Wednesday, September 1, 1999 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER D3 PEEKABOO: this unidentified PGA-Tour profession al doesn't seem the least bit intimidated as he peers out from a bunker during the 1996 Bell Canadian Open. ' x .Z i & r L * O d d d d i i n c , d l 9 / 5 : O f i g o l n y fcfocjrcirris fa r d c £ S = 3 Cl W p s j y S j f e t f : i y / s d i s n d j l W 83I v> y i f i d i / i d u d i / d & d g r t e d t o u a o j s v . m Photo by Peter J. Thompson 'Abbey is a good value' OUT OF FITNESS... C h N I M F M t M u i u A n Oakville's #1 Club for those who w ant The Best ir children! & PGA-Tour sites in the U.S. that are also open to the public. Firestone in Akron Ohio, site of last week's World Series of Golf NEC Invitational won by Tiger Woods is $182; the Doral Country Club (the Blue Monster), home of the Doral Ryder Open, is $240; Indian Wells, home of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, is $190; and Pebble Beach, home of the A.T. & T National Pro-Am, is $290-$310. And they are all in U.S. bucks. "You make the (exchange rate) conversion and we believe Glen Abbey is a good value in comparison." Of the more than 100 Jack Nicklaus designed courses around the world, many experts believe there is none better than Glen Abbey, he said. "He tended to get a little over penalizing in his designs and you just had to hit the perfect shot or you were severely penalized. "With Glen Abbey, yes it's tough around the greens, but there's a lot of room to bail out -- the fairways are fairly wide. And so to a lot of people who know a lot about golf course archi tecture they think it's one of his best courses." Glen Abbey, he said, has been a popular choice for "corporate play and people who are using it for corporate entertaining." "You're dealing with people who are looking for a premium experience and willing to shell out some money to make sure they have a good experience there. "If you compare a $225 green fee at Glen Abbey, you compare that to taking someone out to a SkyBox at SkyDome or to one of the boxes at the Air Canada Centre or a theatre or anything like that and once you add in the parking, etc. man, Glen Abbey looks really good in compari son. "That's where it's aimed at. It's another vehi cle for corporate entertainment out there." There was more to the sale than just the golf course, although it was obviously central. The 240-acre property also included internal lands suitable for luxury residential condomini ums and a conference centre/hotel as well as 11 acres of adjacent residential development lands. No development will take place before September 2000, said ClubLink president and CEO Bruce Simmonds, which will give the RCGA the opportunity to hold this year's Bell Canadian Open as well as next year's "without there being any construction on the site." "Aside from that, there are development opportunities that we will be pursuing that the RCGA has looked at in the past." Zoning is already in place, he said, for "a piece of land in the area of Golf House for a hotel/conference centre." "We think, as did the RCGA in the past think, that actually if it's done right it would be an enhancement to hosting the Open. "One of the issues has been accommodation for the players when they're there and accommo dation for all the other people. "A lot of the great golf facilities throughout North America have accommodation right on site. I think of a Bay Hill. I guess the classic example is Augusta and Pine Valley and places and all that kind of thing ... "It's all part of the same master plan and it's all still being worked out." The sale of the venerable Abbey from the RCGA to ClubLink rang in at $40-million in cash. And in addition, ClubLink agreed to chip in an extra $825,000 over 10-years to two golf youth development programs. Specifically, they've pledged $500,000 towards golf scholarships for up and coming Canadian players and $325,000 to the national Future Links program. The addition of Glen Abbey, said Simmonds, "is a natural fit in the execution of ClubLink's strategy of clustering courses to allow for unique marketing programs, reciprocal play opportuni ties for our members and the centralized general, administrative and marketing staff, which drives substantial operating economies of scale." The biggest difference to local golf fans is that they probably won't have the Open in their back yard quite as often. Since the first Open was held at Glen Abbey in 1977, it has only skipped two years -- in 1980 and 1997 when it was held both times at the Royal Montreal Golf Course. With the sale, however, Oakville can no longer be considered the home of the Open, just a frequent host. The Open is guaranteed to return a minimum of six times over the next 20 years, including four times over the next 10 years, but two of those years have already been used up with this year's and next year's Open. The RCGA is using the sale of its glittering, national golf jewel in Oakville to help finance its long term plan to increase its presence right across Canada. In place of Glen Abbey Golf Course, explained RCGA executive director Stephen Ross, a string of golf centres will be opened up across the country. Included will be three major venues, located in Metro Toronto, Calgary and Montreal, each with a stadium course capable of hosting a pre mier event as well as additional 18-hole and 9- hole courses to go along with appropriate training and teaching facilities. As well, lesser satellite centres will be located in Vancouver and Halifax. The RCGA headquarters currently at Glen Abbey, said Ross, will remain at the future Metro Toronto facility wherever it will be located. Ross said the future site has to be within 30 minutes of the downtown core of Toronto which means Halton does have a shot at the Metro Toronto facility. Work continues on finding sites for the three national centres with the Montreal site closest to fruition. As part of the agreement, the RCGA will remain in their current national quarters at Glen Abbey for the next three years with an option to stretch it out to five years. "I think it will help us develop the game to new levels," said Ross. "I suppose only time will tell, but I'm confident that February 10th, 1999 will be remembered as a historical day in Canadian golfing history." like that where it's an integral part of enhancing the whole experience while you're having access to the property." O'Connor reiterated that there's "nothing firm to announce" at this time. "We've certainly had discussions with a major hotelier about doing a conference center and hotel on the site but those negotiations are still ongo ing." There's another parcel of land behind the 18th tee zoned for housing. "That land is actually where the parking lot is on the Abbey grounds," said O'Connor, "so we have to figure out what we're doing with parking The Abbey Located in Oakville, just 35 min utes west of Toronto, Glen Abbey Golf Club is Canada's premier public golf course. Glen Abbey originated as a private country estate, was then bestowed to an order of Jesuit priests, and was finally bought by a group of Oakville businessmen and developed into a golf course. Redesigned by Jack Nicklaus in 1976, Glen Abbey is a stadium course that has been the home to the Bell Canadian Open for the last 23 years. Offering some of the most challenging golf in the country, Glen Abbey's five valley holes are renowned for present ing golfers with some of the toughest shots and most beautiful parkland in Canada. The Royal Canadian Golf Association owned Glen Abbey from 1981 to 1999, and sold the magnifi cent property to ClubLink Corporation in February of this year. The $2.5- million Bell Canadian Open is the world's third oldest national cham pionship. To purchase tickets, call 1- 800-571-OPEN or visit www. bell, ca/cdn open on the Internet. Free long distance and Unlimited Internet T o g e th e r , o n t h e s a m e b ill! FREE N ig h ts & W e e k e n d s a n y w h e r e in C a n a d a $ HOURS of daytime per month Get 5 hours of evening & weekends FREE! a month HOURS of daytime per month Get 10 hours of evening & weekends FREEI * 3 4 9 5 HOURS of daytime per month Get 20 hours of evening & weekends FREE! THAT'S LESS THAN A MINUTE. DAYTIME! Call the U.S. f o r l 3 c a minute, any time. Low international rates to over 230 destinations. 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