SYDNEY – Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott weren’t paired together for the first two rounds of the Australian Open because organizers wanted to split their marquee players among morning and afternoon groups for the spectators and television.

After Thursday’s opening round, they’re also at opposite ends of the scoreboard.

McIlroy teed off in overcast conditions early Thursday and finished with a 2-under 69 just as Scott was beginning his round – and not very well at that.

Scott’s tee shot on the first went into the woods and he made double-bogey as he shot 74 at The Australian Golf Club.

The Northern Irishman was two strokes behind first-round leader American Jordan Spieth (67). Scott was in 82nd place and will need a good round Friday to make the cut.

“I made the worst of my worst shots and didn’t convert the good ones early,” Scott said. “I have to play three really great days now and it seems that’s what I’m doing week after week. But I’ll claw my way back into it tomorrow morning.”

Australians Aron Price and Scott Gardiner, who had a hole-in-one on Thursday, were tied for second with 68s, with McIlroy in a group of seven tied for fourth.

Spieth, playing in Scott’s group, said he initially expected a rough day.

“When we came out this morning, it was misty and the wind was blowing hard,” said Spieth. “I knew that it was going to play difficult but once the conditions started to clear for us; there was certainly a score out there.”

Spieth said he was impressed with Scott’s calm demeanor despite the Australian’s difficulties Thursday.

“When you know he is having a bad day, a great champion like he is, to see how positive he remains on each shot,” Spieth said.

Geoff Ogilvy, playing with McIlroy, shot 40 on the front nine, his second, including two double-bogeys, and had a 74.

McIlroy said the morning conditions were “pretty tricky.”

“It was tough to get the ball close to the pins with the wind and these greens being quite firm as well,” McIlroy said. “I thought anything under par today was a decent score and it was nice to birdie the last and shoot something in the 60s. It puts me right there for going into tomorrow.”

McIlroy flew into Sydney on Monday night from Dubai, where he finished tied for second at the season-ending World Tour Championship and admitted he was still a bit jet-lagged.

“It was a 4:30 wake-up call this morning, so it was an early start, so I just want to rest this afternoon and make sure I’m fresh for tomorrow,” he said.

Gardiner went from one extreme to the other over his first two holes.

He double-bogeyed the 10th to start his round, then immediately got the two strokes back with a hole-in-one on the par-3, 172-meter 11th.

Gardiner used the contour of the hole, landing his shot off the putting surface and watching it roll off the fringe and across the green into the hole, winning a new car in the process.

SYDNEY — On the eve of the Australian Open – and their first tournament together since September – Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott were doing their best Wednesday to sound like a mutual admiration society.

Shortly after they played off the same tee in a pro-am at The Australian Golf Club, McIlroy credited Scott with giving him the confidence to have the 2014 that he’s had – two majors and winner of the European Tour’s Race to Dubai. And those are just the highlights.

McIlroy won last year’s Australian Open with a birdie on the 18th hole at Royal Sydney, relegating Scott to second. While Scott has jokingly referred to McIlroy in the meantime as a “thorn in my side,” he says the Northern Irishman “has inspired me to work harder.”

The Australian Open was set to be a showdown between No. 1 McIlroy and No. 2 Scott, who haven’t played in the same tournament since the Tour Championship in Atlanta. Henrik Stenson changed that scenario with a win last weekend at the European Tour’s season-ending event, moving up to No. 2 and relegating Scott to 3 in the rankings. American Jordan Spieth is the other headliner in Sydney.

Last year, then U.S. Masters champion Scott led McIlroy by a shot going down the 18th fairway, but missed the green with his second shot and made bogey. McIlroy made a 15-foot putt for birdie to clinch the Stonehaven Cup, denying Scott a third win in a row at his country’s leading events – the PGA, Masters and Open – the so-called Australian Triple Crown.

“When the stars align for a guy like that, he’s hard to beat,” Scott said. “But that gives me all the more incentive when I play against him.”

McIlroy said his 2013 win “set me up a lot” for his outstanding season.

“I think I was four shots behind Adam going into the weekend and he was the No. 1 player in the world, he’d just come off the back of two wins, he was the Masters champion and to battle him for 36 holes and be able to come out on top … I did take a lot from that victory,” McIlroy said. “It was my one and only victory of 2013 but it ended the year for me on a high and gave me momentum going into 2014.”

Scott says he and McIlroy have “pushed each other along over the last couple of years, and certainly the last half of this year.”

“Rory has taken his game up a notch and that’s inspired me to work harder because he’s got to have more motivation than ever for what’s upcoming for him,” Scott added. “Next year, he’s got a chance to complete things in a career that so few have done.”

A win for McIlroy at next year’s Masters at Augusta would enable him to complete a career grand slam. McIlroy will also be aiming to win his third consecutive major – only Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have achieved that feat.

Scott, in his continuing quest for a new caddie to replace Steve Williams, has borrowed Perth International winner Thorbjorn Olesen’s caddie Mike Kerr for the Australian Open after using Englishman David Clark at last week’s Australian Masters.

The Australian Open will be the first qualifying tournament for next year’s British Open. The leading three players at Sydney who are not otherwise exempt will qualify for the Open Championship at St. Andrews.

All year Golf Canada magazine has been asking Canadians what they would do to make the game more fun. Over and over again we hear one stunningly simple solution. It costs little to nothing for courses to implement and allows every golfer – male, female, old and young – to have more fun. The answer? Put the ego aside and play from a distance where you can achieve success on the course. Journalist Robert Thompson takes a closer look at the tee it forward movement below…

Arthur Little and his wife Jan Leeming own a course called Province Lake
in Maine and run the Little Family Foundation. The pair felt golf courses were too long for not just high handicaps, but practically every golfer who isn’t among the best players in the world. Initially Little and Leeming wrote to Mike Keiser, the owner of the famed Bandon Dunes resort in Oregon, complaining that the forward tees on Bandon’s courses were too long.

“Then play where you’d like,” Keiser told me he replied while we wandered together around his latest venture, Cabot Links in Nova Scotia.

Keiser’s answer wasn’t what Leeming and Little hoped for. They wanted specific tees and they had research to back up their ideas. The notion that a woman should play at tees that are 5,300 yards,
as is common on many courses, is simply wrong, the pair’s research showed. They found many female players should be playing courses from 4,200 yards, while male golfers should be at 6,300. Together with Keiser, they created “Royal Blue” tees that lie significantly ahead of what were previously considered the forward tees.

“We have people who play the Royal Blue tees and tell us it is the most fun they’ve had playing golf,” says Ben Cowan-Dewar, the co-owner of Cabot Links, where the Royal Blue tees play 3,700 yards. “We want the people playing them to feel like real golfers, and those tees get a lot of use from women and junior golfers.”

Cowan-Dewar isn’t alone in trying to get more golfers to move up a few decks. The notion has taken hold in the last year under the “tee it forward” initiative, a concept that suggests most golfers – male and female alike – are simply playing from the wrong decks. There’s nothing new about the idea. Golf Canada, the PGA of Canada, and numerous other organizations have promoted the idea of moving up a deck and saving time while having more fun.

The concept isn’t far removed from Little’s idea. The suggestion is that golfers should play certain tees based on the distance they hit with their driver. For example, if a golfer can hit the ball 275 yards, he or she is able to deal with a course between 6,700 and 6,900 yards long, while someone who strikes the ball 150 yards should consider playing a course from between 4,400 and 4,600 yards. “Courses, as traditionally and currently designed, are much too long, too difficult and take too long to play,” Little wrote 
in one discussion on the subject. “Golf course owners and designers are fixated on lengthening courses to “fit” the very best players and get on “best courses” lists. As a result, they are not providing an enjoyable experience for average, beginning and aging golfers.”

Gary Bernard, chief executive of the PGA of Canada, is a big proponent of the notion of moving forward, an idea he’s become increasingly aware of. Now 57, Bernard says he’s regularly goaded into playing tees that are simply too long for him to enjoy. And if you can’t have fun, what’s the point?

“I want to play from tees where if I hit
a reasonable drive I’ll have a reasonable approach to the green and a shot at birdie,” says Bernard. “At 6,500 yards I’m having fun, having the occasional shot at birdie. I sometimes get asked to play farther back with [younger PGA members], but I can’t hit it as far as they can. My ego isn’t tied up in it,” he continues.

That’s the key, says Bernard. The notion that somehow a golfer is being cheated if he or she doesn’t tip it up from where John Daly would play is a notion that is still too common. And Bernard says there’s no easy way for golf course owners to convince people that they should move up a deck or two.

“It is hard,” he admits. “You simply can’t tell someone where to play. That’s the last thing a guy wants to hear after he’s paid for his round.”

However, there are places that do dictate the length of course golfers can play. In the United Kingdom it is common for courses to have tees for visitors that are decidedly shorter than for those golfers more familiar with the course. In the UK shorter “relief” courses are also common, with yardages often much shorter than their tougher neighbor courses. For example, the Buddon Links, sister course to the nasty Carnoustie in Scotland, host of many British Opens, tips out at 5,300 yards. That’s almost 2,000 yards less than the main course at the facility.

“How do we get people to play alternative courses, like short courses or par three courses?” asks Bernard. “It isn’t easy.”

There are options out there for those golfers who don’t feel the need to be tested by 7000 yard monsters. Turnberry Golf Club in Brampton, Ont., for example, offers the challenge and intrigue of a longer course, but maxes out at 3,400 yards and can be played in less than three hours. But even at Turnberry, where several par threes have forced carries, playing the appropriate tees is important to a player’s enjoyment.

“For some people, distance isn’t their key issue – it is accuracy,” says Jamie Trenholme, head pro at Eagles Nest, Turnberry’s sister course.

He’s right – which is another reason for golfers to try to play the appropriate tees.

One course that has tried to capitalize on the tee it forward concept is Granite Golf Club, in Uxbridge, Ont. Three years ago, Granite, a private club, instituted “family tees,” that were aimed at engaging more junior golfers. The tees are split by age and ability and range from 1,100 yards for nine holes to 2,500 for junior golfers who are age 11 or older.

“For us, it was a way of showcasing the club as a family facility that really engages the junior golfer,” says Walter Cheung, Granite’s general manager. “The goal was to change the way people think about where they play from. You’ll see families out playing the course together now.”

Since then Granite has made other adjustments to its course to make it friendlier for its membership. “The message is that it is okay to play from tees that suit your game, which is difficult enough to start with,” says Cheung.

At Cabot Links, Cowan-Dewar thinks the tee it forward concept is catching hold. Though his course is only 7,000 yards from the tips, it can be exceedingly difficult when the wind blows off the sea. Cowan-Dewar says a golfer’s goal should be to enjoy themselves, as opposed to struggling around a course that is too long in some sort of masochistic endeavor.

“Golf isn’t about losing six balls and punishing yourself throughout your round,” he says. “Why would anyone want to do that when they can move up and have fun?”

Why indeed.

This article was originally published in Golf Canada magazine.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – The Champions Tour has announced the best tournaments of the 2014 Champions Tour season.

Four specific categories were recognized – the President’s Award, the Players Award, the Tournament Business Affairs Award and the Outstanding Achievement Award.

Miller Brady, Senior Vice President & Chief of Operations for the Champions Tour, announced the Shaw Charity Classic, staged at Canyon Meadows Golf & Country Club in Calgary as the recipient of the President’s Award, a most prestigious award which captures the criteria of all the awards plus the intangibles that make it stand out from the rest. The Shaw Charity Classic’s charitable giving exceeded $2 million for the second consecutive year. It also marks the first time since the award was established that a tournament staged outside of the United States has won the President’s Award.

“The Shaw Charity Classic was an exceptional event in its first year and elevated its performance and stature on the Champions Tour in its second,” said Brady. “Tournament officials attracted one of the strongest fields of the season; a direct result of players convincing those who skipped the inaugural event that it was a ‘must play’ tournament. Everyone involved should take great pride in how the event has rapidly developed. It’s certainly very deserving of the President’s Award.”

Following the inaugural Shaw Charity Classic, which produced a runaway seven-shot victory by Rocco Mediate, this year’s huge galleries witnessed the most exciting finish of the season. Fan favorite Fred Couples and rookie Billy Andrade both recorded eagles on the final hole of regulation before heading to a playoff, eventually won by Couples with a birdie on the first extra hole.

“Receiving this prestigious award in just our second year shows the commitment of Shaw Communications and the Patron Group, not only to the Shaw Charity Classic, but to the local community and to the Champions Tour as a whole,” said Tournament Director Sean Van Kesteren. “We’re extremely proud to win and we could never achieve this recognition without the efforts of our sponsors, volunteers, staff and fans.”

The Players Award went to the DICK’S Sporting Goods Open. This year, the tournament gained worldwide publicity mainly due to the record-setting 13-under 59 shot by rookie Kevin Sutherland in the second round. Bernhard Langer won the event, one of five titles he claimed in his stellar season. The excellent condition of the En-Joie Golf Course, the engaged community, the friendly tournament staff and sponsors, along with the annual concert, this year featuring “Zac Brown Band”, are all contributing factors to a hugely successful event which players appreciate.

The Champions Tour Tournament Business Affairs Award went to the Boeing Classic for the third year in a row. The T.B.A. team rates and grades every tournament in several different categories that determine what makes a successful event, and the Boeing Classic, played at TPC Snoqualmie Ridge in Seattle, Wash. for the 10^th consecutive year earned the highest overall score. New records were set at the tournament with attendance, revenue and charitable giving all at record highs. Rookie Scott Dunlap won his first Champions Tour event in a playoff with veteran Mark Brooks. He was the third of five rookie winners on Tour in 2014.

The Outstanding Achievement Award was won by the Big Cedar Lodge Legends of Golf presented by Bass Pro Shopswhich excelled with the historic team-event being partly contested on the nine-hole Top of the Rock Par-3 course in Ridgedale, Mo. The venue was officially announced in January and played in June – surely the shortest lead time for any PGA TOUR-sanctioned event in memory. The community embraced the event with more than 1,000 volunteers contributing to its outstanding success. Fred Funk and Jeff Sluman won the tournament while Jim Colbert and Jim Thorpe claimed the unofficial Legends Division.

The Champions Tour Tournament Advisory Council presents the Bruno Award annually to an individual judged to have made special and outstanding contributions to the Champions Tour. The award is named in honor of Brian ‘Bruno’ Henning, the former Vice President of the Champions Tour and Southern Africa Golf Hall of Fame member. This year, Charles Schwab, whose company is the umbrella sponsor of the Champions Tour’s season-long Charles Schwab Cup competition and an Official Marketing Partner of the PGA TOUR, is the recipient of the Bruno Award. Charles Schwab & Company has had a profound impact on the Champions Tour after introducing the Charles Schwab Cup in 2001 as the first-ever, season-long points competition to identify the leading player on Tour. Each year, the Charles Schwab Cup awards $2.1 million to the top five finishers in the competition, with the champion receiving $1 million.

People often ask me how I got involved with the rules of golf. I was first hired by Golf Canada to help conduct amateur championships across Canada. My role has expanded a fair bit since then and I am heavily immersed in the rules of golf these days.

When I first started running golf championships, I quickly learned that a very important aspect of any competition is course set-up: establishing course yardage; defining margins of hazards and out of bounds; and selecting hole locations. In order to properly set up a course for a national championship, a thorough understanding of the rules is a necessity.

I have to admit, it was really tough in the beginning to learn the rules as they are written in a very precise and deliberate way. If I misinterpret one word or forget if whether the rule states “should,” “may,” or “must,” there is no chance of getting the right ruling. It takes countless hours studying the rules and years to fully understand all the nuances of the rules of golf. At every seminar and tournament I attend, I still learn something new. That’s what keeps the game interesting and ultimately why a lot of people become rather obsessive over the rules.

I’m fortunate that my position allows me to work many tournaments around the world and meet some amazing people. I was fortunate to catch up with two of our rules officials and talk to them about their interest in the rules of golf and how they got started. Hope you enjoy getting to know them a little better in my scrawl below.

Alison Murdoch – Victoria, BC

Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member Alison Murdoch has recently taken an interest in the rules of golf. She initially completed Golf Canada’s Level 2 online program to feel more confident about the rules on the course. The rest is history.

After completing the necessary practical hours for her Level 2 certification, Murdoch attended the Level 3 seminar with British Columbia Golf’s Susan White at Duncan Meadows Golf Club in 2008. She was feeling confident enough to write the exam, passed and decided to do the practical hours to get certified at Level 3. A few years later, she attended a Level 4 seminar. I had the pleasure of working with Alison at the 2011 Canadian Women’s Amateur and immediately noticed that her competitive playing experience helps her deal with players on the course.

“When I’m on the course, I now feel more confident about the regular day-to-day rulings in terms of myself and helping out fellow competitors,” said Murdochwhen describing how the rules have helped her as a player. “I also know that if it is at all complicated we should get a rules official in and get guidance. Then everyone will be sure that we did the right thing.”

Murdoch is retired now but says her career has helped in many situations on the course. “When I was working, I used to do investigations into complaints in the Human Resources field. I am familiar with getting the information required to make a decision and with the problem that you may not be able to get all the evidence you might want or you might not have total confidence in some of the evidence.”

Timmy Yorke – Kensington, PEI

A few years ago, an 11-year-old wrote the Level 2 rules exam and achieved a perfect score. The son of accomplished Canadian player Tim Yorke, Timmy grew up playing and watching his dad on the course. The Yorke family resides in Kensington, PEI, and are members at both Green Gables Golf Club and Andersons Creek Golf Club.

While volunteering at a Prince Edward Island Golf Association (PEIGA) championship, Timmy became interested in the rules of the game. He was stationed on a hole as a forecaddie, spotting balls near a water hazard in the landing zone of a hole. There were a few balls that managed to find the hazard and Timmy, not knowing the rules at that time, was curious about how the players should proceed. “My interest in the rules was also heightened every time my dad would come home from a tournament and ex- plain to me all the rules incidents,” said Yorke about his early introduction to the rules. of golf “A few times my dad was on the wrong end of a ruling and it made me curious about why he was penalized in those circumstances.”

Soon after completing the online
 Level 2 program, Timmy started working towards his Level 3 certification. Last winter, he contacted the Golf Association of Ontario in hopes of participating in its online prep course for the Level 3 seminar. While most kids his age were spending their time doing school work or playing sports, Timmy was on a webinar with rules officials learning the rules of golf.

Timmy admits that he doesn’t play as much golf as he’d like, but he claims that he’s definitely more interested in the game now that he’s got a better understanding of the rules. Now 13, he is the youngest person in Canada to achieve the highest rating on the Level 3 exam and has a bright future ahead of him if he wants to pursue officiating roles in the future.

To learn more about the rules of golf, click here.

This blog was originally published in Golf Canada magazine.

Oakville, Ont. — The Golf Coaches Association of Canada (GCAC) compiled its annual coaches poll on November 12^th, 2015 and the UBC Thunderbirds men’s and women’s squads were voted as the two top teams in the country.

In the men’s poll, the Thunderbirds (92 points) edged the Manitoba Bisons (91 points) and the Waterloo Warriors (87 points) by a narrow margin.

Rounding out the TOP 10 were the Laval Rouge et Or (84 points), Holland Hurricanes (81 points), Victoria Vikes (79 points), Brock Badgers (70 points), Ottawa Gee Gee’s (55 points), Fraser Valley Cascades (53 points), and Montreal Carabins (52 points).

On the women’s side, UBC (60 points) was unanimously voted as the top team in the country, garnering all six first place votes.

The Toronto Varsity Blues (48 points) finished in second place, just one point ahead of the Montreal Carabins (47 points). The Victoria Vikes (44 points) claimed fourth spot, while the Alberta Pandas (33 points) took fifth.

The Waterloo Warriors (31 points) placed in sixth overall, followed by the Fraser Valley Cascades (22 points). The Western Ontario Mustangs and McGill Martlets tied (16 points) for 8^th place overall, and the Laval Rouge et OR (10 points) completed the TOP 10.

The 2015 Golf Canada University/College Golf Championship will run May 25-29 at Cutten Fields Golf Course in Guelph, Ont.

UXBRIDGE — The Golf Association of Ontario (GAO) is pleased to announce the 2015 roster for Team Ontario.

The announcement comes on the heels of the GAO’s recent partnership with TaylorMade-Adidas Golf, who will provide Team Ontario athletes with Adidas clothing and access to TaylorMade equipment.

The team, which began training in October, is set for a full winter of work as they prepare for the official start to the competitive season at the GAO Investors Group Junior Spring Classic in May.

“Overall the team looks very good, with many of the players already having achieved bench mark successes in their junior golf careers,” said Mary Ann Hayward, GAO Manager of Sport Performance. “All of the players are highly motivated to make the national development team and our coaching staff is prepared to work very hard to help them get there.”

This year’s team highlights the quality of the GAO’s high performance programs as 11 of the squad’s 13 golfers are either returning Team Ontario members or graduates from the GAO’s Regional (U17) Team Program.

With a pair of Team Ontario players, Trevor Ranton and Grace St-Germain, moving up to the National Development Team, the 2015 roster features five returning players:

• Markham’s Max Sear, 17, from York Downs Golf and Country Club (coached by Ian Crebbin)
• Port Lambton’s Brendan Seys, 16, from Maple City Country Club (coached by John Dengel)
• Ruthven’s Alyssa Getty, 17, from Kingsville Golf and Country Club (coached by Reggie Millage)
• Richmond Hill’s Monet Chun, 13, from The Summit Golf and Country Club (coached by Ian Leggatt and Don Lee)

• Thornhill’s Jason Chung, 15, from Pheasant Run Golf Club (coached by Charlie Woo)

Joining the returnees, are the following graduates of the GAO Regional Team Program:

• London’s Jackson Bowery (Team Waterloo), 17, from Greenhills Golf Club (coached by Len Foran)
• Burlington’s Kyle MacDonald (Team York), 16, from Rattlesnake Pointe Golf Club (coached by Rich Storey)
• Dunrobin’s Jake Bryson (Team Ottawa), 15, from Eagle Creek Golf Club (coached by Kevin Haime)
• Ridgeway’s Madeline Marck-Sherk (Team Waterloo), 17, from Bridgewater Country Club (coached by Mary Kraus)
• Kingston’s Diana McDonald (Team Ottawa), 17, from Loyalist Country Club (coached by Chris Barber)
• London’s Isabella Portokalis (Team Waterloo), 13, from London Hunt and Country Club

Rounding out the team are:

• Thornhill’s Kelvin Lim, 13, from Station Creek Golf Club
• Mississauga’s Chloe Currie, 15, from Mississauga Golf and Country Club (coached by Nick Starchuk)

“It is great having six of our new players coming out of regional programs,” added Hayward. “They are accustomed to the team training environment and come with a good base in their technical and physical training.”

GAO Head Provincial Coach Reggie Millage, a Class ‘A’ PGA of Canada professional from Milton, leads team Ontario’s coaching staff. Millage enters his second season with the team after taking over the position last November.

Also returning to the 2015 squad are Athletic Therapist Andrew Hoermann and Mental Skills Coach Judy Goss. New to the coaching staff this year is Strength and Conditioning Coach Nick Martichenko.

“This year’s team is obviously a very different group, especially with the make up of seven boys and six girls,” said Millage. “Most of them are already well established and are willing to work hard to reach the next level. The coaches have already been working one-on-one with them, making the changes we feel are necessary as we work towards the spring.”

Millage also spoke about the very experienced coaching staff.

“We are very excited to have Andrew back as Athletic Therapist. He is the longest serving member of the coaching staff and very good at what he does working with the athletes. Adding Nick to the team is also exciting because he is a very qualified and dedicated Strength and Conditioning Coach. Nick is very committed to working with golfers and he and I have worked together in the past and have enjoyed good success in taking athlete’s golf games to the next level.”

Already an accomplished group, the squad will look for even better results in 2015.

Some highlights from the 2014 season included Getty capturing the CN Future Links Quebec Championship, Marck-Sherk taking the gold medal at the Ontario Summer Games (Juvenile Girls’ Championship) and Currie winning the Ontario Bantam Girls’ Championship and the Ontario Junior Tours Championship.

Additionally, Lim was victorious at the CN Future Links Quebec Championship, while Sear successfully defended his Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) individual championship title.

Looking ahead, Team Ontario will train indoors during the winter months at The Golf Lab in Vaughan. ClubLink’s Heron Bay Golf Club in Coral Springs, Fla. will be the new host venue for Team Ontario training camps in January and February. During March Break, the team will head to Myrtle Beach, SC for a training camp as well as take part in the Can-Am Matches which is an annual team match event between the top junior golfers from Ontario and South Carolina.

About Team Ontario

The GAO Team Ontario program is a high-performance training program for the top junior aged golfers in Ontario. Athletes are selected in September each year and the program runs from October through August. Team Ontario athletes receive the very best in coaching services, training/competitive opportunities, and sport science support as they strive to make Golf Canada’s National Development Team. Being selected to Team Ontario is a tremendous accomplishment and offers unparalleled support and guidance to the participating athletes and their families.

About the Golf Association of Ontario

The Golf Association of Ontario (GAO) is Ontario’s Provincial Sport Organization focused on enhancing participation, elevating performance and supporting the passion of golfers in Ontario. With over 100,000 individual members and 450 member clubs, the GAO is one of the largest golf associations in the world.  From rating courses and keeping the integral rules of the game intact, to growing the game at the grassroots level and getting the game of golf into our school systems, to keeping the Ontario golf community aware of all relevant issues and hosting the best amateur tournaments in Canada, the Golf Association of Ontario is a passionate group dedicated to making golf better for everyone in Ontario. We share a love and passion for golf, while preserving its past, fostering its future, and championing golf’s best interests for everyone who enjoys the sport.

For more information, please contact:

Darren Matte, Communications and Marketing Coordinator

Golf Association of Ontario

905-852-1101 ext. 234

dmatte@gao.ca

The PGA Tour has smaller circuits in Latin America, Canada and China. Commissioner Tim Finchem spoke in 2010 about golf heading toward a “world tour,” even though he wasn’t sure what it would look like or when it would all come together.

It’s worth paying attention to the activity of players over the last month.

Brandt Snedeker was in Japan for the Bridgestone Open. Jordan Spieth was in Japan last week at the Dunlop Phoenix, and he’s at the Australian Open this week. Webb Simpson was in Japan. Jason Dufner went to Thailand.

Finchem wants to see golf get through the 2016 Olympics – and the schedule problems that will present – before looking too far ahead.

“We need at least two and maybe three years of looking at the schedule in this environment with the wraparound,” he said earlier this month in Shanghai. “We need that experience before we start tinkering. In terms of fundamental schedule, we’re at least another year away from starting to think about that.”

But when asked about a world tour, Finchem made it sound as though the three satellite tours could be part of a larger, global picture.

“I think what we’re going to do – and are doing – is watching carefully not just this tour in China, but also South America and Canada,” he said. “And we’re spending more time evaluating the other core tours – the Asian Tour, Australia, South Africa – understanding more about co-sanctioning between Europe and some of these other tours. We’re just asking ourselves, overall, what’s the best mix?”

“Those two things dovetail,” he said. “We need to get a better sense of what the Olympics are going to do on the weeks it’s played and the weeks around it. And then that kind of feeds into the world schedule.”

Finchem said it was a “possibility” of co-sanctioning an event in Australia, though it didn’t sound as if the PGA Tour was headed in that direction.

Australia now has four big events on world schedule – the Masters, Open and PGA, along with Perth on the European Tour. This week in Sydney features Nos. 1 and 2 in the world with Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott, along with Spieth.

“We’ve got more big events around the world that are linked to the PGA Tour,” Scott said. “I think the ball is really in their court as to what direction we want to go. It certainly has got the power to dictate to tournaments when they are and where they are. … If I was the Australian Open or one of the other tournaments, I’d be knocking on Tim Finchem’s door and trying to make it a World Golf Championship.”

Check out the top 10 double eagles on the PGA Tour (excluding majors), featuring Hunter Mahan, Carlos Franco, Ernie Els and others.

Get to know Fred Couples

Get to know World Golf Hall of Fame honoured member, Fred Couples, in this vignette shot at the 2014 Shaw Charity Classic in Calgary.

NAPLES, Fla. — Stacy Lewis became the first American in 21 years to sweep the three biggest awards on the LPGA Tour, which she considered more valuable than a $1 million bonus.

Lewis closed with a 1-under 71 in the CME Group Tour Championship on Sunday, tied for ninth in the LPGA Tour finale. But it was enough for her to win LPGA Tour player of the year for the second time in three seasons. She also won the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average and the money title.

The last American to sweep the awards was Betsy King in 1993.

“The $1 million would have been nice,” said Lewis, who was six shots out of a playoff. “But those three, that’s what I came here for. … It’s been hard to play the last four days, and it’s nice to be done. I didn’t have my best stuff. I’m pretty surprised to finish where I did.”

Two years ago, the 29-year-old Lewis became the first American since Beth Daniel to win the points-based player of the year. She added the Vare Trophy a year ago. And on Sunday, she collected all three at the same time.

Inbee Park, the No. 1 in the world, was the only player who could have kept Lewis from the awards. She trailed in all of them, but struggled all week at Tiburon Golf Club and finished in a tie for 24th, four shots worse than Lewis.

Lewis finished atop the money list with $2,539,039, more than $300,000 over Park. Her scoring average was 69.532, while Park was second at 69.682. Michelle Wie was third in the Vare Trophy standings (69.818), followed by So Yeon Ryu at 69.978.

It was the first time in LPGA history that four women had a sub-70 scoring average.

Lewis felt as much stress this week as at any major, mainly because Park was on a roll and Lewis was struggling. She received one good omen Saturday night when her family ordered Chinese food and her father tossed her a fortune cookie.

Lewis kept it in her pocket during the final day of the tournament and read it aloud to the media when she was done: “Good news of long-awaited event will arrive soon.”

“The last couple of weeks have been tough,” Lewis said. “The game hasn’t been exactly where I wanted it to be. I figured (Park would) keep it rolling this week, and I knew I needed to find something. It was probably four of the hardest rounds of golf I’ve ever played.”

Lewis won three times this year, though she failed to do so at a major. Still, she wouldn’t trade what she ended up with.

“Before this week, it was good. Now it’s a little bit better,” Lewis said when asked to measure her year. “I’d like to have taken a major championship. But winning these three awards makes it almost great.”