PETERBOROUGH — For the second day in a row, a Golf Association of Ontario (GAO) event needed a playoff to produce a winner. This time it was at the Men’s Champion of Champions, June 12 at the Peterborough Golf and Country Club.

After 18 holes two players carded even-par 71s: Wellesley’s Rob Cowan and Odessa’s Peter Beneteau. For Cowan, the Westmount Golf and Country Club member, he went about his round consistently, paring his first nine holes and continued his consistency on his back nine with a couple birdies to balance out his bogies. As for Beneteau, the Camden Braes Golf and Country Club member was actually two-under late in his round. However, a couple of late mistakes dropped him back to even to finish the round.

On the playoff hole, the 49-year-old Cowan had a nice drive that found the fairway giving him a 140-yard shot to the green. Meanwhile, the 17-year-old Beneteau tried to play it safe by hitting an iron off the tee. He was a bit further back and on his second shot he went right of the green landing just under the branches of trees and in front of a bunker. It was a tough look and Beneteau’s third shot found the sand. Cowan put his second on the green and was able to comfortably two-putt for the win, making him a two-time winner of the event.

Cowan talked about his consistency after the win. “I started off with those nine consecutive pars then finally birdied 11. I made another on 12 from the fringe. I made a couple chunky mistakes and bogeyed 16 and then just ran out of steam on some putts that could have resulted in more birdies.”

The day began for Cowan with a shotgun start on hole two meaning he finished his round with the first hole. Cowan says he played the first very aggressively, the first time, and found the bunker. Yet he learned from that and with the playoff right back on the same hole, he didn’t take as aggressive of an approach, something that worked out for him as he pared it for the win.

The win adds to Cowan’s GAO collection, which includes a 2010 win at this event and an Ontario Match Play Championship. “It’s cool! I knew the first one wasn’t an accident because I won by five but it is nice to get another one. The guys joked around saying ‘You’ve got to keep up with (Dave) Bunker’ who just won the Ontario Match Play. For me, any GAO win is good win!”

Cowan added that he thought the key to his round was that he never really played with any danger. “There was never really a threat of anything really bad happening. When I made my second birdie I just said to myself ‘Don’t make any mistakes’ and I hit well enough to get the job done.”

Cowan will now turn his attention to the Investors Group Mid Amateur in just over a week at Taboo Resort. He says he feels prepared after playing a practice round at the course when he was in nearby Port Carling last week for the Ontario Match Play. After that he will also take part in the Investors Group Ontario Amateur July 8-11 at The Club at North Halton a course he says he feels very good about.

Rounding out the top three was a three-way tie for third. Matthew Wheeler, of Toronto and Beacon Hall Golf Club; Nicholas Striker, of Waterloo and Oviinbyrd Golf Club; and Nicholas Ross, from Dundas and the Hamilton Golf and Country Club, all finished one off the lead at one-over 72.

The Ontario Men’s Champion of Champions was first contested in 1946 and features men’s club champions from Golf Association of Ontario member clubs across the province. Past champions of the event include Ontario Golf Hall of Fame members Bill Morland, Gerry Kesselring, Warren Sye, and Stu Hamilton, as well as Big Break Indian Wells champion David Byrne.

In his book, A Feel For The Game, Ben Crenshaw says, “If Dr. MacKenzie [famed course architect Alister] or Donald Ross or any of the other great architects came back now, I wonder what they would think of … what has been done to their courses. I never knew them, but I’ve studied their lives, their courses and their thoughts on the game.  I think they would take a dim view of it.”

A dim view is exactly what many TV viewers may be taking over the next two weeks as the men’s and women’s U.S. Opens are contested on Pinehurst No. 2, a course that little resembles the one we last saw in 2005. Shades of brown and yellow are interspersed among the green of the hard and (hopefully) dry fairways. Clumps of native grasses punctuate the sprawling sandy waste areas. All that remains intact from 2005 are Donald Ross’s famed and feared domed greens and the closely mown collection areas surrounding them.

Thanks to Crenshaw and design co-conspirator Bill Coore, gone are the wall-to-wall green carpets that masqueraded as fairways and the lush grass roughs that the USGA delighted in growing shin-deep to punish wayward shots. Good for them and golf. Maybe not so good for the uneducated golf fans who think every course should be pristinely green. Pity them, as they are unwitting victims of the “Augusta Syndrome.”

When MacKenzie and Bobby Jones designed Augusta National, permanent site of The Masters, their stated aim was to create an “inland links.” Over the past 80 years or so, Augusta has morphed into something diametrically opposed to that. It does not offer a player multiple options but dictates the line of play; it does not offer a chance to play the linksy “ground game” where long-iron shots can be “stung” down fairways for many more yards than usual; it is groomed and coddled to the nth degree and resembles nothing else in nature. It is contrived, not natural. But it looks great on TV and, as a result, many golfers not only expect that unrelenting green on their screens but also on the courses they play. The result of the Augusta Syndrome has been a massive increase in every sort of input to sustain that unnatural image: Fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, water, manpower, you name it.

Over the years, Pinehurst No. 2 suffered the same unfortunate metamorphosis as Augusta. But someone saw the light and, as Pinehurst President Don Padgett II put it in announcing that Coore and Crenshaw Inc. would be renovating the course: “We are doing this because it is the right thing to do as stewards of this historic course.”

“We’re trying to uncover it, not recover it,” said Coore at the start of the project in 2010. “We’ll bring the strategy back and reinstate its character.” He and Crenshaw spent countless hours studying Ross’s original plans and notes as well as historic photos before commencing the controversial task of recreating a true inland links.

They have succeeded admirably.  The fairways are wider, skirting around those yawning  sandy waste areas, yet 26 acres of turf were removed; the area of maintained rough was reduced some 40 per cent; and single-row irrigation replaced the existing double-row system, reducing the number of sprinkler heads from 1,150 to 450. “We want the grassing lines to be defined by the limit of the irrigation system,” said Bob Farren, Pinehurst’s director of golf course management.

If you can get over the aesthetic contrast (shocking to most North American viewers used to pampered and homogenized PGA Tour venues), then you can appreciate what has been achieved by Crenshaw and Coore in “uncovering” Ross’s masterpiece. Although the green complexes are uniquely Rossian (he once said that they “make possible an infinite variety of nasty short shots that no other form of hazard can call for”), the hard, fast and eminently playable turf is definitely reminiscent of a links. The fact that the sandy areas and sinuous fairways provide shotmaking options was undeniable in the players’ news conferences leading up to the men’s U.S. Open. For example, Bubba Watson said he would lay up on many holes while Phil Mickelson said he would pull the driver out as often as possible.

If you are a golfer of a certain age, you may recall when you played a hole with a driver and 5-iron in the wet spring, 4-iron and a wedge in the dryness of summer, and something else all together in the fall. The rough was wispy and unpredictable. It was a time when creativity and imagination defined a good golf game, not the unrelenting similarity of lush fairways sustained uniformly throughout the season by wall-to-wall irrigation and chemical inputs.

Thanks to the visionary leadership at Pinehurst and the genius of Crenshaw and Coore, we will see a hint of that during the men’s and women’s U.S. Opens over the next couple of weeks. It might not be green, but it is better. Better for golf and better for the environment…so I guess it is “green” after all.

In his book, A Feel For The Game, Ben Crenshaw says, “If Dr. MacKenzie [famed course architect Alister] or Donald Ross or any of the other great architects came back now, I wonder what they would think of … what has been done to their courses. I never knew them, but I’ve studied their lives, their courses and their thoughts on the game.  I think they would take a dim view of it.”

A dim view is exactly what many TV viewers may be taking over the next two weeks as the men’s and women’s U.S. Opens are contested on Pinehurst No. 2, a course that little resembles the one we last saw in 2005. Shades of brown and yellow are interspersed among the green of the hard and (hopefully) dry fairways. Clumps of native grasses punctuate the sprawling sandy waste areas. All that remains intact from 2005 are Donald Ross’s famed and feared domed greens and the closely mown collection areas surrounding them.

Thanks to Crenshaw and design co-conspirator Bill Coore, gone are the wall-to-wall green carpets that masqueraded as fairways and the lush grass roughs that the USGA delighted in growing shin-deep to punish wayward shots. Good for them and golf. Maybe not so good for the uneducated golf fans who think every course should be pristinely green. Pity them, as they are unwitting victims of the “Augusta Syndrome.”

When MacKenzie and Bobby Jones designed Augusta National, permanent site of The Masters, their stated aim was to create an “inland links.” Over the past 80 years or so, Augusta has morphed into something diametrically opposed to that. It does not offer a player multiple options but dictates the line of play; it does not offer a chance to play the linksy “ground game” where long-iron shots can be “stung” down fairways for many more yards than usual; it is groomed and coddled to the nth degree and resembles nothing else in nature. It is contrived, not natural. But it looks great on TV and, as a result, many golfers not only expect that unrelenting green on their screens but also on the courses they play. The result of the Augusta Syndrome has been a massive increase in every sort of input to sustain that unnatural image: Fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, water, manpower, you name it.

Over the years, Pinehurst No. 2 suffered the same unfortunate metamorphosis as Augusta. But someone saw the light and, as Pinehurst President Don Padgett II put it in announcing that Coore and Crenshaw Inc. would be renovating the course: “We are doing this because it is the right thing to do as stewards of this historic course.”

“We’re trying to uncover it, not recover it,” said Coore at the start of the project in 2010. “We’ll bring the strategy back and reinstate its character.” He and Crenshaw spent countless hours studying Ross’s original plans and notes as well as historic photos before commencing the controversial task of recreating a true inland links.

They have succeeded admirably.  The fairways are wider, skirting around those yawning  sandy waste areas, yet 26 acres of turf were removed; the area of maintained rough was reduced some 40 per cent; and single-row irrigation replaced the existing double-row system, reducing the number of sprinkler heads from 1,150 to 450. “We want the grassing lines to be defined by the limit of the irrigation system,” said Bob Farren, Pinehurst’s director of golf course management.

If you can get over the aesthetic contrast (shocking to most North American viewers used to pampered and homogenized PGA Tour venues), then you can appreciate what has been achieved by Crenshaw and Coore in “uncovering” Ross’s masterpiece. Although the green complexes are uniquely Rossian (he once said that they “make possible an infinite variety of nasty short shots that no other form of hazard can call for”), the hard, fast and eminently playable turf is definitely reminiscent of a links. The fact that the sandy areas and sinuous fairways provide shotmaking options was undeniable in the players’ news conferences leading up to the men’s U.S. Open. For example, Bubba Watson said he would lay up on many holes while Phil Mickelson said he would pull the driver out as often as possible.

If you are a golfer of a certain age, you may recall when you played a hole with a driver and 5-iron in the wet spring, 4-iron and a wedge in the dryness of summer, and something else all together in the fall. The rough was wispy and unpredictable. It was a time when creativity and imagination defined a good golf game, not the unrelenting similarity of lush fairways sustained uniformly throughout the season by wall-to-wall irrigation and chemical inputs.

Thanks to the visionary leadership at Pinehurst and the genius of Crenshaw and Coore, we will see a hint of that during the men’s and women’s U.S. Opens over the next couple of weeks. It might not be green, but it is better. Better for golf and better for the environment…so I guess it is “green” after all.

POINTE CLAIRE, Que. – Sixty years after iconic pro golfer Pat Fletcher became the last Canadian to win the Canadian Open, his namesake foundation continues to thrive, with an array of initiatives planned to pay homage to the 60th anniversary of Fletcher’s historic victory and raise awareness about the Foundation, so that more young students might benefit from its support.

Pat Fletcher was the last Canadian to win the Canadian Open in 1954 – a victory that also makes him the only Canadian player to win the championship in 100 years.

In an amazing twist of fate, this year’s RBC Canadian Open will be played at Royal Montreal, the place where Fletcher spent 20 years serving as Head Professional. Graham DeLaet, Mike Weir, David Hearn, Stephen Ames and other Canadian notables, will be in the field looking to change the course of Canadian golf history and become the next Canadian to be crowned champion.

Regardless of when the next Canadian champion is crowned, Fletcher’s winning legacy lives on through the work of The Pat Fletcher Scholarship Foundation, a Foundation his son, Ted, co-founded almost 30 years ago. With the tagline “Making a Difference”, The Foundation is committed to giving deserving young Canadians the financial assistance they need to pursue a post-secondary education.

“While golf was always my father’s primary focus, he was equally passionate about the importance of education,” said Ted Fletcher, Chair of the Pat Fletcher Scholarship Foundation. “He took a genuine interest in working with junior golfers to help them reach their full potential, both on and off the golf course.”

The Pat Fletcher Scholarship Foundation has the following initiatives planned to pay tribute to the 60th anniversary:

• The Foundation is increasing the amount of its financial aid to $60,000 in 2014, including a one-time anniversary scholarship. Since the establishment of The Pat Fletcher Scholarship Foundation in 1985, the Foundation has awarded nearly $500,000 in financial assistance to students from all across Canada.
• The Foundation is producing a limited edition Canadian postage stamp, featuring a 1954 photo of Pat Fletcher winning the Seagram’s Cup.
• Exclusive video footage pulled from the PGA of Canada archives covering the highlights of his 1954 win will be released on the Foundation’s website at patfletcher.com.

PINEHURST, N.C. – The one thing Rory McIlroy won’t lack heading into this U.S. Open is advice. In the few weeks since his breakup with girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki, only some of it has been worth much.

Gary Player told him to lay low. Jack Nicklaus told him not to be afraid to change the way he plays, even in the middle of a round. Smartly, he only followed up with one of them.

“Do you just ring him up,” a reporter asked about McIlroy’s budding relationship with Nicklaus, “and say, `I’m popping in?'”

“I don’t ring him up,” McIlroy chuckled, “I ring his secretary up and say, `I’d like to schedule a meeting, please.’ But it’s been great to spend some time with him. I feel like I’ve got a really good rapport.”

The two had lunch in Florida a week after the Memorial, the PGA Tour stop where Nicklaus plays the gracious host but isn’t shy about asking tough questions. Not about relationships, mind you, unless you count questions about where to slot the club at the top of the backswing.

“He said to me, he goes, `How the hell can you shoot 63 (in the first round) and then 78 (in the second)?'” McIlroy recalled. “I said, `I wasn’t meaning to, Jack. I’m trying not to.'”

That began a conversation between the two on the subject of trust. Nicklaus told him the moment he sensed his swing was sliding off the rails in that second round, he would have made a change “right then and there.”

“The mental strength to be able to do that,” McIlroy paused, still marveling at the idea.

“Hopefully,” he added a moment later, “some of those little nuggets of wisdom that he passed on to me might help this week.”

Success came so fast for the 25-year-old Northern Irishman it was easy to assume he’d mastered most of golf’s lessons. But it took an old soul like Nicklaus to point out where some of the big gaps remained.

When McIlroy wins, he usually wins big, running away from the field the way he did at the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional. What he has yet to prove is whether he has the patience and toughness to grind out victories, a trait that served Nicklaus and Tiger Woods well over decades. If nothing else, the back-and-forth with Nicklaus has put the idea in his head.

“It’s going to be a test of patience,” McIlroy said about Pinehurst No. 2. “And I think I am better equipped than I was a few years ago. The U.S. Open I won was a very … was abnormal. It was wet. It was low scoring. I haven’t won a tournament whenever it’s been like this. That’s why I’m relishing the challenge.

“It’s conditions that I haven’t won in before and I’d love to be able to prove to myself, but also prove to other people that I can win in different conditions. It’s a great opportunity to do that this week.”

While Nicklaus will be McIlroy’s model this week, he hasn’t ignored Player’s advice altogether. In the wake of his very public breakup with Wozniacki, he has lowered his social media profile and already won once. He concedes that balancing his public life he has with the private one he wants is an act he’s still working on.

“It’s nice when you get out on the golf course because you’ve got five hours of you’re just out there with your clubs, with your caddie, trying to shoot the best score possible,” McIlroy said. “That’s the approach that I’m sort of adopting from now until whenever.”

The conversation with Nicklaus appears to be taking hold. Much harder to learn will be the desire that catapulted Nicklaus to 18 major victories – the stubborn pride that made him back off a 4-footer on the last hole of a tournament he wasn’t going to win even in the final years of his career, because it mattered to him to shoot 77 instead of 78.

“Golf has sort of been a nice release for me the past few weeks. I just want to try to keep focused on that,” McIlroy said.

PINEHURST, N.C. – No matter how tough a U.S. Open course looks, good scores are available to someone.

Sometimes, it might not be a player anyone expects. The last time the U.S. Open was at Pinehurst No. 5, Olin Browne opened with a 67. This was inspiring because Browne nearly withdrew after one round of qualifying, stuck it out to set an example for his son, and shot 59 to earn his ticket to the U.S. Open. He hung in there, playing in the second-to-last group in the final round until he shot 80 on Sunday.

For so many others, the crash comes much sooner.

Jay Don Blake opened with a 66 at Olympia Fields in 2003, and followed that with a 77. Branden Grace shot 70 at Merion last year and was three shots out of the lead, only to post an 83 on Friday and he was on his way home. Stewart Cink and Steve Lowery each shot 70 at Bethpage Black in 2002, just three shots behind Tiger Woods. Both shot 82 the next day.

The most common phrase in golf is that you can’t win a tournament in the opening round, but you can lose it.

Consider five players who lost the U.S. Open in the second round:

5. TOM WEISKOPF

Weiskopf, who would go on to win the British Open in 1973, made the cut the first five times he played in the U.S. Open. And he got off to a solid start at Merion in 1971, opening with a 70 and was three shots out of the lead.

He followed with an 83 on Friday and missed the cut.

—

4. TOM BYRUM

Byrum’s only PGA Tour victory came in the 1989 Kemper Open. He opened with a 68 at Hazeltine in the 1991 U.S. Open, leaving him only one shot out of the lead behind Nolan Henke and Payne Stewart, the eventual winner.

On Friday, Byrum soared to an 80 and missed the cut.

—

3. JUSTIN HICKS

Hicks was No. 722 in the world ranking and playing on the Nationwide Tour when he qualified for the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Oddly enough, a Justin Hicks played at Torrey in the Buick Invitational earlier that year, only he was a club pro from San Diego.

Regardless, Hicks and Kevin Streelman stole the show from Tiger Woods in the opening round. They each shot 68 and shared the lead.

That was the highlight of the week for Hicks. He followed with an 80 on Friday, and wound up in a tie for 74th.

—

2. MIKE REID

Reid is known as a straight driver – his nickname was “Radar” – and for his sad collapse in the 1989 PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes when he lost to Payne Stewart.

But there was a small measure of precedence.

Reid was still an amateur when he played in the 1976 U.S. Open at Atlanta Athletic Club. He opened with a 67 and took the outright lead. And that was as close as he got to U.S. Open glory the rest of the week. In the second round, he shot 81 and wound up in a tie for 50th.

—

1. PHIL MICKELSON

The U.S. Open has been tougher on Phil Mickelson than any other player. His six runner-up finishes are a record, and it’s now the only major keeping him from the career Grand Slam. Perhaps he should have seen this coming.

A PGA Tour winner when he was still in college, Mickelson turned pro when he arrived at Pebble Beach for the 1992 U.S. Open.

He started with a 68, just two shots out of the lead held by Gil Morgan. It looked like the start of a good relationship between Mickelson and his national championship.

But on Friday, he opened with a bogey and made triple bogey on the third hole. He shot 81 and missed the cut.

PINEHURST, N.C. – Adam Scott is trying to build a golf game that can travel to any golf course in the world for any tournament.

He can only hope it knows the way to Pinehurst No. 2. Or any U.S. Open course, for that matter.

Scott goes into this U.S. Open as one of the favorites because of his game, his form and his world ranking. The Australian didn’t reach No. 1 in the world by accident. He has won six times around the world in the last two years and really thrived in the majors.

He won the Masters last year for his first major. He could easily have won the last two U.S. Opens. He was in the hunt at the PGA Championship last year at Oak Hill.

But the toughest test in golf?

Scott hasn’t broken 70 at the U.S. Open in five years. He has missed the cut as often as he has made it – six times each. And in those six times he completed 72 holes, he has yet to finish under par. His best performance as a tie for 15th.

“I’ve talked to you all about 10 years of playing pretty average, by my own expectations in majors, and tried to improve that the last few years,” Scott said Wednesday. “And I think I’ve done a good job – but maybe not quite as good at the U.S. Open.”

Scott is riding some reasonably good momentum. In his first week at No. 1 in the world, he won at Colonial. A week later, he was tied for the lead at the Memorial with seven holes to play until he put one tee shot in the water and took two shots to get out of a bunker.

Even so, he has no complaints with his game.

Scott is among the best drivers in golf and has been for the last two years. That would seem to suit him well at a U.S. Open, where accuracy is always a premium. His putting comes and goes – not even the long putter has cured that inconsistency. But the rest of his game is well-rounded.

“Maybe it’s coincidence that I haven’t had my best stuff at a U.S. Open,” Scott said. “But I certainly feel like where my game is at now, and the past few years, I should be able to compete here. I’m trying to build a game that can play anywhere. So it’s a good week for me to turn the corner and get in contention.

“I think this course sets up well to me.”

He plays the opening two rounds in what has been described as the “Masters” grouping – with Bubba Watson and Charl Schwartzel. Scott said the only similarities between Augusta National and Pinehurst No. 2 are the options around the green – chipping, putting, pitching – and knowing where not to miss.

“Patience will be tested,” he said.

His patience already has been tested plenty in the U.S. Open.

Ian Andrew’s body of work as a golf course architect includes restoring the iconic Highlands Links in Nova Scotia and rebuilding Laval-sur-le-Lac’s Blue course in Quebec with design partner Mike Weir. But amid those grand projects, he has maintained a more modest dream that’s yet to be fulfilled. The Brantford, Ont., designer would like to create a course just for children. He is so passionate about the idea that he’d be willing to reduce or even waive his fee.

Andrew envisages a simple, hazard-free and inexpensive layout that allows young beginners an easy and fun entry into the game. He reasons that kids aged five to 12 will be far more engaged and likely to stick with golf if they start on a playing field scaled to their size and abilities. “If we really want to grow the game, we need stuff like that,” says Andrew, the father of two sons, Cam and James, who are now teenagers. The idea is neither new nor original.

Historic Gullane Golf Club in East Lothian, Scotland, opened its six-hole Children’s Course in 1910, for example. The course policy reads as follows: “Adults are welcome to play although they must be accompanied by a child.”

But such courses are rare, especially in North America. While par-three and executive courses abound, they often include such obstacles as bunkers and forced carries and may not be as kid-friendly as their shortened length might suggest. Andrew would like to change that, if only as an experiment or pilot project. He’d welcome working with a club or municipality, perhaps with the backing of one of Canadian golf’s corporate benefactors, to get a junior track off the ground.

“It needs a bit of a catalyst,” he says, “and I think it can happen.” Andrew has seen first-hand that kidfriendly design can work.

He took his sons in 2010 to Fanshawe Golf Course, the municipal facility in London, Ont., that has a short nine-hole layout in addition to its other, regulation-sized 36 holes. The short course, built in the hollow of an old gravel pit, is not a children’s course per se – it was created more with disabled golfers in mind. But it epitomizes exactly what Andrew imagines. No bunkers, no wildly sloping greens, no water hazards, no chance of losing a ball. Straight holes, each of them minimally maintained.

On their visit to Fanshawe, Andrew started off playing with his sons. Then the boys went off on their own, sometimes playing together, sometimes apart. Andrew estimates they went around the course 32 times in a dizzying afternoon of golf. They usually tired after just nine holes.

“It’s amazing how into the game they can become without all our crap that we sort of hoist on kids and then expect to them to conform to,” says Andrew, arguing that less is more when it comes to golf for kids. “… I didn’t expect the reaction from the kids that we got. It just told me that’s exactly what they need.”

The Fanshawe course opened about 15 years ago. Its holes range from 40 to 110 yards. The green fee? Free. Rob Vincent, Fanshawe’s head professional, says the little track appeals to a wide range of golfers, from juniors to seniors to disabled players in wheelchairs. (The greens were intentionally made firmer to accommodate chairs and the flagsticks are shorter for easier removal.)

The kids who play are typically there with a parent who tags along.

“To have a facility where you can chip and putt and little guys can use their drivers and have no marshals on them and no adults breathing down their necks, I think it’s really unique,” Vincent says.

While Andrew awaits his opportunity – he almost got his chance when he and Weir were speaking with the City of Richmond, B.C., about building a municipal course that had a few holes on the side for kids, but a deal was never reached – others are moving ahead with an alternative that has pretty much the same effect.

The USGA has a Junior Par System, where par is increased to achievable numbers for young golfers. Junior par on a hole could be 6, 7, 8 or even 9. Par for each hole is based on the yardage and the junior golfer’s level of play, usually determined by the junior’s Course Handicap from the forward tees: Beginner with a Course Handicap of 41 or above; Intermediate 25-40; Advanced 24 or below.

The popular program can easily be used by any course and keeps youngsters excited about golf. Many courses across Canada are adding what’s known as “family tees” – tee markers placed in the middle of fairways, well ahead of the forward tees. Junior golf advocates say this solution is more practical than purpose built kids’ courses.

“We don’t have enough money and enough room to build golf courses for kids,” says Brad Ewart, a Coquitlam, B.C. pro who serves as tournament director in British Columbia for the Canadian Junior Golf Association (CJGA). “We already have thousands of existing golf courses that can be for kids.” Ewart says even without using the formal guidelines, clubs can use common sense in deciding where to place a marker or two down on the fairway. “Every PGA [of Canada] member who’s earned his card should know where to put it.”

The cost can be negligible: a small mowed patch marked with something as inexpensive as a painted rock. The only barriers to the initiative that Ewart can see are testosterone-fueled parents who insist their children thrash away from regular tee decks, and golf clubs with no real commitment to juniors. Both Andrew and Ewart agree the bottom line is to put the youngest players in a position where they can succeed. Par should be an attainable score – and that’s not possible for most eight-year-olds, for example, even from the forward tees.

It’s the same rationale as other golf leaders are pitching for adults in the “play it forward” movement, in which recreational players are encouraged to move up a tee deck or two to shoot lower scores, have more fun and speed up the game.

“If we set up a golf course that’s shorter then a young golfer knows he or she can get there (to a par-4 green) in two shots or three shots,” Ewart says. “They’re going to make pars, birdies and bogeys, not eights, nines and 10s.”

That early success makes the game more fun, as Andrew noticed with his sons, who made their first birdies and pars on the Fanshawe short course. “Because they could see success, because it wasn’t that complicated for them,” he says, “it got them really enthused about playing.” And that’s a dream for anyone involved in turning the next generation of golfers into lifetime players.

This article was published for the June 2014 edition of the Golf Canada Magazine, available online here.

The highly anticipated 2014 US Open will officially get underway this Thursday, drawing in golf’s biggest names as they vie for the chance to hoist the US Open trophy in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

PGA TOUR Top-10 Players to Watch: 2014 US Open

Of those names, here are the top 10 that should be on your radar as put together by the PGA TOUR.

US Open Thoughts with Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell isn’t a name you immediately associate with the phrase “US Open at Pinehurst No. 2” but the man sure does have some imaginative ideas to improve the game of golf, including big game cats and booby traps.

Maybe we’ll see some of his suggestions implemented for 2015? But don’t hold your breath.

A (more accurate) US Open Preview:

In the meantime, Pinehurst No. 2 might not look quite how you remembered it. In anticipation of hosting both the Mens and Women’s Open this June, 40 acres of turf were removed in favour of more sandy areas and wiry grass. These renovations have restored the course to its more rustic and natural 1930’s appearance.

Here’s what you can actually expect to see at the 114th playing of the US national championship:

While Will Ferrell would have all US Open competitors in mesh tank tops, it is far more likely these athletes will be opting for a less breathable more sleeved look while on the course.

Here is a look at what Graham DeLaet will be wearing when he competes this week:

EA SPORTS PGA TOUR Official Trailer 

EA Sports has released a preview of their first golf video game not featuring Tiger Woods in over 15 years. The game promises the chance to play on golf’s most prestigious courses (Pinehurst No 2. is among them) and even some fantasy courses, including teeing off in the midst of an Ocean battle, which might satisfy the ‘Will Ferrell’s’ of the golf world for now.

Check it out here:

Halifax – SportBox Entertainment Group and the PGA Tour announced a series of players joining the roster for the RBC Canada Cup and Nova Scotia Open, to be held June 30 to July 6 at Ashburn Golf Club – New Course, in Fall River, NS.

Two amateurs will receive exemptions into the Nova Scotia Open, Canada’s only Web.com Tour event. Eric Banks, a former Nova Scotia Amateur Champion from Truro, NS, is coming off of his junior season at the University of Florida where he received the David Toms Award for overcoming adversity to achieve excellence. In the summer of 2012, Banks underwent open-heart surgery at the QEII Health Sciences Centre to repair a defect, sidelining him from golf for nine months. When he returned to golf, Banks remarkably qualified for the 2013 RBC Canadian Open, becoming the first Nova Scotian in 25 years to play in the event.

“It’s an amazing feeling, knowing I will be playing in front of my family and friends in Nova Scotia,” said Banks. “Playing my junior year at college and also playing in the RBC Canadian Open were incredible experiences, but the opportunity to come home and play for the people that supported me on this journey, that will be a memory I cherish forever.”

Svensson, from Surrey, BC, is Canada’s top-ranked amateur after a record-setting season at Barry University where he won seven tournaments and received the Jack Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award for NCAA Division II. He’s also a member of Team Canada – Golf Canada’s National Amateur Squad.

Event organizers also announced that Canadian Adam Hadwin and Colombian Manuel Villegas will be the Web.com Tour players competing in the inaugural RBC Canada Cup, to take place Monday, June 30^th. Hadwin will join countrymen Mike Weir, Graham DeLaet and David Hearn on Team Canada, taking on Team World’s Matt Kuchar, Gary Woodland, Trevor Immelman, and the newly added Villegas.

“We are delighted to have Adam and Manuel join the RBC Canada Cup,” said Roger Howard, RBC Regional President, Atlantic region. “Not only are they world class golfers fighting week in and week out for their PGA Tour cards but they will be great hosts to the participants and fans during this exciting exhibition match.”

Hadwin broke through in 2010 and 2011 with strong back-to-back finishes at the RBC Canadian Open, and is off to a career start this season on the Web.com Tour with four top-10 finishes, including his first career win at the Chile Classic. Hadwin is currently ranked 5^th on the Web.com Tour’s money list and in position to gain status on the PGA Tour for the 2014-2015 season.

“I always love playing in front of home crowds,” says Hadwin. “We have such great fans and to have an event on Canadian soil during Canada Day week is exciting. I think the entire week is going to be one of the highlights of the season for me. Playing in not only the Nova Scotia Open, but also competing with Mike, Graham and David as part of Team Canada, is an honour and I can’t wait to get out to Halifax.”

Villegas, the product of Colombia and brother of three-time PGA Tour Champion Camilo, has emerged this year as a fan favourite on the Web.com Tour. After four top-25 finishes, including a 4^th place finish at the Brasil Champions event, Villegas is ranked 24th on the Web.com Tour money list, and like Hadwin, is also within the current top-25 money leaders. At the end of the 21-event Regular Season the top-25 will be ensured of PGA Tour status for 2014-15 and joined by the top-25 in the four-event Web.com Tour Finals in September.