Terry Lenyk - Golf Canada

VILAMOURA, Portugal – Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium shot a brilliant 11-under 60 to take a three-shot lead of the Portugal Masters in the opening round on Thursday.

Colsaerts came close to setting a European Tour record of 59 when his putt missed on the par-4 18th hole.

Colsaerts made eagles on the 15th and 17th after hitting seven birdies through a near flawless first day at the Oceanico Victoria Golf Club.

It was the 19th time the score of 60 has been reached on the European Tour.

Scott Jamieson and Alexander Levy were both three strokes behind in joint second.

The round was suspended late due to rain. It will be finished early Friday.

One hundred student-athletes will compete in the 2014 PING Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Golf National Championships, which take place October 14-17 at the Club de Golf Lorette in Quebec City. For the second straight year, the tournament will be hosted by Champlain College St. Lawrence.

The CCAA national championship is contested over three rounds. Tournament week also includes a skills competition and the CCAA national championship awards banquet, where the 2014 CCAA All-Canadians and 2014 CCAA Golf Coach of the Year will be announced.

Male and female golfers will compete as individuals and in teams for CCAA trophies and medals. Tournament play will be officiated by Golf Canada.

Here are this year’s participants:

WOMEN’S TEAMS
(As ranked)

1. UFV Cascades, PACWEST
2. St. Clair Saints, OCAA
3. Champlain St. Lawrence Lions, RSEQ
4. Georgian Grizzlies, OCAA
5. Okanagan Heat, PACWEST
6. MacEwan Griffons, ACAC
7. Humber Hawks, OCAA

MEN’S TEAMS
(As ranked)

1. UFV Cascades, PACWEST
2. Humber Hawks, OCAA
3. Georgian Grizzlies, OCAA
4. Camosun Chargers, PACWEST
5. Holland Hurricanes, ACAA
6. MacEwan Griffins, ACAC
7. Cégep André-Laurendeau, RSEQ
8. Durham Lords, OCAA
9. Champlain St.Lawrence Lions, RSEQ
10. Lethbridge Kodiaks, ACAC
11. Seneca Sting, OCAA
12. Medicine Hat Rattlers, ACAC
13. Rebelles de Sorel-Tracy, RSEQ
14. St. Thomas Tommies, ACAA

INDIVIDUAL COMPETITORS
(By conference)

Jaylene Holmes-Tang, Holland Hurricanes, ACAADavid Huxham, John Abbott Islanders, RSEQ
Spencer Dunseith, Fanshawe Falcons, OCAA
Maria Novoa, Seneca Sting, OCAA
Mike Rizzetto, Mohawk Mountaineers, OCAA
Brennan Smith, St. Lawrence Vikings, OCAA
Lorelle Weavers, Niagara Knights, OCAA
Braxton Fox, Augustana Vikings, ACAC
Lisa Reid, Lethbridge Kodiaks, ACAC
Matt Haddad, VIU Mariners, PACWEST
Thomas Rose, KPU Eagles, PACWEST

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Top-ranked Stacy Lewis shot a 6-under 65 on Thursday to take a one-stroke lead at the Sime Darby LPGA Malaysia, the second event of the tour’s six-tournament Asian swing.

Lewis birdied the par-5 16th hole to break away from a tight leaderboard at the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club. Tied for second were the South Korean quartet of Na Yeon Choi, Hee Young Park, Eun Hee Ji and So Yeon Ryu.

Golfers from South Korea have won six of the last seven LPGA tournaments.

Amy Yang of South Korea and China’s Shanshan Feng were among a group tied for sixth after shooting 67.

Natalie Gulbis shot 69, Karrie Webb carded 70, and Lexi Thompson – who won by four strokes here last year – had a 71. Paula Creamer shot 75.

“My goal was to shoot a 1 or 2 under on the front and I got off to a good start,” Lewis said. “It was kind of shaky on the first three holes but I just hung in there and gave myself a lot of birdie chances and I was fortunate to make a few. So it was a little bit of an ugly round, but I got a lot out of it.”

Choi, who teed off from the 10th, said she was pleased to be only one stroke behind after nearly putting her ball in the water on her approach on the par-4 second hole, her 11th of the day.

“I had one bogey out there, but I was lucky the ball did not roll into the water,” Choi said. “I hope to come back with a good feeling tomorrow.”

Feng finished tied for 49th in her native China last week, and was happy to be playing away from home this week.

“I’m more relaxed,” Feng said. “Last week, I think people wanted me to win again, and I told everybody I was not going to give myself pressure, but I think I still did a little bit. I tried too hard and actually it went the wrong way.”

Last week, South Korea’s Mirim Lee won the Reignwood Classic in Beijing for her second victory of the year. The LPGA KEB-HanaBank is next week in South Korea, followed by the Blue Bay LPGA in China.

Garrett Rank is gearing up for his first full season as a referee in the American Hockey League.

Rank, an Elmira, Ont. native, recently won the Canadian Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship at Barrie Country Club to earn an exemption into the 2015 RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Club.

Garrett Rank (Golf Canada/ Graig Abel)

The Team Canada member recently spoke with GolfWeek’s Cassie Stein about how he got into officiating, his goals for the future, and how he plans to juggle hockey and golf.

Click here to read Stein’s story.

Keith Bartlett thought there was a day in the future that he’d have to deal with the problems plaguing his course’s greens. He just didn’t know how quickly that day would come.

Bartlett, superintendent at St. George’s Golf and Country Club in Toronto, recognized his club’s problem in the late winter. Core samples of grass from the club’s greens didn’t come to life when grown indoors, and there was a decidedly nasty odor from the grass. It turns out a combination of factors—a lengthy and unseasonably long cold snap, ice and other circumstances—put undue pressure on the short grass that serves as a putting service for thousands of golfers each year. That grass was dead, leading Bartlett and other superintendents from across Ontario to seek out a way to deal with one of the biggest catastrophes to hit golf clubs in the province in decades.

“It was a real mess,” says Bartlett, sitting in a golf cart near the clubhouse at St. George’s in Toronto’s west end. “But it helped us move forward with something I’m not sure we’d ever have gotten done otherwise.”

In the case of St. George’s, the prestigious private club elected to make a bold move, rebuilding all 18 holes on its Stanley Thompson–designed course. But it was only one of numerous clubs in Ontario that faced tough decisions as courses came out of the cold to find their Poa Annua greens—annual bluegrass in colloquial terms—dead and brown. Usually there’s some winterkill, but no one in the industry recalls such a widespread issue in the last 50 years.

The problem captured attention from across Ontario’s media, with print and television broadcasters putting the spotlight on courses with dead grass. The cold didn’t discriminate based on a course’s rating or the fees it charged players. If a course had Poa Annua greens—common at most older facilities—it faced some degree of damage from the winter, often with swaths of dead grass. Newer facilities typically have more resilient bentgrass greens, a more modern grass that isn’t nearly as easily damaged by ice and cold and is more environmentally sustainable, which explains why in some areas of the province one course would have extensively damaged putting surfaces, while a nearby club didn’t have any problems.

At its worst, some of the country’s most venerable clubs like St. George’s or Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Ancaster, Ont., or London Hunt and Country Club, which hosted this year’s Canadian Pacific Women’s Open, lost a majority of their putting surfaces.

Owen Russell at Markland Woods, a private club in Toronto, was one of the first to recognize his club’s issue.

“The toughest thing was to admit they were dead,” he says. “You sort of had to come clean, recognize the situation and move ahead with a plan.”

In his situation, 14 of 19 greens (the club has an extra hole) were damaged beyond repair. With the Toronto Star Amateur on the schedule, the club had to react quickly. He was able to find bentgrass sod that was left over from another golf course project and put it down on his greens on April 25. Unlike some other clubs, Markland Woods had the proper soil to support bentgrass. Other clubs weren’t as lucky and had to spend millions stripping the soil from their greens and entirely rebuilding them.

The new greens grew in rapidly and club members were anxious to get out and play. But Russell held them off until he knew the greens could withstand traffic. He opened them on June 6. The club used the change to bentgrass to sell new memberships based on the fact it shouldn’t lose playing days to dead grass in the future, Russell says.

“We turned what could have been a real mess into a positive for the club,” he says.

However, dead grass on golf greens wasn’t limited to private clubs. Ontario’s nasty winter wasn’t discerning when it came to killing Poa. Public golf courses from Mississauga’s famed Lakeview Golf Club to Victoria Park East in Guelph had similar issues without the ability to prop up their finances with annual dues from members.

David DeCorso’s course, Victoria Park East, opened with three complete temporary putting surfaces and nine greens with significant issues. Due to a colder than usual spring, it took until July for the greens to start to return, though DeCorso says they never fully recovered. And the lackluster conditions meant the club couldn’t charge golfers full fare for much of the year, hitting the club’s bottom line as well.

“A lot of golfers didn’t start playing until June anyway because the spring was lousy,” DeCorso says. “And when the greens did come back they were fine, but the worst spots are weak and there are certainly some concerns going into the spring.”

That’s Rhod Trainor’s concern as well. The longtime superintendent at Hamilton Golf and Country Club, Trainor’s club didn’t open any of its greens until July.

Hamilton, which has 27 holes covered with Poa, remained shut until July as Trainor attempted to bring the greens back to life through a process of aerating and slit-seeding with bentgrass.

Trainor wasn’t alone. Most Ontario superintendents turned to overseeding with bentgrass to repair the damaged greens. The bentgrass rapidly filled in the dead areas, but didn’t do well in areas where sunlight and airflow is limited by trees. That means most Ontario superintendents are promoting a plan of judicious tree removal, something that’s been very misunderstood despite an educational push by many clubs and the United States Golf Association, one of the sport’s governing bodies.

Trainor, who plans to remove hundreds of trees around the club’s greens to create a better growing environment, says it is something he should have done years ago.

“I’m part of the problem because I didn’t tackle the issue a long time ago,” he says.

Though he recognizes tree removal is a sore spot for many people, Trainor says trees have a place on courses—it is just away from areas where they shade greens.

Trainor says golfers who, at one time, couldn’t understand why greens wouldn’t grow under the canopy of trees, now have a much better sense of the issues facing courses.

“I think the education of members, by people like the [United States Golf Association] has really broadened,” he says. “And I think people have seen the success courses have had following tree removal.”

Bartlett’s overhaul took 58 days. In that time the club rebuilt and seeded all of the new greens. He credits the club’s support for the project to the educational tours he did of the course starting in 2013. During those tours he tried to explain to members the struggles the grass had because of the trees, and the need to move forward with bentgrass. He also articulated the fact that bentgrass needed a sandy, well-drained base, which meant the greens would have to be completely rebuilt.

“The success of the project was based on the fact I’d been educating the members for some time,” he says.

For those who see the overhaul as an unnecessary extravagance, Bartlett says there are huge environmental and financial benefits to using the new grass. Bentgrass takes less water—a key issue facing all clubs—is more disease resistant and requires less fertilizer and pesticides than Poa, he adds.

“Even our operating budget will come down slightly,” he says. “And the experience will be better for every member.”

What about the naysayers who claim Poa will soon take over the club’s new greens? Bartlett scoffs, saying the club has created an appropriate growing environment for bentgrass to flourish.

“I’ll be long gone and retired before anyone has to deal with this again,” Bartlett, 48, says. “We’ve set the club up to be more sustainable. I think in time almost every club will follow.”

A bestselling author of five books, and golf columnist for Global News and Global Golf Post, Robert Thompson has chased a little white ball all over the world. He was commissioned to write this feature for the Ontario Golf Superintendents Association. For more information contact Phil Scully, President of the OGSA, at pscully@granitegolfclub.ca.

DORVAL, Qué. – CN and Golf Canada have announced that CN is adopting 15 local schools from the Montreal region to deliver the game of golf to local students.

More than 60 students from École Marguerite-Bourgeoys in Pointe-Claire, Qué. celebrated with a one-day field trip event on Wednesday October 8^th at Golf Dorval, receiving lessons in putting, chipping and driving from Operations Manager, Jean-Guy Côté. As part of their ongoing commitment to junior golf, CN has adopted more than 100 schools in various markets across the country into the Golf in Schools program since 2013.

“Our school board is very proud to be associated with Golf Canada, the PGA of Canada and CN in this wonderful initiative,” said Sandy Farr, Physical Education and Health Consultant for the English Montreal School Board. “In order to graduate life long, active learners, our physical education and health programs must encompass basic developmental skills at the elementary level and expose students to a variety of active living choices, such as golf. In doing so, we hope that many more EMSB students will choose to play golf, both as students and as active adults.”

This marks the third group of schools adopted by CN as part of the CN Future Links Community Tour, which consists of three community festivals each year, intended to share the health and wellness values of golf. Montreal’s tour stop took place earlier this summer during the 2014 RBC Canadian Open at the Royal Montreal Golf Club. Saskatoon and Sarnia received visits earlier in the year. Each Community Tour event engages community youth and festival attendees in various golf activities as well as rail safety tips from CN Police.

“CN is proud to support the future of the game and the health and well-being of our children by introducing the next generation of golfers to the game,” said Claude Mongeau, CN President and Chief Executive Officer. “We believe that Golf Canada’s vision to grow the sport aligns well with our corporate values to promote the health and wellness of children in communities across Canada. “Golf and its inherent values are good for our children and we are pleased to be bringing Canada’s national junior golf program to communities across Canada.” CN has been a driving force in Canadian junior golf since becoming title sponsor CN Future Links in 2006.

“Montreal is an important part of CN’s network across Canada as the home of our corporate head offices. Just as CN plays a vital role transporting products to markets, we welcome the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to youth in communities across Canada by helping Golf Canada and the PGA of Canada grow junior golf through the CN Future Links program,” said Mr. Mongeau.

Current CN Future Links programming includes the ‘Learn to Play’ program as well as mobile clinics, the Junior Skills Challenge, PGA Jr. League, Girls Club and the CN Future Links Championships. As part of its investment in Canadian junior golf, CN is also a proud supporter of Golf in Schools. New programming as part of the investment in youth golf will include CN Future Links School Adoption Program and CN Future Links Field Trip Program.

Last year alone, CN Future Links junior golf activities were conducted at 431 golf facilities with more than 7,000 juniors registered in the Learn to Play program. In addition, 160 golf facilities took part in the Junior Skills Challenge while more than 67,000 youngsters participated in more than 1,800 mobile golf clinics across the country. Since 2006 more than 1 million children have been introduced to golf through the CN Future Links program.

For Golf Canada CEO Scott Simmons, CN’s commitment to junior golf reinforces the shared values of health, wellness and safety to junior enthusiasts across Canada.

“I can’t say enough what it means to Canadian golf that CN has aligned their brand and their corporate values with Canada’s national junior golf program,” said Simmons. “Together with CN as well as our partners at the PGA of Canada and the provincial golf associations, the CN Future Links program is introducing children in communities across Canada to a sport they can enjoy for a lifetime.

CN Future Links Montreal School adoptions