DORAL, Fla. – Davis Love III told U.S. captain Jay Haas last year that he would be in South Korea for the Presidents Cup one way or another, which at the time meant that if the 50-year-old Love didn’t qualify for the team then he would go as an assistant captain.

Love just didn’t imagine being Ryder Cup captain while serving as an assistant captain in the Presidents Cup this October.

And if that’s not enough, Love recently was appointed chairman of the Players Advisory Council.

“I asked him does he still want to even do it. There’s a lot on his plate,” Haas said Wednesday. “He’s a busy man, so I could understand it if he didn’t want to do it. But no, he loves the team concept, I think. He was excited about it when I asked him to do it.

“This is not something that I sprung on him or anything like that in the last few weeks,” Haas said. “Again, I gave him the opportunity to say, `Enough is enough, I need to step aside for a while.’ But I think this can only help him going forward.”

Haas is captain for the first time after having served under Fred Couples, who also returns as an assistant at the Presidents Cup.

The matches will be played Oct. 8-11 in South Korea. The United States has only lost one time to the International team, and that was in 1998. The Americans won, 18 1/2-15 1/2, last time at rainy Muirfield Village.

Nick Price returns as International captain, and he has three assistants – Tony Johnstone and Mark McNulty return, and K.J. Choi was announced earlier.

“Their insight at Muirfield was incredible,” Price said.

Both decisions, remarkably, were reached without putting together a task force.

“I’m the only task force on our team,” Price said with a laugh.

Price proposed to PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem after the last Presidents Cup that the points be reduced to 16 team matches and 12 singles matches, similar to the Ryder Cup. Now, there are 20 team matches.

The outlook for change appears bleak. Price said Finchem was “apprehensive” to change.

“They haven’t mentioned changing the points structure, which to me obviously means that’s a wonderful recipe they have there, which that’s debatable,” Price said. “But I think it will be nice if we could get similar to that.”

UXBRIDGE, Ont. – The Golf Association of Ontario (GAO) has announce the 2015 team for the annual Can-Am Matches, March 21-22, against South Carolina at the Wachesaw Plantation Club in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, just south of Myrtle Beach.

The 2015 matches will mark the 17^th playing of the event and feature 16 of the top ranked junior golfers from Ontario taking on 16 of the top junior players from the South Carolina Junior Golf Foundation.

Representing Ontario at the matches will be all of the current Team Ontario members. Joining them will be Golf Canada National Development Team members, and former Team Ontario players, Trevor Ranton and Grace St-Germain. Rounding out the girls’ side will be Eunice Hong, who finished the 2014 season 10^th on both the Golf Canada and GAO Junior Girls Orders of Merit.

The Team

• Trevor Ranton, 17, Waterloo and Whistle Bear Golf Club
• Max Sear, 17, Markham and York Downs Golf and Country Club
• Jason Chung, 15, Thornhill and Pheasant Run Golf Club
• Brendan Seys, 16, Port Lambton and Maple City Country Club
• Jackson Bowery, 17, London and Greenhills Golf Club
• Kyle MacDonald, 17, Burlington and Rattlesnake Pointe Golf Club
• Jake Bryson, 15, Dunrobin and Eagle Creek Golf Club
• Kelvin Lim, 13, Thornhill and Station Creek Golf Club
• Grace St- Germain, 16, Orleans and Hylands Golf Club
• Alyssa Getty, 17, Ruthven and Kingsville Golf and Country Club
• Monet Chun, 14, Richmond Hill and The Summit Golf and Country Club
• Madeline Marck-Sherk, 17, Ridgeway and Bridgewater Country Club
• Diana McDonald, 17, Kingston and Loyalist Country Club
• Isabella Portokalis, 13, London and the London Hunt and Country Club
• Chloe Currie, 15, Mississauga and Mississaugua Golf and Country Club
• Eunice Hong, 17, Thornhill and the Ladies’ Golf Club of Toronto

This year’s team is filled with players who will make their Can-Am Matches debut. Only six of the 16 team members have previously taken part in the Can-Am Matches, including Ranton, St. Germain, Sear, Seys, Getty and Chun.

The opening day features team best-ball matches followed by singles matches on day two. The scoring format for the matches is slightly different than a traditional match play event. In each match, there are 18 points available, one for each hole, ensuring that all 18 holes are played. If a hole is halved, each player or team receives half a point. The format stresses the importance of each player focusing on one hole at a time.

LAFAYETTE, La. – Team Canada Development Squad member Tyler Saunders fired a final-round 69 at the Louisiana Classics on Tuesday to finish runner-up at 7-under par.

Saunders, 19, totalled 13 birdies coupled with a second-round eagle at Oakbourne Country Club en route to his second top-three performance in as many weeks — the 6’6 Sturgeon County, Alta., native earned co-medalist honours at the Mobile Sports Authority last week in Moble, Ala.

The Texas State freshman shared a sense of boosted confidence following his impressive performance these past couple weeks.

“I felt like last week was just the start of something,” Saunders said. “I think I just now need to get my short game really good, but I feel like I’m swinging it really well.”

As a team, the Texas State Bobcats finished in second place behind champion University of Illinois. Saunders and the Bobcats have a week off before teeing-it-up again at the Border Olympics in Laredo, Tex.

Click here for full results.

At this time of year when the temperature drops dramatically and the snow falls, many Canadians in the east head south to Florida or the Caribbean. Those on the west coast often head for Hawaii. I recently joined the exodus and spent two weeks at the Napili Kai Beach Resort in Maui – a hot spot for Canadians and avid golfers, in particular. There are 16 courses on the island of Maui.

The founder of the resort, Jack Millar, was a golfer from Vancouver. He felt that the social aspects of golf should be such an important ingredient for his resort that he built an 18-hole putting green alongside a 9-hole green for novices. For the past 50 years, Monday afternoons have been set aside for a well-attended putting contest; I am sure that the 50 cent cocktails served throughout the tournament might have something to do with its popularity.

My resort was located just a mile away from the Ritz Carleton Kapalua Resort and Golf Course – the home of the Hyundai Tournament of Champions on the PGA Tour. The golf course itself is set amid a 22,000-acre historic pineapple plantation and, being curious about golf courses and their stories, I headed over to check it out. It turns out there is quite a long history to this part of west Maui.

The land was acquired in the late 1880s by the sons of Dr. Dwight and Charlotte Baldwin – missionaries who arrived in Maui in the 1820s. The Baldwin family started planting pineapples in the 1890s and 30 years later, the family’s holdings owned 22,000 acres of agricultural land in Maui.  Long story short – by 1974 the Baldwin’s operation had become the Maui Land and Pineapple Company and the organization saw the writing on the wall for some of the agricultural land to be rezoned for the development of the master planned Kapalua Resort and Golf Course.

Fast forward to 1992: the Ritz Carleton Kapalua Resort and Golf Course opened, but not without its share of controversy. To its credit, in the Kapalua spirit of living in harmony with nature, the original seaside location of the hotel was moved a significant distance inland when the initial excavation site was found to be on top of an ancient Hawaiian burial ground dating back to 610 AD. The two golf courses were built adjacent to the burial grounds.

The discovery of the remains of almost 1,000 Hawaiians buried in the sand dunes inspired local activism and a resurgence of pride in Hawaiian culture and history.  This discovery of the massive burial site led to a Hawaiian law that gives unmarked burial grounds the same protection as cemeteries. Today, the 14-acre Honokahua Preservation Site is grassed over to protect it from erosion and entry is banned for most of the year except for specific Native Hawaiian ceremonies. The entire site has become a source of pride for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel and staff members conduct weekly lectures on the history of the site for anyone who is interested, not just guests.

The golf courses in Maui are just as diverse as the ones you will find in Canada, however If ever you get to Maui, I highly recommend you play a round of golf on the Kapalua Bay course. The vista overlooking the ocean will stagger you and when you walk beside the adjacent preservation site, you know it will always be there.

Blair Armitage most recently served as General Manager of the Quilchena Golf and Country Club in Richmond, B.C. Prior, he was General Manager of the Dalewood Golf and Curling Club in Port Hope, Ont. He is also a past President of the Canadian Society of Club Managers, Pacific Branch and a Director of the British Columbia Golf Marketing Alliance.

In addition to his golf administration background, Armitage is a former elite figure skating competitor and coach, having competed in Canadian national events as well as the World Championships.
He is now Golf Canada’s Regional Director of Membership for Western Canada.
Golf courses in Western Canada with questions about Golf Canada and how you can help to grow the game should email Blair at barmitage@golfcanada.ca.

TORONTO — The Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games Organizing Committee (TO2015) has unveiled the competition medals for this year’s games. Athletes from 41 countries and territories across the Americas will compete for 4,283 medals in 825 medal events. For the first time ever, golf will be included in the games for 2015.

The Toronto 2015 medals were unveiled at the Royal Ontario Museum today in a ceremony hosted by Canadian Olympic gold medallist Mark Tewksbury.

“I still feel a sense of pride and accomplishment every time I share my gold medal from Barcelona,” said Tewksbury. “These Toronto 2015 medals are pieces of art in their own right, and reflect all the hard work, dedication and the difficult journey athletes will take to wear one around their neck and cherish for life.”

“The Games unite us, inspire us and captivate us, and it’s the competition — the elite athletes striving for a moment of near perfection — that make it all so thrilling,” said Saäd Rafi, chief executive officer, TO2015. “So, we’re grateful to all our partners for striving for that same level of excellence in our medals.”

For athletes, the path to international sport usually begins in their hometown. Skill and athleticism propel them to the next level. And it is a similar journey for the medals that they strive to achieve. Starting in local mining communities where the raw materials for the Toronto 2015 medals begin their journey, forged by skilled hands, hard work and civic pride.

The materials for the medals were supplied by Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corporation from three of its operations across the Americas: copper from its Zaldívar mine in Chile; silver from its Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic; and gold from its Hemlo mine in Ontario.

Just as athletes hone their skill with hours of training, the unique Games medals will be skilfully crafted by the Royal Canadian Mint in an innovative process featuring 25 production steps. The process involves 30 Mint employees, including engineers, engravers, die technicians, machinists and production experts working together. The team’s combined experience in medals production totals more than 100 years.

Each of the 4,283 competition medals is truly unique. Learn more about the making of the medals at mint.ca/TO2015.

“That moment of glory on the podium is the result of years of training and preparation, so I am very proud that TORONTO 2015 and its partners dedicated so much thought, effort and passion into designing such beautiful and substantial medals that embody the commitment and courage of the athlete who earned it,” said Curt Harnett, Team Canada’s chef de mission for the TORONTO 2015 Pan Am Games.

The Toronto 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am competition medals will be on temporary exhibition at the Royal Ontario museum from Saturday, March 14 through Sunday, March 29. During the Games, they will be available for public viewing at the Royal Canadian Mint pavilion at CIBC Pan Am Park.

The Pan Am Games will run from July 10–26 followed by the Parapan Am Games August 7–15.  The current round of ticket sales for the Pan Am Games will close on March 9 and will not reopen until mid-April.

The golf competition will be contested July 16-19, 2015 at Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ont.

Callaway Golf partnered with Dude Perfect to create a golf trick shot video featuring the speed of its new XR clubs.

In the video, Callaway ambassador and 2-time World Long Drive Champion Jamie Sadlowski of Alberta takes his speed, power and trick shot talents to San Diego where he smashes a ball through various fruits, birdies a par 3 with just a putter and drives a ball off the USS Midway into the flailing fishing nets of Dude Perfect 400 yards below on jet skis.

Give it a watch…

This past week, I had the opportunity and privilege of attending one of the many PGA of America and United States Golf Association’s Rules of Golf workshops with my colleague Justine Decock at the St. Louis Marriott West in St. Louis, Missouri.

The PGA/USGA workshop is held over a four day period, containing three full days of seminar instruction accompanied by presentations and a very specific breakdown of each rule of golf, followed by a three-and-a-half-hour 100-question multiple choice exam (50 questions closed book, 50 questions open book).

Each seminar has two instructors representing the USGA and PGA, I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had two of the games’ best. Bernie Loehr, Director of Amateur Status and Rules at the USGA, has worked and served on the Joint Rules Committee (JRC), and has officiated numerous U.S. Opens, the PGA Championship, and our own National Open. Accompanying him was Jesse Barge, who is a PGA Master Professional, and the Head Golf Professional at the Links of Kokopelli in Illinois. Jesse has officiated 14 PGA Championships as well as two Masters Tournaments. From their resumes, you can tell that I was in good hands as a ‘first timer’.

Bernie and Jesse made the rules accessible for all levels of experience. Using their own experiences to accompany an explanation of a rule or decision was extremely helpful for someone who has only studied the rules for about a year. Coming away from the seminar, I finally have a grasp on understanding substituted ball, wrong ball and wrong place. For the rest of my rules career, I will never forget the meaning of ‘small object’ under the definition of ‘Equipment’ and when it’s not okay to re-drop – all thanks to Bernie and Jesse.

Justine and I made a great friend by the name of Woody Johnson who was one of the 50 or so participants that attended the workshop. After sparking up a conversation with our new friend and telling him that Justine and I were Canadian, our chat quickly turned from the rules of golf to hockey, and more specifically, the St. Louis Blues vs. Boston Bruins game that was being held at the Scottrade Centre that same Friday night. Woody made a call to his good friend Jerry Scull, who generously opened up their hospitality and treated Justine and I, along with ten or so others, to the game in box-club seats! Thanks again guys!

During the game, Justine and I learned that Jerry’s daughter is actively involved with the ‘Aid Through Trade’ program, which aims to increase equality, fair income, and opportunity for artisans in Nepal. It also promotes awareness on how the actions and support of those who have given to ‘Aid Through Trade’ have impacted and improved the lives of many artisans in Nepal. If you would like to find out more information on ‘Aid Through Trade’ please visit aidthroughtrade.com.

The rest of the trip was great! Justine and I drove twenty minutes to St. Charles so she could show me a few of her old hangout spots while she attended Lindenwood University. The people were extremely friendly in St. Louis and made you feel at home, no matter what you were doing.

The last component of the workshop was writing the exam. Let me be the first to tell you that the three-and-a-half hour time limit to write and complete the questions flies by so quickly. I was pleased with my result on the exam (79 per cent) and with it being my first time at the workshop, I learned a lot from the experience. For those of you just starting your Rules Education careers, the PGA/USGA Rules of Golf Workshop is open to anyone interested in pursuing the Rules and understanding them in more detail – there are no pre-requisites to attend a workshop. Details on workshop locations are usually confirmed in the fall before registration opens in October.

Overall, it was a great experience that I will never forget. I hope to attend another seminar and to see our friends Woody and Jerry in the near future.

Golf Fore the Cure presented by Subaru has opened registration to all women across Canada for 2015.

Now in its 12^th season, Golf Fore the Cure aims to add to an already impressive fundraising total, which surpassed the $5 million mark in 2014.

Last year, 13,000 women combined to raise over $360,000 through 170 events across Canada. Golf Fore the Cure presented by Subaru is hoping to one-up those numbers in 2015, shooting for a goal of 14,000 participants with over $500,000 raised.

Golf Fore the Cure encourages adult women of all skill levels to participate in fun-filled golf events while raising money for breast cancer research. Like years past, all funds from 2015 will be donated to the Canadian Cancer Society and the Québec Breast Cancer Foundation.

Register for an event by clicking here.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Padraig Harrington captured his first PGA Tour title in more than six years on Monday when he birdied the final hole in regulation and then beat 21-year-old rookie Daniel Berger on the second hole of a playoff.

Leaving to Harrington to win the wildest finish of the season on the PGA Tour. It took two days to complete and included one stunning collapse after another, including one by Harrington.

The three-time major champion had a one-shot lead until hitting into the water on the 17th hole for double bogey. On the same hole in the playoff, Harrington hit his tee shot to 3 feet. Berger, who closed with a 6-under 64, followed with a shot into the water.

Ian Poulter hit five balls in the water and shot 75.

Canada’s Adam Hadwin carded a final-round 72 and finished with a share of 31st at 3-over.

VALDOSTA, Ga. – Toronto native and Young Pro Squad member Albin Choi recorded his first win as a professional on Saturday, shooting a 6-under 210 to win the SwingThought Tour Classic by one stroke.

Choi, 22, carded 14 birdies en route to shooting rounds of 69-70-71 for the come-from-behind victory on the weather-shortened 54-hole event at the Kiderlou Forest Golf Club.

With the win, Choi takes home $20,000 (USD) along with an exemption into the United Leasing Championship presented by PTI, a Web.com Tour event.

The long-standing Team Canada member had lost his Web.com Tour status following the 2014 season, and will surely be eager to return with an extra boost of confidence following his victory.

Young Pro Squad Head Coach, Derek Ingram, shared his excitement for Choi, who he knows well through their years together with Team Canada’s National Amateur Squad.

“There is nothing more important than knowing you can win and believing in yourself,” said Ingram. “I couldn’t be happier for Albin.”

Choi will tee-it-up again from Mar. 9-14 in the NGA Tour’s next event in Diamondhead, Miss.

Fellow Canuck and former National Team member, Riley Wheeldon was also in the field in Valdosta. The Courtenay, B.C., native cracked the top-10, squeezing in with a tie for 10^th place.

This marks the second victory for the Young Pro Squad on the NGA Tour in recent months—Richmond Hill Ont. native Taylor Pendrith won the Meadowlands event in November.

Click here for full scoring.

Feels awesome to get that first win on a great track. Thanks to @TheNGATour for running a successful event under such tough conditions!

— Albin Choi (@AlbinChoi) March 1, 2015