Final 12 months, Canadian golf followers had been handled to a very momentous 12 months in Canadian golf.
Highlighted by Nick Taylor cementing his place in Canadian sports activities historical past along with his unforgettable 72-foot successful putt to develop into the primary Canadian to win the RBC Canadian Open in 69 years. The silhouette of Taylor’s iconic putter toss now finds it’s everlasting place because the event’s official emblem.
Whereas there may be a lot to have fun from this 12 months’s on-course performances, milestones off the course deserve as a lot consideration.
Yr finish is commonly time for pause and reflection on moments and experiences that helped to form our previous season. 2024 is not any totally different, with a lot to mirror upon and have fun that was merely, good for the sport.
Golf, It’s Good For You – Forward of World Well being Day, Golf Canada launched a season-long marketing campaign that highlights the various well being advantages that the game can present. The marketing campaign – Golf, It’s Good for You – centered on golf’s constructive bodily, psychological and social advantages to considerably enhance one’s high quality of life.
All the World Well being Group’s key standards for well being enhancing bodily exercise might be achieved by way of golf. It’s an exercise that includes energy, stability, endurance and cognitive challenges, and has additionally been proven to enhance cardiovascular health, improve psychological agility and foster social connections. In current research, it’s even been discovered to fight over 40+ persistent ailments.
Together with the launch of the marketing campaign a golf and well being web site together with enhancements to Golf Canada’s Cellular App had been launched. For extra data on the various well being advantages the sport can present, please click on right here.
Growth of She Performs Golf Festivals and introduction of recent Championship Collection – She Performs Golf was first piloted in Calgary in 2023 and expanded to the Better Vancouver Space and Better Toronto Space in 2024 offering extra programming and alternatives for ladies to attempt golf. She Performs Golf festivals characteristic inclusive programming for ladies and women, addressing gaps within the participation pathway and introducing new ladies and women to the sport in a protected, enjoyable and judgement-free atmosphere.
Three week-long festivals featured 23 occasions at 18 golf services with over 800 ladies and women engaged in She Performs Golf programming. Over 580 competition individuals who had been new to golf skilled actions led by near 90 ladies coaches and volunteers.
Along with the festivals, a brand new championship sequence was launched that includes three enhanced 54-hole tournaments. The Peloton Glencoe Invitational, GOLFBC Group BC Girls’s Open and the ORORO PGA Girls’s Championship of Canada had been a part of the She Performs Golf Championship Collection in 2024. Along with prize cash, the highest two finishers at every occasion earned direct exemptions into the 2024 CPKC Girls’s Open. Group Canada members Lauren Kim and Anna Huang (Peloton Glencoe Invitational), Ellie Szeryk and Brooke Rivers (GolfBC Group BC Girls’s Open) and Michelle Xing and Katie Cranston (ORORO PGA Girls’s Championship) earned exemptions.
Plans for She Performs Golf in 2025 might be introduced within the new 12 months, for extra data, please click on right here.
First Tee – Canada absolutely operational coast-to-coast – 2024 formally marked First Tee – Canada programming being obtainable in each province throughout the nation. Along with this vital development, First Tee – Canada achieved one other milestone by surpassing 100,000 individuals since its inception in 2021. This 12 months alone, First Tee – Canada supplied programming to over 84,500 individuals at 386 services (golf services, faculties and group centres) led by 239 coaches throughout Canada. Seventy per cent of programming was supplied for gratis to individuals and 74 per cent of partnered faculties and group centres serve equity-deserving communities with 45 per cent of individuals figuring out as BIPOC and 41 per cent figuring out as feminine.
The continued progress of First Tee – Canada displays the sustained impression of company and champion donors driving the philanthropic excellence of the Golf Canada Basis which skilled one other banner 12 months with greater than $11.2 million in funds raised in help of the sport of which $5.487 million was for First Tee – Canada.
Youth On Course might be absolutely nationwide in 2025 – In 2024, over 32,900 rounds of golf at $5 or much less had been performed with 5,382 distinctive individuals marking vital will increase for each. Youth On Course programming was obtainable throughout 9 provinces and 105 golf programs participated in this system that noticed enlargement to Manitoba and Saskatchewan. 2025 will see deliberate enlargement into Quebec, making this system absolutely nationwide.
Inaugural BDO Nationwide Golf League champions topped – The BDO Nationwide Golf League was launched forward of the 2023 season as a nationwide, season-long competitors to boost weekly leisure league experiences for males, ladies and junior golfers. The inaugural season noticed 10,000 individuals from 107 leagues from coast-to-coast. Scoring adopted a 9-hole web stableford format that happened throughout a six-week interval of a membership’s league season. Inside these six weeks, the very best 4 scores had been used to find out the people that might advance to the provincial championships for an opportunity to be one among 52 pairings that might compete for the league championship at Hamilton Golf and Nation Membership the weekend earlier than the RBC Canadian Open.
Storyline twists occurred through the championship spherical because of inclement climate that halted play on two events, leading to a re-formatting of play. To finish the championship, pairings performed their respective 9 holes, with the highest groups from the front and back 9 then assembly in a playoff for the championship.
Tim Charles and Peter Morse had been topped the inaugural champions of the BDO Nationwide Golf League following a playoff win over Reid Middleton and Brian Thorne. Morse drained a prolonged putt to say the championship for the Nova Scotia duo.
Together with changing into the inaugural champions, Charles and Morse travelled to Royal Troon in Troon, Scotland to signify Canada in The R&A 9 Gap Problem one-week previous to the 152nd Open Championship as a part of successful the nationwide championship. For extra data on the league and become involved, click on right here.
Golf – the primary participation sport in Canada – This previous 12 months noticed a rise in public taking part in members with a Golf Canada membership. This 12 months additionally marks back-to-back years of 10 million+ scores being posted by Golf Canada members. Final 12 months marked the primary time that the ten million milestone had been reached and Golf Canada members surpassed that quantity in 2024 with 10.6 million scores posted to the Golf Canada Rating Centre! For extra data on a Golf Canada membership, click on right here. For extra data or to obtain Golf Canada’s Cellular App, click on right here.
Canadians competing with the world’s finest – Canadians continued to search out themselves on the world’s largest stage as Nick Taylor, Corey Conners, Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp wore the Maple Leaf on the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games. Henderson and Sharp had been competing of their third consecutive Olympic Video games since golf was re-introduced at Rio 2016. In three video games, Henderson has earned finishes of seven, T29 and T13. Conners earned the very best males’s end since golf returned with a T9 end in Paris.
Canadian Golf Corridor of Famer, Mike Weir was named Captain of the Worldwide Group for the 2024 Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal Golf Membership in Montreal, Que. Becoming a member of Weir had been Conners, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith who had been Captain’s picks for the Worldwide Group. After a tough opening day, the Worldwide Group responded by successful all 5 foursome matches on Friday to sit down tied heading into the weekend. Ultimately, Group U.S.A. retained the title, successful 18.5 – 11.5 over Group Worldwide. Conners and Pendrith each earned two full factors for his or her staff through the biennial occasion. The 2026 Presidents Cup will happen at Medinah Nation Membership in Chicago, Unwell.
Canadian golf followers set new data in Hamilton and Calgary – Canadian golf followers took in each Nationwide Open Championships in file numbers this previous 12 months. Over 209,000 followers mixed attended the RBC Canadian Open and CPKC Girls’s Open setting new attendance data for each tournaments.
The success of Canada’s Nationwide Open Championships was acknowledged by each the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour of their season-ending event recognition awards. The RBC Canadian Open took dwelling the PGA TOUR’s Greatest Advertising Initiative award for the brand and branding of the event altering to Nick Taylor’s iconic putter toss silhouette. Initially designed to be a one-year tribute, the change will now be everlasting.
The CPKC Girls’s Open was awarded the Gold Driver Award for Greatest Volunteer Appreciation. Volunteerism was a important a part of the success of the 2024 CPKC Girls’s Open at Earl Gray Golf Membership in Calgary, Alta. The event was performed for the primary time at Earl Gray and noticed 1,300 devoted volunteers, whose positions had been stuffed forward of schedule, assist to ship an distinctive expertise in Calgary. To acknowledge the work of its volunteers, the event hosted a Volunteer Appreciation Day which included a complimentary breakfast, blissful hour and presents that got to all volunteers to have fun the fiftieth taking part in of Canada’s Nationwide Girls’s Open.
Providing extra tournaments and pathways for Canadian newbie golfers – This season noticed the introduction of a brand new championship added to the newbie championship calendar with the debut of the Canadian U15 Championship. The event supplied younger gamers the chance to compete for a nationwide championship whereas receiving details about the high-performance journey by way of an academic summit following play.
Golf Canada additionally launched the inaugural Canadian Collegiate Invitational, bringing a number of the finest NCAA Division I Males’s groups north of the border. The occasion will broaden to incorporate a ladies’s competitors in 2025.
In complete, 12 nationwide newbie championships, 16 qualifiers, six NextGen tournaments and two Group Canada NextGen choice camps supplied Canadians with alternatives to compete coast-to-coast from the junior degree all the way in which to the senior ranks. The season concluded with the World Junior Women Golf Championship which showcased a number of the brightest upcoming golfers from around the globe.
Lisa Meldrum turns into the 86th inductee into the Canadian Golf Corridor of Fame – In line with the significance of celebrating Canadian golf excellence, Lisa Meldrum of Montreal, Que. was named the 86th member of the Canadian Golf Corridor of Fame in February.
Meldrum loved an completed junior and newbie profession, having gained 12 championships between 1997 and 2003.
Her profitable aggressive run was highlighted by successful the Canadian Girls’s Beginner Championship three consecutive years in a row from 2001 to 2003. Throughout that point SCOREGolf acknowledged her because the Greatest Feminine Beginner Golfer in Canada all three years. Previous to the Canadian Girls’s Beginner three-peat, Meldrum gained the 1998 Canadian Juvenile Women Championship and the 2000 Canadian Junior Women Championship, later incomes SCOREGolf’s Greatest Feminine Junior Golfer recognition in 2000.
For extra on Meldrum’s unimaginable profession, please click on right here.
A brand new dwelling for Canadian Golf – Part one among development on a brand new dwelling for Canadian golf is effectively underway at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley. Initially introduced in July 2022, the 26,000 sq. ft. facility would be the nationwide headquarters of Golf Canada together with the Canadian Golf Corridor of Fame and Museum. Parts of the Canadian Golf Corridor of Fame can already be present in the principle clubhouse and locker rooms at TPC Toronto. Lockers and memorabilia highlighting Canadian golf legends and vital moments in each the RBC Canadian Open and CPKC Girls’s Open historical past at the moment are a part of the material at TPC Toronto. The brand new facility may even be the nationwide headquarters for First Tee – Canada and can embody an 18-hole publicly accessible group placing inexperienced. To observe the progress and for extra data on the brand new dwelling for Canadian golf, please click on right here.
From the season’s opening drive to the ultimate putt and the various volunteers, companions and stakeholders who help Canadian golf, there may be a lot to have fun and mirror upon that was merely, good for the sport in 2024.
