Adam Stanley/ Golf Canada
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Carrying a blueberry-coloured energy swimsuit, Claire Welsh confidently walks to the rostrum on the Mississaugua Golf and Nation Membership and addresses a room of dozens – her first official public look as the brand new match director of the CPKC Ladies’s Open.
There’s confidence and style. And there’s pleasure and pleasure. The occasion is about to be large – it’s returning to the Larger Toronto Space for the primary time in additional than a half a decade, and Welsh will get to announce that the sport’s prime participant, Nelly Korda is returning to the sphere. The Rink is again, too, and Mississaugua will grow to be considered one of only a small handful of golf equipment to host the Canadian Males’s Beginner, Canadian Ladies’s Beginner, RBC Canadian Open and CPKC Ladies’s Open.
It’s all taking place. And Welsh is on the helm.
“What a privilege,” she says.
Welsh has made a big-time return to Canada after a decade with the Royal and Historical, the place she served as director of participant relations for the R&A, with a spotlight totally on the AIG Ladies’s Open and The Open Championship.
Previous to that, she spent six years working for Golf Ontario.
Golf Canada was, in fact, on the lookout for a brand new match director after Ryan Paul moved over to take the reins on the RBC Canadian Open, with Bryan Crawford shifting on to grow to be commissioner of the Ontario Hockey League.
Welsh had taken a 12 months of and ended up getting a name from somebody at Golf Canada encouraging her to use for the function.
“My husband and I have been travelling, and we weren’t actually trying in Canada – we have been simply attempting to determine what we needed to do subsequent,” Welsh says. “Once I noticed the chance, I believed, ‘OK, that is one thing actually fascinating,’ and it was the catalyst for us shifting dwelling.
“That felt like all of the playing cards had fallen into place.”
The CPKC Ladies’s Open is likely one of the most spectacular sporting occasion properties in the complete nation. It gained back-to-back “Match of the 12 months” titles in each 2022 and 2023 on the LPGA Tour’s year-end awards.
On the 2025 Sport Tourism Canada PRESTIGE Awards, it was additionally named Sport Tourism Canada’s Worldwide Sport Occasion of the 12 months.
“Coming dwelling to assist form the subsequent chapter of our nationwide girls’s open feels extremely particular, particularly at a time when girls’s sports activities are experiencing outstanding development and recognition,” Welsh stated on the time of her hiring. “I understand how essential this historic occasion is for golf’s prime gamers, and I’ve additionally seen its capability to encourage communities proper throughout the nation.”
Welsh can also be conscious of how essential a north star the occasion has in Brooke Henderson. Henderson, who gained the occasion in 2018, can also be a CPKC ambassador, together with being a 13-time winner on the LPGA Tour.
Welsh had some historical past with Henderson after following her whereas she was at Golf Ontario. The native of Smiths Falls, Ont., was “tenny tiny” and simply following in her sister Brittany Henderson’s footsteps.
“To be round to observe that journey and see her grow to be this unbelievable girl that she is in the present day – it simply feels so wonderful that she is the face of the occasion and being a CPKC ambassador and all the things she does with them,” Welsh says. “There’s awe. There’s admiration. And the way fortunate are we to have such an incredible ambassador for girls’s golf in Canada?”
Welsh was additionally fast to heap reward on Mississaugua. The course can have a modified routing for the match as golfers will go from Nos. 1 via 10, after which Nos. 11 via 18, for the split-tee begins, with No. 10 being The Rink gap for 2025.
Welsh had a front-row seat to the significance of venues when she was on the R&A, and the way giving girls precedence for one of the best venues mattered as they reviewed the championship rota for The Open. When Welsh was on the R&A, the AIG Ladies’s Open was contested at Royal Troon (2020) and Muirfield (2022) for the primary time, for instance. The Open Championship additionally visited Royal Portush (2019) and Northern Eire for the primary time in additional than half a century.
Welsh is aware of it’s totally different for the CPKC Ladies’s Open because it strikes throughout the nation, however golf has been her passport to the world, and now she says she’s thrilled with the chance to do it at dwelling.
“For me personally, I’ve seen the world and seen wonderful golf programs, however now I get to do it in Canada. I used to be out in Banff a number of weeks in the past, and I used to be like, ‘That is wonderful.’ Seeing iconic programs – it is a privilege,” Welsh says. “How cool is that this?”
A cool alternative, and an exquisite return dwelling.
