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RBC CANADIAN OPEN

July 29, 2018

Laurence Applebaum

Oakville, Ontario, Canada

THE MODERATOR: Pleased to be joined by Golf Canada CEO, Laurence Applebaum. First year on the job, officially one-year plus in the books. I'm going to turn it over to Laurence for opening comments just about the year. It's certainly been a busy one. It's been a great tournament thus far. We're going to open it up for remarks and open it up for any questions anybody has on Golf Canada, the Canadian Open or any of our business.

LAURENCE APPLEBAUM: First of all, I want to welcome everybody and thank in particular our partners and our stakeholders and the media for covering this event and the week that we've had. We've had an amazing event.

There's a couple things to share with you today, a few introductions and some exciting stuff going on, as well as a few opportunities to ask questions and talk about some things that have been going on at the event. There is some exciting news. Chris Crisologo is 3-under after eight holes, so he's rising up the leaderboard, Jeff. It's good to see him up there. I want to introduce a few people in the audience who have joined us today. So if they could just stand up.

First is Leslie Dunning, the President of Golf Canada. We have a number of people from our board here. I see Liz Hoffman, I see David McCarthy, Charlie Beaulieu, Roland Deveau our past-President is on the course right now, so we keep him working. The we also have from our team, we have the CEO of Golf Canada Foundation, Martin Barnard is here, as well as from the executive team in the front here is Jeff Thompson.

Jeff's having a very proud papa moment here. 21 Canadians in the field, seven qualifying, and then in particular with Nick Taylor and Mackenzie Hughes doing so well, which are really full graduates of the program. It's a real testament to the work that Jeff and the team have done from the sport group.

I think Bill is here at the back. Our chief championship officer, our chief financial officer Garrett Ball is here. And I wanted to announce our new tournament director, many of you have met him and this was a second week on the job, and has had some 18, 20-hour days. I want to officially announce to everyone our new tournament director for the RBC Canadian Open is Bryan Crawford. If you could stand up. Bryan, welcome?

Also, a few very special guests that I wanted to share with you today. We have an incredible partnership with our friends to the south. The United States Golf Association. We've been joined by senior managing director of championships and has handled most of the work of the U.S. Open inside the ropes to this point, done an incredible job. He's a great friend of Canada's, a great friend of our organization, let me introduce Mr. John Bodenhamer.

Then, I always like to save the best for last. My good friend, and we've been on a 45-day high together since the announcement of our date change, since the announcement of all the things that we're doing to continue to elevate the RBC Canadian Open, the chief marketing officer and senior vice president, Mary DePaoli.

So just a few comments that I wanted to make about a few things that are going on, and some questions that have been asked and talked about, then I wanted to just make a very brief opportunity for Q & A, because I know many of you want to get out on the golf course to see what's going on.

First of all, back to the topic of our 21 Canadians in the field, that also included four who qualified on Monday, which was really exciting. We have a few young guys who, in particular, are doing wonderful things.

Chris Crisologo, and for the media here, I've gone through it, is it Chris Crisologo? He said it's Crisologo, but he's quick to point that his brother says Criso-logo. So he's a wonderful young man. Really great head on his shoulders. As I mentioned, he's already having a great morning here at Glen Abbey, and a great product. He's on our National Team right now, and seeing what he's seeing is the opportunity. The combination that Jeff Thompson talked about was it was just three, four years ago that Mackenzie Hughes and Nick Taylor were in that exact same position, having that chance to be on Canadian soil and playing four rounds of PGA TOUR golf is what has allowed them to become stalwarts on the PGA TOUR.

So a number of good stories happening right now, having seven qualifiers, Mackenzie Hughes, who you know very well, as well as Nick Taylor, David Hearn having a wonderful championship and great to see him having the month that he's had. Roger Sloan, who has been doing great work on the Web.com Tour, and having him come out on an exemption, but at the same time, being able to qualify for the weekend was very big.

Ryan Yip, a Calgary native who has also been putting in a ton of work on his game, and of course, Ben Silverman, who has played really well. Little bit of an interesting story, late into the professional game and making the weekend is really wonderful.

I also wanted to talk a little bit about our charitable initiatives and along with our partner at RBC and what we're doing. This is the first official year that Golf Canada Foundation is our official charity recipient, and it's a testament to our partnership at RBC that has allowed us to engage together and make golf the charitable recipient.

Many of you know very well as a national sports federation, we're driven to giving all of our proceeds and all of our investment back into the game, and by making the Golf Canada Foundation our charitable, official charity, we've been able to do wonderful things at all levels of the game, but in particular at the growth component in participation and in development.

So that's a really important theme of what we're doing here with the championships.

I also wanted to tell you some of our new -- from a business standpoint, many of you have seen that we've tried to take the championship to make real progress on what we're doing with the championships. It's a different feel around 18, it's a different feel around the whole grounds, and for us it's our goal as we move in 2019 to Hamilton, to make this a world class sport and entertainment property that we can be all proud of.

We'll have further details later, but we have a few small partnership announcements to make. We have a great renewal to announce with our friends at Acushnet Canada, Golf Canada and the brands of Titleist and Footjoy have renewed for another three years. A very, very robust arrangement where they support us at all levels of the game. They support us at the professional level at our championships, at both the RBC Canadian Open, and the CP Women's Open. They continue to be a major partner of Team Canada and our national development team, as well as our partnership with Golf Town, which we've renewed additionally and continue to have them as our retail partner.

I would like to also just share some of the things about the championship in 2019. It was well reported our date change, June 3rd to 9th. I can tell you that the city of Hamilton has been an incredible partner. They're here in the audience joining us. We have a six-year partnership with the city of Hamilton. We're going to be bringing the championship in 2019 and 2023, as well as numerous Amateur Championships as well as our Future Links programs to the city.

They've been a phenomenal partner, as well as the Hamilton golf and country club, which we've been there in 2003, '06 and '12. Interesting story developing with Bob Tway winning in 2003 at Hamilton, and having Kevin Tway in the hunt in that last group.

Also, we'll just tell you as a property, Hamilton is beloved by the players, and in particular our conversations with Team RBC. A gentleman who we had out on Tuesday and Wednesday and some corporate events how much they loved the golf course, how much they're looking forward to it, and how much they're looking forward to this incredible lead in to the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

Our event at Hamilton will be profound in a number of ways, but as far as hosting, as far as partners, as far as an opportunity for inside the ropes great competition, and outside the ropes, many of you know this golf course is 27 holes along with a short course. We will engage our fans. We'll engage our partners. It will be an incredible experience. One thing the PGA TOUR has done an amazing job in their new platform is to talk about we have five miles. We say 8 kilometers of front row seats.

I've spoken to so many people who are coming to professional golf for the first time, to be that close and that intimate has been an amazing experience. On top of it, the point was made, which I hadn't heard before, to be part of the Pro-Am, and we have a charitable Pro-Am on Monday, and we have the official Pro-Am on Wednesday, there is no other event where the professional gives his 100% alongside amateurs. You can go to a fantasy baseball camp or fantasy hockey camp. But at a Pro-Am that pro is giving 100%, so it's really, really special for us.

I did want to talk a little bit about the date. The date change, and we had a lot of time, a few days last week at the Open Championships in Carnoustie, with players, and this week, along with Mary and I talking with many of them about how excited they are to be in the week leading into the U.S. Open. It's a great week for us from a timing perspective. The heart of our summer.

The golf season is really, really starting to get in the heat of its action, and we have so many players who traditionally play our Canadian Open. And we've had a really, really thorough, positive reinforcement, they'll continue to play. Of course, we're very lucky to have Team RBC and their commitment to playing, but a whole new group of players who hadn't traditionally played after the British Open.

So to be able to now play in front of the U.S. Open, and we've had conversations with many players directly and their entire team. You know, players like Phil Mick Mickelson and his camp, players like Rory McIlroy and his camp, players like Rickie Fowler, on top of the Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, and the Tony Finau, and the Tommy Fleetwood who we have here this week.

So it's really a moment for us to really wrap our arms around this championship. I have to say, we've seep a lot of the media in the last month. We appreciate you coming out to Hamilton and Glen Abbey, and even you came out support our CP Women's event and that launch. So we've had you on a bit of a run these last 45 days.

But I can tell you from Mary's perspective and mine is we're just getting started, and we're really excited about what we're building. We're really excited about today. And I wanted to thank everyone for your time coming out to the RBC Canadian Open. So thank you very much.

Q. This is probably a question more for Bryan, but Laurence you as well. There is a dynamic and a change obviously with the condensed time line between now and next year's Open Championship, two months lopped off there, and what focus does that put on Crawdaddy coming in? Is there more pressure on them than there normally would be?
LAURENCE APPLEBAUM: Yeah, I'll say a couple things. One, we've never been so far as an organization ahead of the next championship already. So for 2019, we're within 11 months. So the clock has started to tick. At the same time, we've already had, I'll probably say close to two hands of meetings with all of our stakeholders in Hamilton. We've had our first sales night with the club, and we're so far ahead.

But for Bryan, in particular, Bryan comes from a background in both professional sports and also in professional management and tournaments in his time at basketball Canada. So he's going to hit the ground running. I know he's been working long days already. I don't think he feels pressure from you, Ian, yet. Not yet. He will, I know.

But the neat thing is Bryan is a Hamilton native. He's a 6-minute walk to the front door of the country club in Hamilton. So he knows the space, he knows the people, he knows that, so we're really excited for him. But we are looking forward to two championships within two months, I can tell you that.

Q. Did this year's field surprise you as well with the quality that came out? Obviously in the past with it running behind the British Open, you haven't had that until this year.
LAURENCE APPLEBAUM: Yeah, we're thrilled. We're beyond thrilled with the field that came. We had a number of great commitments that we knew quite early on, and as the summer progressed and having every player has got their check list of what they want to do over the season and their objectives. Once the U.S. Open finished, to have four of the Top 5 players from the U.S. Open make that commitment to us, and some really, really special new players, like a Tommy Fleetwood, for example, was really exciting.

Brooks Koepka who had a really interesting year and doing so well at Erin Hills and then coming back with a little bit of injury, coming into format Shinnecock, I know that speaking to him a little bit, he was really disappointed about not making the cut, but he had a major run going on in what he also did over in Scotland.

I think there were a couple last-minute surprises having Sergio Garcia join the fray right at the end was really fun, and in particular, we couldn't be more thrilled with the overall field, so, yeah.

Q. Was Sergio a surprise to you?
LAURENCE APPLEBAUM: It was. It was. We've had great conversations, Bill and our team and our partners at RBC have had ongoing conversations throughout the whole year with everybody, and I mean with everybody. So we knew who was maybe possible, we also knew who might not be possible. But as injuries and schedules start to change, we had opportunities that we moved forward with.

I will say that for people who sort of -- it's been a great month of sports in Toronto, and I'd say it's been a quieter period and what's gone on in basketball and hockey and ending with this event here and who we had coming to Toronto for our event has been amazing.

Q. Laurence, congrats on another great event. Glen Abbey has hosted the Canadian Open 29 times, it's probably the last time it's going to host its championship. Can you just discuss what this golf course and the community of Oakville have meant to Golf Canada and the RBC Canadian Open as a whole?
LAURENCE APPLEBAUM: Well, I will tell you that we had Lee Trevino here at the beginning of the week, and I had Adam Stanley to fact check for me, which was very helpful by the way, thank you. Lee won his first one here. He told some amazing stories about the evolution of playing here at this historic golf course.

It's given a bounce to Canadian golf as far as the venue goes, it's been spectacular. I also will say our friends at Club Link and the superintendent have done an incredible job this week in putting together a golf course that has been universally loved by the players. It's shown well on broadcast. It's shown well with the players. It's been a good test, but it's also shown that it's exciting from a scoring perspective. We got very close to a couple of record scores. We had a handful of 63s. I think we had the Low Canadian ever with Ben Silverman, so it's been a wonderful, wonderful week here.

Q. The rink concept has been really well received over the last two years. Of course we're going to a different golf course last year. Has there been conversation to bring that idea to Hamilton in some capacity?
LAURENCE APPLEBAUM: Yeah, I got a call from the PGA TOUR and with the amount of buzz that's going on with our global fan base about the rink, they want us to continue to bring the rink wherever we go. So we've loved it, we've evolved it. It's been a part of our DNA as an event, and we'd not only love to bring it, but we'd love to continue to build on it as well.

Q. I heard this morning that beer sales were up 10% year over year, and you have a new beer sale partner. Just wondering if you think there is momentum from corporate Canada to be involved with golf these days?
LAURENCE APPLEBAUM: Yeah, so that 10% number is false. It's much higher, I can promise you. It's been great. Steam Whistle came on in the last six months, and they are a top market share craft brewery in Ontario. We are their number one and only sports property that they've invested in. So as an evolutionary brand, premium brand, they came in and have been a wonderful partner for all that we do.

And they're a partner for us not only at the RBC Canadian Open, but in Golf Canada as well. It's part of the entire broadening. In the last six weeks we've had our greatest corporate results and corporate partnerships in our history of Golf Canada in the last six weeks. And that is a testament to the company that we keep, their premium, iconic, Canadian brands that want to be involved in golf, they want to be involved in the RBC Canadian Open.

We're very, very fortunate our partnership team and sales team have done an amazing job and we're really growing the platform, so it's been wonderful.

Q. You mentioned the Golf Canada Foundation, and just going forward, do you foresee the Golf Canada Foundation being the recipient of the generosity from the work that's done on the charitable side of the event?
LAURENCE APPLEBAUM: Yeah, so the foundation, which as I mentioned is run by Martin Barnard, has gone from strength to strength. And our goal is to have always a really engaging partnership with the foundation, but it's not just at this event. They're one of our major investors in our development programs and in everything that we're doing for golf in growing the sport. So to have them here and have them so present in every way has been a real bonus to our entire platform event. Martin has grown his fan -- I won't say his fan base, but his donor base and everything that we're doing together in a really, really meaningful way. We hope that we'll continue to be partners for a long time at this event, yeah.

Q. The Hall of Fame day, you mentioned the rink earlier about how the PGA TOUR had called you and asked you to continue that. I'm sure the tour isn't involved with the Hall of Fame day, but same thing going to happen there? Does it carry on? It's two years in a row now that you've had it. Seems successful to me with Jack Nicklaus last year and Trevino this year. Does it carry on going forward, obviously, with the golf foundation as the recipient?
LAURENCE APPLEBAUM: So what we've done is one of the big conversations that we had between our teams, and I'm talking about the RBC team and Golf Canada team, how do we take this from four days of competition, to a seven-day celebration of golf.

So one of the rules we like to do from the competitive side when the ball is in the air, we have to let players play. And everything that we're building around this is building a real exposure for the game and what we're doing. So on Tuesday, which is officially RBC Hall of Fame day, we've had now two years where we've continued to grow this event.

We had Jack come out, and that was really well received, and then this year with Lee Trevino, I think he's still on the 7th hole right now. He's given a wedge lesson to Bob. I saw that by the way. He was just a great ambassador and connected to us. So we haven't had an opportunity to celebrate our Hall of Famers and our honored members. Tuesday is our day. We had an evolution of that event. We'll continue to build on that. We'll continue to build on events even such as our Tuesday evening event, which is our draw party event for the pro-Am, which will be a big event, I can tell you right now in 2019.

But this platform for our special events, our PGA TOUR event and LPGA event gave us this great platform. So in Regina in three weeks, we'll have our first women's leadership summit, and we'll have that on the Tuesday event. And it will be headlined by senior executives from CP, from RBC. Lorie Kane will be there, and we'll also have the keynote speaker will be Hayley Wickenheiser.

So it's an opportunity for us to do what we want to do with our events, and then start to bring a little bit more, open our arms up and bring a broader group into it as well.

THE MODERATOR: Laurence, thank you very much. And thank you everyone for joining us today and for the wonderful coverage all week.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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