

On the junior side, Robert Ratcliffe of Comox, B.C., will lead the centralized Junior Squads at the National Training Centre in Bear Mountain for the fourth year. He will receive support from newly named coach Jennifer Greggain, also of Comox, B.C.

Players will have access to Team Canada’s sport science staff, which includes physiotherapist Greg Redman and Psychologist Dr. Adrienne Leslie-Toogood supporting the men’s team with physiotherapist Andrea Kosa and mental performance consultant Christie Gialloreto supporting the women. The Junior Squads will continue to receive sport science support from the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific in the areas of strength & conditioning, physiotherapy, mental performance, and nutrition.

“Team Canada has shown tremendous success and the coaching staff is well-positioned to lead the increased roster of athletes along with the centralized training program at Bear Mountain,” said Laurence Applebaum, Golf Canada Chief Executive Officer. “Along with every area of the business, we will continue to monitor the impact of COVID-19 to ensure the health and well-being of the athletes and coaches. We now look ahead to helping shape the bright futures of Canada’s top up-and-coming athletes looking to follow in the footsteps of graduates such as Brooke Henderson, Corey Conners and Mackenzie Hughes.”

Mullally, Ingram, Ratcliffe, Greggain and Parr are all PGA of Canada members.

Golf Canada will announce the selection of the 2021 Team Canada Young Pro Squad in January.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida – The PGA TOUR announced today the 2021 portion of the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2020-21 combined schedule, featuring 23 tournaments to be played during the next calendar year, with the season culminating at the Korn Ferry Tour Finals in August. The one-time wraparound season will result in a slate of 46 total events.

“Korn Ferry Tour graduates are prepared to compete with the world’s best on the PGA TOUR from day one as we’ve seen with our last two PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year honorees in Sungjae Im and Scottie Scheffler,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “With a supersized 2020-21 schedule that bridges two years, we’re extremely confident the Korn Ferry Tour will once again deliver an exceptional class of graduates to the PGA TOUR in the upcoming year.”

The Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna, which has been held at The Club at Indian Creek in Omaha, Nebraska, since 2017, moves to the finale of the Tour’s Regular Season, where the first 25 PGA TOUR cards for the 2021-22 season will be awarded based on the season-long points list. The event is set to be contested August 9-15 and will be broadcast on GOLF Channel.

“The season-long race for 25 PGA TOUR cards is at the foundation of the Korn Ferry Tour, and we are excited to bring that incredible atmosphere to the passionate golf fans in Omaha,” said Korn Ferry Tour President Alex Baldwin. “The Pinnacle Bank Championship presented by Aetna has been one of our Tour’s premier events over the last four years, and we are looking forward to continuing that tradition leading into 2021 and beyond.”

The 2021 season will open with the third annual LECOM Suncoast Classic, which returns to Lakewood National Golf Club in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, the week of February 15-21, 2021.

The Tour also announced two new events to the schedule with the Emerald Coast Classic at Sandestin and the Paiute Las Vegas Championship. The Emerald Coast Classic will be contested at Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort’s Raven Golf Club the week of March 29-April 4. The Paiute Las Vegas Championship will be played the week of April 12-18 at the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort’s Sun Mountain Course.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 10 tournaments from the Tour’s original 2020 schedule were canceled. Of those 10, the Lake Charles Championship, Veritex Bank Championship, Huntsville Championship and Live + Work in Maine Open were all set to make their respective tournament debuts. While the inaugural Lake Charles Championship will be postponed to 2022 due to the impact from Hurricanes Laura and Delta along the Louisiana coast, the other three tournaments will be contested between April and June.

Other 2020 events impacted by COVID-19 set to return in 2021 include the Chitimacha Louisiana Open presented by MISTRAS, Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation, Visit Knoxville Open, KC Golf Classic and REX Hospital Open.

The Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation, contested in Nashville since 2016, will move to The Grove in nearby College Grove, Tennessee, the week of May 3-9, 2021.

The Korn Ferry Tour Finals will be comprised of the Albertsons Boise Open (August 16-22), Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship (August 23-29) and Korn Ferry Tour Championship presented by United Leasing & Finance (August 30 – September 5). The Finals events will represent three of six tournaments broadcast on GOLF Channel, beginning with the BMW Charity Pro-Am presented by SYNNEX Corporation (June 7-13), which will feature the debut of the inaugural PGA TOUR University Class of 2021. The Utah Championship presented Zions Bank (August 2-8) will also be broadcast on GOLF Channel.

More than 25 linear TV partners broadcast tournament programming is available in 145+ countries & territories. Over 80 hours of LIVE tournament coverage is available in 135 countries and territories.

For more information on the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour season, please visit PGATOUR.com.

Breaking the scoring record was on his mind, because, of course it was. Dustin Johnson wanted it, too. He just hadn’t bothered to look the number up.

“It was 19 (under) before?” Johnson asked a Masters official to his right in the interview room late Sunday afternoon. They had on identical green jackets.

Told it was 18 under (shared by Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth), Johnson flashed a shy grin. His expression rarely gives much away; his answers seem designed to deflect attention. A moment later, Johnson admitted that he hadn’t looked at a scoreboard all day, either.

Not after shaky back-to-back bogeys at Nos. 3 and 4 peeled his four-shot lead back to one; nor after three straight birdies on the back nine left Cameron Smith and Sungjae Im, Johnson’s last two pursuers, in the dust. He didn’t see the need to complicate things.

“I didn’t want it to affect the way I played,” Johnson said. “I just didn’t look at it. I took what the course gave me and hit the shots I felt I could hit.”

Coming down 18, though, he finally gave in. Johnson turned to his brother Austin, who conveniently doubles as his caddie, and asked where he stood.

“I told him he had a five-shot lead,” Austin recalled. “I could kick it in from there. He had no clue.”

Green suits you well, DJ. Congrats ?#TeamRBC pic.twitter.com/4qcQ7AHW8x

— RBC Canadian Open (@RBCCanadianOpen) November 15, 2020

Johnson’s distaste for drama is often mistaken for indifference. He came out on tour in 2007 looking to all the world like he was born to play golf – long arms, a slow heartbeat and a syrupy swing that belies its raw power – then won early and, with the exception of the majors, often.

Johnson completed the climb to No. 1 in the world the first time in 2017 and stayed there for the better part of the three years since. He’d won twice already this year and still held that lofty spot when he arrived at Augusta, having already spent nearly two weeks in quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus to boot. If anyone had a storyline that ran straight through this strange, pandemic-disrupted season, it was Johnson.

Yet nobody was happier when the pre-tournament spotlight focused on Tiger Woods’ chances of reprising his improbable 2019 win, and bulked-up Bryson DeChambeau’s grand plan to carve up Augusta National the way he sliced and diced Winged Foot at the U.S. Open. Predictably perhaps, both were old news by the time Johnson stretched out to a four-shot lead heading into the final round.

That move brought Johnson’s haunting past at the majors back to the fore. In his lone triumph, the 2016 U.S. Open, he came from four shots behind on the final day to win. On four other occasions, Johnson had at least a share of the lead after 54 holes and failed to cash in. Though you wouldn’t have known by watching him play – at least after those early bogeys – the suspense was taking its toll on him, too.

“I proved to myself that I do have it, ” Johnson began, “because I’m sure a lot of y’all think …” and then paused. “Like, when am I going to have the lead and finish off the golf tournament or finish off a major?”

Johnson saved the real surprise, as it turned out, for afterward. In a post-match interview on CBS, Amanda Balionis tried several times to get Johnson to explain what finally slipping on the green jacket meant. Every time he tried to answer, Johnson choked up, fighting back tears.

“I’m sorry,” he said apologizing more than once. “It’s hard to talk. I’ve never this much trouble gathering myself.”

Not on a golf course, perhaps, because inside the ropes, Johnson knew where he was headed. But at age 36, he again faced the question of whether all that talent would be enough when it mattered most, and finally answered it by proving how much it mattered to him.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Phil Mickelson was either speaking from experience or ignoring a big part of his history.

The topic was Rory McIlroy and his quest for the career Grand Slam, the most exclusive club in golf. McIlroy only needs to win the Masters to make it a clean sweep of the majors.

Mickelson is not part of that club, either, lacking only the U.S. Open but not effort. He holds the record with his six runner-up finishes. And so he was asked Tuesday if he had any advice for McIlroy as he embarked on his sixth attempt to complete the Grand Slam at Augusta National.

“First of all, there’s not much advice I can give him,” Mickelson said. “The guy is as complete a player as there comes.”

Lefty liked what he saw Tuesday. They played a nine-hole match Tuesday, the San Diego squad of Mickelson and Xander Schauffele losing to McIlroy and Dustin Johnson.

“He’s playing beautifully,” Mickelson said. “I would be shocked if he wasn’t in contention with a great chance on Sunday, whether it’s this year, whether it’s a few months from now, whether it’s a few years. I remember when I was trying to win a major – any major – and I struggled for many years. But I always believed it would happen.”

It did in 2004 at age 33 at the Masters. And then Mickelson won a major each of the next two years, followed by another Masters, and then a mild surprise at Muirfield with one of the greatest closing rounds to win the British Open.

But still no U.S. Open.

“He has so many majors already and such a strong game that winning a Masters will happen,” Mickelson continued. “And when it does, I think he’s going to win a few.”

If only it were that simple.

Greg Norman surely felt he would win the Masters and perhaps a few more when he threw away his first good chance in 1986 with a bogey on the final hole. The Shark never won a green jacket. Neither did Ken Venturi, Tom Kite, Johnny Miller, Tom Weiskopf, Ernie Els, David Duval. It’s a long list.

McIlroy can appreciate Mickelson’s belief as it relates to the Masters. But this is about more than the Masters. It’s the final link to the career Grand Slam, achieved only by Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.

“Nothing is given in this game,” McIlroy said.

Mickelson didn’t seriously contend on the final day of any major until the 1999 U.S. Open. And those six silver medals came before he got the third leg of the Grand Slam. He won the British Open when he was 43.

McIlroy is 31. He captured the third leg at British Open when he was 25, his entire career ahead of him. And it still is. There is no reason to believe he can’t be fitted for a green jacket in November or April, or even a few years down the line.

Sarazen is the only player to complete the Grand Slam at the Masters, in 1935, and that requires an asterisk because the Squire didn’t even know what he had achieved. The modern Grand Slam wasn’t part of the conversation until Arnold Palmer started it in 1960.

What adds to the burden of completing it at Augusta National are memories – scar tissue, in most cases – from returning to the same course to face the same demons.

McIlroy had a four-shot lead going into the final round in 2011 and coughed it up with an 80. That was before he had won a major. His next real chance was two years ago, when a birdie on the final hole of the third round left him three shots behind but in the final group with Patrick Reed.

All eyes were on McIlroy. All cheers were for McIlroy. He shot 74 and finished six back.

“I’ve always felt like I had the game to do well around here,” McIlroy said. “It’s just a matter of getting out of my own way and letting it happen. But as I said, you have to go out and earn it. You can’t just rely on people saying that you’re going to win one. Greg Norman never did. Ernie Els never did. There are a lot of great people that have played this game that have never won a green jacket.

“It’s not a foregone conclusion, and I know that.”

Even so, there was a quiet confidence about McIlroy, fitting for what will be a quiet course. He fixed a few flaws, which has given him more freedom and trust in his full swing. He likes not being a hot topic of conversation at the Masters.

One reason his bid for the Grand Slam is getting so little attention is because there’s so much more to talk about – the Masters in November, devoid of spectators and roars. And his recent form doesn’t help.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down golf for three months, McIlroy had a chance to win every week – seven straight tournaments finishing no worse than fifth. Since the return, he has not contended in any of the 12 events he has played.

He has suffered from the lack of energy from not having spectators, though it’s been the same for other stars. It’s time to move on, and McIlroy realizes the adjustment period should be over by now.

Especially now.

WAYNE, Penn. – Golf Genius Software, the leading worldwide provider of tournament management solutions, announced today that Golf Canada and Canada’s Provincial Golf Associations will begin using Golf Genius Tournament Management to manage their golf competitions beginning in 2021.

Golf Genius will provide Golf Canada-branded versions of its TM Club, TM Club Premium and TM Association cloud-based services to the Canadian golf market. Golf Canada and the Provincial Golf Associations will join a number of other national golf associations and tours in using the TM Association solution, which is purpose-built to meet the specialized needs of national and regional golf associations.

Golf clubs and other golf facilities across Canada will also be able to utilize the Golf Canada versions of the TM Club at preferred rates and TM Club Premium services. Golf Genius will provide single sign-on support to club administrators through the Golf Canada Score Centre and will integrate with the World Handicap System (WHS) services provided through the Golf Canada Score Centre. Golf Genius will also provide French language versions of its TM services as part of its agreement with Golf Canada.

Mike Zisman, Co-CEO of Golf Genius Software, commented: “We have committed substantial resources to build a significant presence in the Canadian market, including our recent acquisition of two respected Canadian software providers. Our new relationship with Golf Canada will not only enable us to serve the tournament management needs of Golf Canada and the Provincial Associations, it will also help us more rapidly expand our customer base in the club and facility market. We are honored to have been selected by Golf Canada for this critical relationship.”

Adam Helmer, Senior Director of Golf Services at Golf Canada, added, “We conducted a rigorous process to select a tournament management solution which included an RFP last year and the evaluation of several prospective vendors. Golf Genius presented the most robust product, and most importantly, can meet the needs of Golf Canada, our Provincial Golf Associations and over 1,400 of our member golf facilities in Canada with one integrated solution.”

In 2020, Golf Genius has also announced national association agreements with England Golf, the Singapore Golf Association and Golf NSW serving New South Wales in Australia.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – In a year marked by racial injustice, Augusta National announced Monday it would honour Lee Elder with two scholarships in his name at Paine College and an honorary tee shot next year for the first Black player in the Masters.

“It’s mind-boggling every time I think about it,” said Elder, who made his barrier-breaking debut in 1975.

It was about time, according to Masters Chairman Fred Ridley, who said racial injustice and equality have been at the forefront of the nation this year.

“Our question was not so much what we can say but what we can do,” Ridley said.

The Masters for some two decades has provided scholarship money for Paine College, a private, historically Black college in Augusta. The Lee Elder Scholarship will be endowed for one man and one woman on the golf team. The fact Paine doesn’t have a women’s golf program was not a problem. Ridley said Augusta National would pay to start one.

Elder already was looking ahead to next April when he returns to the first tee, this time with a shot that doesn’t count toward a score but is more meaningful to him than when he first played the tournament.

“That is one thing that’s going to be significant to me, because 1975 was just an ordinary shot playing a golf tournament, even though it was the Masters,” Elder said. “It’s not as significant as this shot will be come April 8, 2021. Because my heart and soul will be into this shot.”

(New York, N.Y.: Lee Elder (L) and Arnold Palmer share a laugh.

The criteria have changed over the years at the Masters, and when the club began issuing invitations to PGA Tour winners, Elder qualified by winning the 1974 Pensacola Open. That made him eligible for the 1975 Masters. He missed the cut, though Ridley said the moment was historic because of the message it sent that “I belong.”

Next April, he will join Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player as the honorary starters. Ridley referred to it as a “special moment in time,” suggesting it will be a one-time appearance as honorary starter.

Elder ended his career with four PGA Tour victories. He played five more times in the Masters, with his best finish a tie for 17th in 1979.

“To know that I would be hitting a shot off the first tee alongside the great Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, you have to think about where you’re at and what you’ve accomplished and why you’re there,” Elder said. “A young man from the ghetto of Dallas, Texas, man, you’ve achieved world fame. The whole world will be watching and looking.

“For the chairman to present me with that opportunity is something I’ll never forget. Never forget.”

The connection to Paine College goes beyond it being an HBCU.

Elder arrived in Augusta more than 45 years ago to much fanfare as the first Black competitor in a tournament that for four decades only included Blacks as caddies or in catering.

Finding a place to eat dinner was difficult – Elder said that was more because he had some 15 people with him than “being segregated against.” Julius Scott, in his first year as president of Paine College, handled the catering for Elder all week.

From that week, Elder began a relationship with the college.

“Look at old yearbooks and you’ll see pictures of him with the golf team,” said Cheryl Evans Jones, the president of Paine College. “He’s made a a lot of contributions to the sport.”

?Contest ALERT! ?

Tell us which Canadian will have the best finish at #TheMasters and be entered to win a $500 golf shopping spree at your local pro shop or favourite golf retailer.

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— Golf Canada (@GolfCanada) October 30, 2020

Ridley said he did not know how much it would cost to start a women’s golf program and that was irrelevant. He said Augusta National would pay for everything.

“The times I have visited, a lot of the ladies came out to watch the men play,” Elder said. “I heard quite a number of times, `Gee, I wish we had a team so we could play.’ By Augusta National making that decision, it’s now going to give them a chance to fulfil that dream of being able to come to college, get a four-year scholarship plus compete on the golf team.”