Shaughnessy as soon as once more an ideal golf host, however might the RBC come again earlier than it closes?

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There may be little doubt that the course at Shaughnessy Golf and Nation Membership is championship calibre.

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Canadian star Brooke Henderson had a tricky opening spherical on Thursday, scoring a three-over-par 75, however bounced again Friday, firing a four-under 68 in her second spherical on the CPKC Ladies’s Open, maintaining her alive going into the ultimate two rounds this weekend.

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Organizers, followers and the participant herself had been respiratory an enormous sigh of aid Friday about her play, given the three-over she began the day on would have seen her miss the minimize if she hadn’t discovered a method to enhance her rating.

“I really feel just like the extra you play a golf course the extra you study it, and in concept the higher you’re going to play it. I really feel just like the extra instances you’ll be able to see this tough golf course the higher off you might be. I really feel like by Sunday I’ll be all set,” she mentioned with an enormous smile.

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“It’s positively goal golf, and really a lot a ball-striker’s course. So as we speak, my ball-striking was on and I really feel like that’s why I shot four-under, whereas yesterday my ball-striking was not so good, which was three-over.”

Linn Grant mentioned she cherished the setting of the course, with the fairways nestled between tall spruces, cedars, hemlocks and Douglas firs.

“I just like the course. I believe it’s nice. I like programs that require good golf,” she mentioned. “Massive bushes, tree lined, some tough greens. I believe it’s an ideal golf course.”

It’s the primary time Golf Canada has introduced the nationwide girls’s skilled championship to Shaughnessy. The course, which has small greens and tight fairways, is the right host for top-level golf.

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Shaughnessy has hosted the occasion nicely. When it comes to tents and sponsorship areas, that is the biggest girls’s occasion Golf Canada has ever hosted.

However the course is more likely to shut in 2032. It’s the largest open secret in Vancouver golf circles — when the membership’s lease with the Musqueam Indian Band expires.

All indications have been that the band intends to develop the land, which is on the Musqueam Reserve, when the lease comes up.

The Supreme Court docket of Canada dominated in favour of the Musqueam in 1984 in what’s now generally known as the Guerin ruling. The court docket discovered that the Crown’s Indian Agent misled the Musqueam in regards to the phrases of the lease, which had been a lot much less beneficial that the Musqueam individuals had been instructed they might be.

Chief Wayne Sparrow, who has served because the elected head of the Musqueam Indian Band since 2012, mentioned there aren’t any particular plans to increase the course’s lease.

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“We’ve got to seek the advice of the neighborhood,” he mentioned.

However even earlier than that, there are some big-picture points that the Musqueam has to maintain. Housing, as an example.

“We’ve got to provide our neighborhood members an opportunity to maneuver again house. We’ve got properties we have to construct,” he mentioned. “We’ve got 350 neighborhood members in search of a home.”

And the Musqueam neighborhood’s want for housing is just going to develop, with a majority of the band’s membership beneath the age of 18, he mentioned.

There are a selection of different offers that the Musqueam are engaged on that may have an effect on the place the band can construct, Sparrow added, however proper now, the precedence for the Shaughnessy land after 2032 continues to be to construct housing.

“If issues evolve, issues (at Shaughnessy) might change,” he admitted.

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Requested Thursday about what efficiently internet hosting the CPKC Ladies’s Open would possibly imply for Shaughnessy’s future, course superintendent Andrew Hart deflected, providing a easy reply on his focus: “The aim for us is to host the absolute best enjoying situations that we will for our membership. That’s what we’re seeking to do each day. I don’t assume that’s going to alter in any given yr.”

There had been chatter when Shaughnessy was first set to host the ladies’s event in 2020 that if issues went nicely, perhaps they might get an opportunity to host the RBC Canadian Open earlier than the curtains closed on the course.

Shaughnessy has hosted the RBC 4 instances earlier than, most not too long ago in 2011.

It’s not unattainable for that to nonetheless occur, however the benefits of being at a course close to Toronto are fairly apparent.

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There’s a home-town factor to internet hosting tournaments within the GTA — followers get a familiarity to the occasion and the gamers, plus there isn’t any doubt there will probably be large cash from Bay Road.

Subsequent yr’s RBC is in Hamilton. A number has but to be introduced for 2025, nevertheless it appears probably the RBC will stay within the east. And Oakdale Golf and Nation Membership in Toronto, which hosted the event this previous June to nice acclaim, will host once more in 2026.

There’s a likelihood that Shaughnessy will get one other crack on the nationwide championship earlier than the 2032 deadline.

It’s simply removed from sure.

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