Years of swing
By KEN FIDLIN -- Toronto Sun
In our fast-food, instant-gratification world, it is a wondrous thing when something or someone survives for a hundred years.
We venerate trees and buildings and people for simply existing that long, outliving most of their peers. And so it is that we raise a glass to an institution like the Canadian Open, which has not only survived, but also thrived across the generations.
The history of the Canadian Open is not just a chronicle of a single sporting event that takes up four days of every year but of the game of golf itself. Since its obscure beginning in 1904, the story of the Open is intertwined with the stories of most of the game's legendary figures.
From its modest beginnings, the Canadian Open developed into a must-play tournament over the years and its list of champions reads like a Hall of Fame roster. Tommy Armour won it three times, the first in 1927 and the last in 1934; the flamboyant Walter Hagen took home the 1931 title; Slammin' Sammy Snead was another three-time champ (1938, '40 and '41).
Lord Byron Nelson conquered Thornhill in 1945, the last of his legendary 11 consecutive PGA wins that year.
Bobby Locke, the controversial South African star who paved the way later for the great Gary Player, won the 1947 title at Scarboro. The King himself, Arnie Palmer, won the 1955 Open at Weston, his first victory as a PGA Tour player, en route to winning 61 career events. Gene Littler (1965), Billy Casper (167) and Bob Charles (1968) preceded the marvellous Canadian successes of Lee Trevino. The Merry Mex, a crowd favourite the world over, was a very popular winner in 1971, '77 and '79. Greg Norman (1984 and 1992) was almost as popular and so was Nick Price's wins in 1991 and 1994.
Then there's the biggest name of all -- Jack Nicklaus -- whose career has been linked with the Open in a bittersweet way.
Nicklaus played the Canadian Open some 25 times without winning, finishing second an agonizing seven times. Given that he was the man who designed Glen Abbey into the championship, stadium-style course of the future in the 1970s, it is ironic that the man who won 94 world-wide tournaments, could not get over the hump in Canada.
Tiger Woods did it and that brings us full circle, back to Glen Abbey. Woods' 218-yard six-iron out of a fairway bunker to the 18th green sealed his victory in the 2000 Open and allowed him to join Trevino as the only two Triple Crown winners -- British, U.S. and Canadian Opens -- in the same year. Trevino accomplished the feat in 1973.
Now, for the first time since that fabled shot was made, the Open has returned to the Abbey and there really isn't any other course in Canada more suited to hosting this milestone anniversary.
The Open has been played all over this country on a magnificent variety of world-class courses that dot the Canadian landscape, places that have proudly hosted the Open throughout its hundred years.
From Saint John, N.B., to Vancouver and many points in between, the Open has criss-crossed the country a dozen times, leaving behind its lore at each stop.
But it is at Glen Abbey where so many of its dramatic moments have played out on the course that Jack built.
This will be the Open's 23rd visit to the Oakville layout and promises to be a memorable one, with many of the American Ryder Cuppers on hand.
The Open hasn't always been about big bucks and big business, million-dollar paydays and corporate hospitality.
The origins of the tournament are vague. All that is known is that the first Canadian Open was held in July of 1904 at Royal Montreal. It was a one-day, 36-hole event, played on the day following the much-more important Canadian Amateur championship. The first Open attracted 17 players, 10 of them professionals.
John Oke, a club pro from Royal Ottawa Golf Club, shot 76-80 to win by two strokes. Oke earned $60 for his victory, which doesn't seem like much.
Perspective is everything, however. Even though this week's competitors will play for a staggering purse of $4.5 million, be aware that anyone who shoots 76-80 in the first two rounds of this year's Centennial Open will get a handshake and a "thanks for coming" and nothing more for missing the cut.
Upward of 150,000 people will roam the grounds of Glen Abbey this week, trying to grab and hold onto a little piece of history, a testament to our love affair with the game -- some call it a disease -- of golf on this tournament's 100th birthday.
May she live to see a hundred more.
