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RBC CANADIAN OPENJuly 23, 2013Mike CarrollScott SimmonsOAKVILLE, ONTARIO THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for joining us today. We have our president, Mr.Mike Carroll, from Vancouver, as well as our CEO Scott Simmons. Just to give us a general welcome and a bit of a state of the tournament, state of Golf Canada, I'd like to introduce Mike Carroll to say a few words, remarks, and then we'll get some remarks from Scott. MIKE CARROLL: Well, thank you for coming. The media is a huge part of this event, so we're glad that you're all here. It gives us a chance to showcase our game in Canada. This is obviously the biggest event that we do, although we have many, many events as part of Golf Canada, but this is our number one, so it's an important week for us. It's a great week, not only because we can bring and give our Canadian players as you all know a real chance to compete with the best players in the world, which is really important to us as we continue to try to develop world‑class players, and we are on our way, I think, to doing that more than perhaps we've been in many years. There's a huge charitable component to this event, as you know, with the assistance of RBC and Ronald McDonald House is the beneficiary this year, so I think, Dan, we've given $5 million to charity over the first five years. So it's a great week for us, and I just want to welcome you all and thank you for your support for our event. THE MODERATOR: Scott, just some comments from you? We passed around a copy of the strategic plan. If you want to make some comments about how the strategic plan fits into Golf Canada's overall plan as the NSO and obviously running this for a century. SCOTT SIMMONS: Sure. First of all, I want to apologize that we're not having tomorrow morning's breakfast. Traditionally we've had a Wednesday morning breakfast with the media, which was always well‑attended, but I've got to be in London for other meetings, so that's why we chose to do this today instead. But just want to echo Mike's remarks and thank Mike and the board of directors for their support. We've got an unbelievably supportive board that's helping myself and the staff move the organization ahead. This is the biggest week in Canadian golf in my humble opinion. It's just such a fantastic event, and as I mentioned yesterday at our foundation pro‑am with the Canadian players, the progress that we've made, I started six years ago yesterday, and when you look back at the progress we've made and what RBC has done to help us with this great championship, it's moved around to some of the finest golf courses in the country, some of the finest golf courses in the world, and to Dan's question, I think it really helps us showcase‑‑ it not only provides the foundation that Mike talked about for some of our Canadian players, but it provides a showcase, too, for us to talk about Golf Canada, what we're trying to do to help grow the game in the country, what has really changed. And our mandate has changed significantly since we were named the national sport organization, national sport federation in 2005‑2006. And that's really all encompassing now. It's what drives the strategic plan that some of you may have in front of you there, what we've called One Vision, and what One Vision means by definition is trying to have the whole country working together working in the same direction, whether it's our good friends from the PGA of Canada, who are our great, great partners in delivering pretty much every program that we run in this country now, to working closer with the National Golf Course Owners Association, the Canadian Society of Club Managers, the superintendents, the manufacturers, and we've now got an unbelievably great relationship with PGA TOUR Canada. We've always had a strong relationship with the PGA TOUR, but now it's even stronger with PGA TOUR Canada. Their offices are located in our offices at Golf House. I can't think of a brighter time for Canadian golf for so many reasons, and happy to address any questions about Golf Canada or the state of the game in Canada. Q. Scott, yesterday, how does that correlate with communications to the players? I know in years past there have been players who have come to a few of us in the past and say we don't hear enough from Golf Canada or RCGA. How does yesterday synergize and help that from a communications aspect to tell the players exactly what's going on up here and what they need to know? SCOTT SIMMONS: Well, I think it helps a lot, and I'm going to address, you said Golf Canada and RCGA. I think it's clear to everybody, but the Royal Canadian Golf Association has been around since 1895. It's still our legal name and entity. I personally am very proud of the history and tradition of the Royal Canadian Golf Association, the name RCGA, but when we were named the national sport organization, as I said, six, seven years ago and our mandate changed, we wanted to open up the aperture to be more relevant to all Canadian golfers. We just thought that the name Golf Canada would relate more, especially when you look at all the other NSOs, Hockey Canada, Basketball Canada, Tennis Canada, the fact that we're now a member of the Canadian Olympic committee, I sit on their board, the relationship with Sport Canada. That's really the rationale behind the name Golf Canada, the new logo. But really the name and the logo are a small part of your brand. Your brand is really who are and how you operate and how you're perceived by others. So we're hoping that we're moving the needle on how we're perceived by others, and that digresses into your question about yesterday. I think it speaks volumes when all the Canadian players that are in the field came yesterday to support the Golf Canada Foundation, which is a separate entity to Golf Canada, but obviously there's a relationship there. I think Martin Barnard, who's now the CEO of the foundation, has done a great job. He's recruited a fantastic board of directors with people like Dennis Kavelman and Jeff Beatty and Kevin Sullivan, and I feel very privileged to be on that board, as well, so I kind of wear two hats, CEO of Golf Canada and board member of the foundation. But when you've got a guy like Leggo, who is also on the foundation board who has such a great relationship with the players, I can give Mike Weir a call any day and Mike will take my call, but I think when he hears from a fellow player, a guy like Leggo, about what the foundation is trying to do and what Golf Canada is trying to do to help our young professionals‑‑ and it's not just Golf Canada. I think this every time I speak, there's a whole system that has to be put in place to develop golfers. The millions that take up the game just nor recreational purpose is at the base, so you think about golfing schools and future links and things like that and a lot of problems that the PGA of Canada and the owners are running, we all have to work together to get people to play the game. But as you move up and identify the nation's best, we're really proud of the work that's been done with Team Canada on the amateur side, but what yesterday was about and everyone in this country has talked about this for at least the 20 years I've been involved with the RCGA, now Golf Canada, where is the next Mike Weir, where is the next Lorie Kane, and I'm not saying that the program we launched yesterday, the Team Canada for young professionals, will answer all those problems, but it's a part of the puzzle that we need to support these players, and when I say support, it's not just simply handing them a check and paying for their expenses, but it's keeping them‑‑ Mike said it last night. He said you can't believe all the distractions you can have as a young professional, whether it's about getting dry cleaning done or renting a car or booking my next flight or worrying about if I have enough money for supper. The administration side of it is huge. Them still having access to the coaches that they work with as young amateurs, all the sports science professionals that we've now got engaged, we have a world‑class program, and I know I'm biased, and Chris can speak to it, too, if he was sitting up here, or if Gary Bernard was beside me, when we go around the world, other people are looking at what we're doing in Canada as really a paradigm shift and something that they need to aspire to. And it's seven years old, seven years, 2006 to 2013, and I should make that clear, that while I give Stephen Ross all the credit in the world for being the guy that 20 years ago said we need to do something for junior golf and started Future Links and he started some Team Canada camps, but those were one‑offs at the time, and that has now morphed into what became a world‑class program seven years ago. So you have to base the results of what that program is doing starting seven years ago, and we're starting to see it. We're starting to see better international results both at the amateur and pro side, but your question, and I know I've kind of given you a broader answer, I think it speaks volumes that those guys were there yesterday and Lorie Kane, because they now have a far better understanding of what Golf Canada is trying to do, how Golf Canada is different than what it was ten years ago, and what the Golf Canada Foundation is trying to do. So just their presence there was huge. Q. You mentioned about finding the next Lorie Kane. This is specific to the women's game. Right now Lorie Kane at 47 years old, I believe, is 258th ranked player in the world, and she is our highest ranked Canadian. SCOTT SIMMONS: It's actually Alena Sharp now. Passed her last week. But she's three spots ahead of her, I think. Q. How concerned are you about maybe what you might call a generational gap that we've just missed with the women's game? I think our men's game is looking pretty healthy. Some of us in the media are not seeing the same thing out of the women's game. How concerned are you about that? SCOTT SIMMONS: Not very, and I'll tell you why. Yeah, our top ranked lady is call it 247th, I'm not sure of the exact number, but it's Alena and Lorie. But right nipping on their heels now, girls who used to be not even on the radar, girls like Maude‑Aimee LeBlanc, Rebecca Lee‑Bentham, Sue Kim, Steph Sherlock struggled a little bit lately, Jen Kirby. If you look at the World Rankings you've got this group of young ladies that are kind of motoring up the‑‑ I shouldn't say motoring up, are moving up the World Rankings. Who mentioned it yesterday? MIKE CARROLL: Don't forget Brooke Henderson. SCOTT SIMMONS: 15‑year‑old Brooke Henderson. Mike mentioned it yesterday ‑‑ it was either Mike or Brad Fritsch or one of the people on the panel, that you'll get anomalies like Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler, we'll see if Jordan Spieth is going to do the same. There's kids that at 18 and 19 become world‑class almost overnight, but if you look at the average player it takes them about 10 years from the time they turn pro to reach their potential, and we're plotting all these kids, these young men and young women, this is part of the whole young professional program, and I don't want to compare it to a horse race, but if you were looking at all the horses at the starting gate and you're wondering who's got the best chance to win 10 years from now, it's a hard science, but you can look at history, and we've looked at every player for the last 20 years and monitored the progress of what they've done from the time they were say 16, 17 as a junior to an elite amateur to a young pro, and most of them are on the same development curve, and if you look at those young ladies, they are right on pace on that development curve, as are the young men like Albin and Mackenzie. Some of them are going to not pan out. That's just the way sports works, right? But the direct answer to your question is I'm not that concerned because if I think of the time window we're looking at, we talk about defending our gold medal at the Olympics, which was the men's gold medal, but that's three years out, and while I can't guarantee this, I don't have a crystal ball, I think if you look at the World Rankings three years from now when the Olympics are on, I would be shocked if we didn't have a handful of young women in the top 100 in the World Rankings based on the progression that I'm seeing over the last five years of these young ladies. Now, they're not as high as the men are if you look at the men's World Rankings, but you're seeing the same progression. Q. Mr.Simmons, can you give us an update on the venue for this tournament beyond next year? SCOTT SIMMONS: I can't. We are having‑‑ but I'll tell you the process. Obviously we're at Royal Montreal next year, which will be fantastic. We haven't been back to Royal Montreal since 2001, and of course they hosted the Presidents Cup in 2007, and with any private club, they've been so generous to us over the years, arguably they've been the greatest host club for a national championship in the history of Canadian golf if you go all the way back to 1895 and the first Canadian Amateur and the first Canadian Open was at Royal Montreal in 1904. J.H. Oke won it. For '15, '16 and '17, which would be the last three years of RBC's new contract, so we've just signed a new deal with RBC, this is year one of a five‑year contract, so we're at Glenn Abbey this year, Royal Montreal next year, and we're very close on all three of those years. We've had significant discussions with some of the clubs that have previously hosted Opens, and not unlike the USGA, we're talking to clubs that have never hosted an Open, and while I can't give you any specifics today because it would be unfair to the clubs who we've signed confidentiality agreements with, there's going to be some exciting news, I think, coming out about '15 and '16 and '17. I'd like to say it's going to come before the end of this year, but I can't promise you that. Q. Can you just detail a little bit about this young professionals' program, the kind of dollars involved and the players that are going to be supported and in what practical way they'll be supported? SCOTT SIMMONS: Yeah, great question. I'll put it in perspective: On average for our national team members, we spend approximately $50,000 to $60,000 a year on each of those young men and women, and when you think of the support that they get, it's a combination of things from our coaching staff, as I said earlier, the sports science staff, a lot of the camps that we do. We do camps here in Canada. We do camps in Florida, as well, when it's not ideal weather here, the travel. A lot of these kids represent us at elite international competitions like the World Amateur. That's helping them cut their teeth to understand how to do well in a competitive environment. And if you think about what happens to‑‑ let's think of an example. Let's think of Mackenzie and Albin, who were elite amateurs a year ago and are now young professionals. There is a basket of needs and benefits that they need that is slightly different than that of an elite amateur. Now that you're a professional, there's things that you need. You talked about some of it earlier. You're on the road and who's going to do my dry cleaning, who's going to book my next flight, so there's some administrative things that would be part of the program. The program will probably entail, the way it's designed now, to do it right we probably need I'm going to say $75,000 a year per player, and if you're going to get engaged with a player, you're probably going to need to commitment to three years with them at minimum. So let's call it $200,000 over three years. If we launch the program today and pick three players, think of it on a graph, you're looking at $200,000 this year, $200,000 next year, $200,000 the year after that. Next year we identify‑‑ and that's three players, sorry, three players would be about $200,000 each year. Next year we identify three more, so put $200,000 on top of year two, put $200,000 on top of year three. The year after we identify three more. So on an ongoing basis just to support three years would be $600,000 a year. We've talked a lot about this, about when is the right time to launch it. If we have $200,000 do we just go? You could do that, but you're taking a little bit of a gamble. But I have all the confidence in the foundation, and yesterday was a great example of that. I think they've got the horses on their board. They've recruited a great board again with the likes of Jeff Beatty and Leggo and Kevin Sullivan and Dennis Kavelman. These are the people that can make it happen and create the awareness for what the foundation is trying to do to support programs like the young professionals, and really what the foundation will do is raise the money. Golf Canada and other organizations will apply to the foundation and say this is what we'd like to use the money for, and they love the young professional program. Their board has identified it as the biggest gap right now. So trying to give you a short answer, but it's probably $60,000 to $75,000 a player. We don't want to launch it without at least two players in the program. I don't want to mention any names right now, but when I talked about that development curve to you, Rick, we've looked at all the players, and again, if you had to pick, using science, who do you think five years from now has the best chance to succeed, those would be the first two players who get the funding who will be kind of the first players into the program. So we'd like to launch that and name those players this fall with the money we've raised. Does that answer the question? MIKE CARROLL: Can I just say something to add to what Scott has said? I had the privilege of taking our national junior boys team to Japan last year, 2012, for the world junior team competition, and when I was there, I had an opportunity to speak to a gentleman named Peter Knight. Peter Knight is a name that probably most of you have never heard of, but he is the director of high performance in Australia for their golf programs. I was picking his brain because all of you who cover the golf scene know that Australia has produced a lot of really good young professionals over the years, and right now they had three players in the last two groups in the Masters, I think, this year. And I was trying to find out why it is that they have done so well relatively with those players, and he picked up, just to follow up on what Scott is saying and what our people have told us, that the big gap that they had in their system was they helped kids along during the amateur ranks, and then when they turned pro, they were kind of dropped off the cliff, and they had no support. It's either sink or swim, and a lot of them sank rather than swam. He wouldn't tell us who it was, but they have a benefactor in Australia that gives them $500,000 a year for their young program. And that money is used to do what we're going to use our money to do, and I think it's‑‑ I do believe it's going to make a huge difference, along with what we've been doing on the amateur scale. It's not that this is the first time that this has ever happened, and I think if you look at Australia, that's where I'd like to see us be in 10 years. SCOTT SIMMONS: Yeah, and you've reminded me of something that I've spoke about on occasion, just to add to the answer, and I'm not saying this just because Chris is in the room, but Mike Weir last night mentioned something. He said, how did you get your start? He said, I was so fortunate that I grew up in a community, at his golf course, and what was the pro's name that he mentioned? Steve Bennett. He was so fortunate to have a pro like Steve Bennett that was there. Well, I want to make sure, at least it's my vision, that it's not just luck. I grew up in Brantford, Ontario, with arguably the greatest hockey player that's ever played the game, and I always use this analogy: What if Wayne Gretzky grew up in a community that didn't have a rink? Would we be sitting here that he was the greatest player of all time? We've got to make sure that it's not just luck and happenstance that if a great player has ability, they happen to be at a club that's supportive with a pro that has the right instincts and the right knowledge. And when I look at what the PGA of Canada is doing leading the world in coaching development, there's a big difference between a swing instructor and a coach. And my vision is that every kid that has talent will grow up, and it won't be luck or happenstance that they happen to be at a course that has the right people and the right resources there. Through what the PGA of Canada is doing, there's going to be world‑class coaching everywhere across this country, from the kids at this level all the way up to our elite amateurs and pros. So there's a combination of things that I think are critical, and a lot of that flies under the radar, about having world‑class coaching, and the work that the PGA of Canada has done, again, is leading the world. Q. You had mentioned the science and being cutting edge in terms of other countries in the world. Can you speak to some of that and some of the technology and how it's helping some of your players? SCOTT SIMMONS: Yeah, I'll give you a couple of real practical examples. Sean Foley, I think this is a lot of what he works on, but understanding each player's physical abilities, their body type, being able to use equipment and science, whether it's things like TrackMan or other technical aids that are now out there to be able to actually measure every possible statistic about a player, being able to look at their swing, and again, this isn't my bailiwick. If Jeff Thompson was here, he could probably answer this a little bit more specifically than I could. But understanding the physiology of every player, and also the part between the ears, too, understanding that and having the coaches there that can create a specific program for that player that will help them from an exercise routine to things to do with swing mechanics to things to do with mental management, having that has to help. And again, I don't like to keep using Mike as my example, but Mike Weir succeeded in the absence of having all that. So will kids succeed without having all that? Sure, they will, but having this program will give our kids that much more chance to succeed, and maybe they'll do it faster, in a faster time frame than if they didn't have these resources. And as I said before Robert walked into the room, the Golf Canada program, our national amateur program and our young pro program isn't going to solve everything for creating the next generation of elite players, but it's a big part of the puzzle in my humble opinion, and the work that the PGA is doing is a big example in my humble opinion. The alignment that's now happening at the provincial associations, and again, if you look at that one vision document, I don't think we've ever had greater alignment between what Golf Canada is trying to do and what the provincial associations are doing in terms of that development pyramid from the grass‑roots up to the elite. So again, I've gone off a little bit, digressed from your question. But it's about the science of understanding the golf swing, swing mechanics, body physiology, and we've got all the latest tools and gadgets that are there with the kids at the camps. Every time they go to training sessions, the coaches are monitoring everything, progress reports. It's just a different game than it was 30 years ago, I'll say. MIKE CARROLL: Yeah, one thing I should point out, too, as a board member, as effectively the chairman of the board of Golf Canada, we get asked a lot of questions about how we spend our money, and you probably all know that most of our money comes in from our dues, right, we have roughly 335,000 members in Canada through member clubs and through individual memberships paying $10 a year basically to Golf Canada. SCOTT SIMMONS: 12 now. MIKE CARROLL: 12 now. Sorry, Scott. But roughly $3.35 million or so coming in on dues, and we spend a lot of money on our elite performance programs. I've been asked this question probably 100 times over the last two years: Why do you spend that much money on elite players? Isn't Golf Canada really amateur golf, and shouldn't you be just concentrating on running tournaments and so on? And my answer to that is that we have a responsibility as the NSO to preserve the game, and there's no question about it, the numbers in golf are not great in terms of our participation levels. They have been going down. It looks like they've flattening out now. We're hoping that's going to continue. But we have a challenge. We've got a challenge with all sorts of other sports, that we always have, and incidentally, our numbers are basically no different than they are in most of the developed world. Where the numbers are really interesting is in a place like China where they're just going like this and will continue to go like that. SCOTT SIMMONS: Just to add to your comments about financials, we spend $1.5 million on high performance. The vast majority of that comes through our Sport Canada grants and sponsorship dollars. The net amount of membership dollars that are going into high performance is roughly $200,000 to $300,000, so I don't want to give people the impression that all of our high performance‑‑ MIKE CARROLL: Comes out of our dues. SCOTT SIMMONS: But you made a good point that we're spending $1.5 million. Other countries that we look at, whether it's Australia or England, are spending a minimum of $5 million, and most of that money is coming through government grants. MIKE CARROLL: Per capita we're low in terms of our high performance, but the point I was making is that Scott mentioned Wayne Gretzky. Steve Nash, Hayley Wickenheiser, you can name our elite athletes, our icons, and I haven't done this, but I think you can probably put a graph behind their peak years and watch the participation levels in the sport go up. I mean, look at the kids that are being drafted in the NBA now, and I guarantee you that that is a direct result of Steve Nash's performance in the NBA. I mean, there's a correlation. So this is what we need to do in Canada. We've had Mike, we've had Lorie. The question was a good one. We don't have anybody right behind Lorie right now. We've got some people coming up. But we've got some kids now, Graeme DeLaet is someone who's currently ranked No.1 on the PGA TOUR in greens in regulation. He's a world‑class player. I personally think he's got a great chance to really take it to the next level, but we need to produce those people in order to preserve the game, otherwise the numbers will drop. So that's why we put dollars into our high performance program and we place so much importance. Our board is firmly committed to this, and I think they've got their acts in on the right number. MIKE CARROLL: Look what Milos has done for tennis. Heroes drive sport. You can't debate that. And the number of junior golf members at Golf Canada peaked in '03 to '05. Does anyone know any significant moment in Canadian golf history in '03? Heroes drive sport more than anything with all due respect that Golf Canada can do. Heroes drive sport. If Golf Canada can play a role in developing those heroes, it's the best investment I think we can make with our money. I couldn't agree with you more. SCOTT SIMMONS: So having said that, and to Mike's point, and no disrespect intended to Dave Barr, Dan Halldorson, some of the guys of that era, but is this generation now‑‑ you mentioned Leggo, you mentioned Weirsie. Is this generation now trying to help the generation after it? In other words, is there more help coming from the Mike Weirs and the Ian Leggatts to the Graeme DeLaets, David Hearns down to Albin Chois, etcetera. MIKE CARROLL: That is a great question, and if I have anything to say about it, the answer will be a resounding yes. We're not doing it this year because we had yesterday's function, but we host breakfast for all the Canadian players. It astounds me every year, I call them kids because I'm an old man now, I get them all to stand up and introduce themselves and give me kind of one quirky comment about all of them. I remember Fritschy ‑‑ you guys had your dinner last night and I apologize I couldn't be there because of the conflict, but a lot of these kids have never met Mike Weir. And Mike has got a lot on his plate. He said it last night, and Lorie Kane said it. It's tough carrying the burden of being the hero for the country, but it's one they embrace. And I think these people go out of their way to try to help, but we need our young players to know who these kids are, and when we talked about what will be part of a Team Canada young professional program, to me a key part of it is simply a relationship with the elder statesmen, even if that's being able to talk privately on email, Twitter, Facebook, being able to pick up the phone, Albin being able to call Lorie or Mike. It sounds simple, but it means so much to these kids to be able to talk to the veterans. It hasn't happened as much in the past as it should, and if Golf Canada can play a role in facilitating that, I think it's a huge part of the program. But them being there yesterday is a testament to the fact that they believe in it. Q. Do you think that this year, given David's recent success, Graeme's success as you pointed out, first in greens in regulation, second in total driving, that there's as good of a shot as we've seen in a long time for Canadians to be competitive here but perhaps be more than just competitive? SCOTT SIMMONS: Again, maybe I'm a bit biased because I'm such a fan. Other than being CEO of Golf Canada I'm such a huge fan. I was trading messages with you when Hearn missed. It was like watching Game 7‑‑ I'm a die‑hard Leaf fan. My heart was racing as much ‑‑ he's a Canucks fan. Watching David in that playoff and coming down the stretch was as stressful to me as watching the Leafs‑Bruins Game 7, and I think there was a lot of Canadians from coast to coast who felt the same way. Yeah, I feel just as a golf fan, so inspired by what these guys are doing. You can look back at every year and every generation, but I think your point is a good one. Graeme is playing so consistently, and look where he is on the Money List now. David is the same. Brad admitted last night that his game has been a little bit inconsistent, but he's right on the magic number right now for FedEx, 125. And then look at the guys that are coming up behind. Yeah, I feel so bullish about the future for Canadian golf because it's not as if‑‑ you had Mike and Stephen and they were kind of it for a long time after the Nelford‑Zokol‑Halldorson era, and that was it. Now I think we've got a bushel full of players. MIKE CARROLL: And there's a crop, too, that you haven't mentioned which is certainly below even the Albin Chois. As I said, I was totally impressed last year when we went to Japan with that junior boys' team that we had. We actually finished tied for second. There were 13 teams in that tournament, but there's 60 teams that start, and there's a series of regional qualifiers, and our kids finished second in that event. We were leading going into the last day, and we were overtaken by Australia. But we had Adam Svensson, who's playing here this week. Adam shot 64 on the first day. We have got a kid from BC named Kevin Kwon, who won the Canadian Junior two years ago or three years ago at Morgan Creek at age 16, shot 16‑under par for the week, including a 64. And I walked with him in Japan and watched him play under the gun the last day, and I was totally impressed with his course management, how he understood his game. He's got nerves of steel. I remember particularly we were playing with the U.S. and Japan I guess was in our group, and we were right there, and he hits the ball OB on the 15th hole, which was really a rough time to do it, and he looked at me, and he just laughed, and he said, God, I haven't done that before. And then he takes his driver out, hits it down the fairway, hits a 3‑wood to within 100 yards because he wasn't hitting the ball that far, and then wedges it to this far and makes birdie, bogey, birdie, and then birdies the next hole. He's now, to just pick up on what we've been talking about, our coaches have been working with him to give him more distance. He's hitting the ball 40 yards further this year than he was last year. He birdied five out of the last eight holes in one of our junior tournaments this year in BC to win going away. So these are kids that you don't hear about very much. We hear about them because we're watching them all the time, but I don't think we've had that kind of level of performance for quite a while, and so I would echo what Scott said. I mean, I think around the corner there's some really exciting things that are going to happen, and on the women's side, I mean, not to put too much pressure on her, but I've watched a lot of junior players. I've seen very few kids with the talent of a Brooke Henderson. I think she's got just incredibly‑‑ you don't know what's going to happen. Obviously nobody does. But if I had to predict, I'd say there's somebody we can be watching. SCOTT SIMMONS: And all these folks we're talking about kind of made it on their own. David, Graeme went to a couple of our camps, but David, Graeme, Fritschy, Roger Sloan, Alena, Lorie, they're kind of self‑made players, but I think the point we're trying to stress is that the generation that's coming in behind them now has the support of the nation, and it's only getting stronger every day, and I just think the breadth of the number of kids that are going to have that ability and the support behind them will only generate, like some are going to sprout up and be superstars. The more depth you have, the more odds there are it's going to happen. Q. Canadian Open field I would say is quite strong this year. I think you have 12 or 13 in the top 50, you have a bunch that benefit from the RBC relationship, I appreciate that. Talk about the quality of the field versus sort of when you started at Angus Glen a few years ago, and secondly, is it '15 when the date could potentially change, and how do you see that going forward? You haven't announced a venue for '15 because you don't know when the date is going to be which makes it tough to announce a venue. SCOTT SIMMONS: Yeah, I mean, the field, and I don't have the stats in front of me, the final stats from this week, but they're good. How they compare to '07, again, I don't have the stats in front of me. Q. I think you had two of the top 50 in '07. SCOTT SIMMONS: Yeah, the numbers weren't that great. But obviously it's a combination of‑‑ the work RBC has done has been phenomenal, but there's a number of world‑class players here that aren't on Team RBC, as well, and I think, and I mentioned this yesterday, I think what we're doing in conjunction with RBC to elevate the Open, the things that you guys can see, what courses we take it to, obviously makes a huge impact on the guys. Purse used to be huge, but you don't hear much about purse anymore. There's so much money out there now on the men's side, not so much the ladies' side, that they really look at the golf course, and it's unbelievable the other things that make an impact where we've made significant increases. And I'll give a couple examples, what you do with the spousal program. Believe it or not, any of us who are married in the room, your spouse has a significant impact and say in the household, in fact probably the primary say in my house, and in the golf world it's the same thing. So what we did with the wives in Vancouver, for example, they went up to Whistler and they raved about it, probably the best trip they've ever had on Tour. They're going to say to their husband, let's go back to Canada. The caddie program, we get rated the best on TOUR, and I could go on with another 10 or 12 examples, but there's a bunch of stuff that the average person wouldn't see that we've really shored up in our operation side, and I give Bill Paul and the team all the credit there. But I think the golf courses have been a huge part of it. RBC has been a huge part of it. The second question about '15 and date, you are correct, we are definitely this week next year at Royal Montreal; up in the air '15, and also up in the air '16 because it's an Olympic year, so with the world of golf taking a week off, they still haven't‑‑ when I say they, the PGA TOUR still hasn't quite figured out how they're going to move the pieces around in '16. So yeah, that does have an impact because the host club wants to know what week they're going to be in. I don't think you were in the room when Jason asked the question, but we are very close to making announcements on '15, '16 and '17, but in fairness to the clubs, we've got the nondisclosure confidentiality agreements, and they understand the date situation. Yeah, it's no secret that this week is the week after the Open Championship. It probably isn't ideal for a number of reasons. Sure, the charter helps to bring the guys back from overseas, but I think we would all agree that if we were in a date that was unencumbered by a major on either end, before or after, it probably would be better than where we are now. Q. There looks to be like there's possibly two dates, Memphis and the AT&T, and the AT&T comes with the date of July 4th. Memphis is FedEx which is the biggest sponsor of the Tour, plus you have agronomy issues. SCOTT SIMMONS: You're exactly right. Because of our climate you really can't hold an event in this country before mid‑June. MIKE CARROLL: Well, and I think one of the other challenges, too, people don't understand this, that depending on the date that you have, your television contract deal is different. So if you get a, quote‑unquote, better date, then it costs you more with the‑‑ there comes a point, so I think actually‑‑ I don't actually necessarily agree with Scott entirely on that. I think our date has worked out pretty well for us, and I think‑‑ I've analyzed fields in tournaments that are at the same level as us, because let's face it we're not a major, we're not one of those World Series events and we're not in the FedExCup, but if you compare us to all the other tournaments on the PGA TOUR, including tournaments like the Memorial, which is a great tournament, our field is pretty much the same. Q. Except‑‑ MIKE CARROLL: Tiger and Phil. That's the one big difference is those two, those marquee guys. SCOTT SIMMONS: I agree with you, Mike. The point I was going to make was exactly the same one you did; if we move it costs us more, and then you have to look at how is your field going to improve. And I think you could make an argument that we could move dates and our field wouldn't improve from where it is now, so why would you spend more money. And the answer to the question is why would you spend more money? Two players. Two players. MIKE CARROLL: And are you guaranteed that you're going to get those players? There are no guarantees. SCOTT SIMMONS: No, but it certainly is an enticing proposition because there are two days at least in my memory in the history of the Canadian Open where we've had to close the gates and not sell tickets. Golf tournaments are kind of unique that there's all this property and you can literally walk up on Sunday morning and sit yourself in front of the 18th green, and the analogy I always use is if you wanted to go to a Stanley Cup Game 7 do you think you could just walk up and walk in? You've got to get a ticket way back when. Golf is unique that way. There's only two times we've had to shut the gates, and they were both here at Glenn Abbey. One was in 2000 when Tiger hit the greatest shot of all time some people say. MIKE CARROLL: That was before this weekend. SCOTT SIMMONS: Yeah, it was September. And 2004 when Mike and Vijay were in the playoff. We literally had to close the gates and say no more, and we probably had 35,000 people on this property, which this is the best spectator golf course in the world in my humble opinion. So I sometimes wonder when people say they had 50,000 people on the golf course, I don't know where they put them all. But I would say 35,000 is the max. We cap it at Royal Montreal at 25,000. You don't want to put more than‑‑ same thing, St.George's we were actually 22,000. You can only put so many people on the golf course if you want people to have a great experience. Anyway, the point is that it's funny that one of those dates was Tiger driven, but one he wasn't here. Neither was Phil. Go back to my heroes comment. If you have a Canadian, a guy like Mike Weir who had just come off the Masters win and was battling for our national open, he'll sell you as many tickets as Tiger and Phil. MIKE CARROLL: The other issue, too, and people have to remember this, with Tiger and Phil, you don't necessarily know that they're coming until later, right? They may not commit to your event, so you can't use the media necessarily to advertise them coming in. Make no mistake about it. This tournament financially has to be successful to us, so if we were to pay the additional money or obviously if our sponsor paid, it wouldn't be out of Golf Canada's pocket, but we have to weigh that against how much more hospitality can we sell because Scott has talked about the limitation of the number of people. And do you sell more hospitality because you don't know whether they're coming necessarily. So I think there are all kinds of issues there, and I actually think our date is pretty good right now, and with the players that we're getting, and as long as we have the great support of RBC, these fields are going to be the same basically that we're getting, and I think they're darned good fields. 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