Shaughnessy Eyes 2023 Presidents Cup
Submitted by Brad Ziemer, Nov 14, 2017
Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club is making a pitch to bring the Presidents Cup to Vancouver.
“Recently the Club has been asked to participate in a bid process which could see Shaughnessy host the Presidents Cup in 2023,” general manager Jason Sigurdson said in a recent note to members.
“We are in the preliminary steps of this process and are working closely with Golf Canada to fully research the extent of the opportunity. We expect that once we have more information, the Membership will be advised and all aspects of the opportunity can be discussed as we have done in the past when the club has considered hosting major golf events.”
In an interview Tuesday, Sigurdson said Shaughnessy has been working in conjunction with Golf Canada and its new chief executive officer Laurence Applebaum on a potential Presidents Cup bid.
“This is something they asked us to take a look at and I would say we are cautiously excited about the opportunity,” Sigurdson said.
Shaughnessy, a private club located on Southwest Marine Drive, played host to the Canadian Open in 2005 and 2011 and the course received positive reviews from players and the PGA Tour.
“That is something that resonates well with the PGA Tour, with the Presidents Cup being their property,” Sigurdson said.
The Presidents Cup is a significantly bigger stage than the Canadian Open and one of the hurdles for Shaughnessy would be to convince the PGA Tour that it has the space to hold the event. Shaughnessy’s footprint is not a large one and whether it can find the space required outside the ropes to accommodate an event like the Presidents Cup is a big question.
“We have to have them come out and take a look and see if it is the right type of situation because it is so different than the Open,” Sigurdson said.
Cost is another issue. Shaughnessy would likely need support from the provincial and federal governments to host the event.
“We need to know what this thing costs,” Sigurdson said. “And the reality is we don’t. We have some ballpark figures, but it’s tough to say how it all breaks down. That would be next step, to figure out how you would fund a bid like this.”
The Presidents Cup made its debut in 1994 and the biennial event features 12-man International (excluding Europe) and United States teams in match play competition.
Royal Montreal Golf Club is the only Canadian course to host a Presidents Cup. The 2007 matches were contested at Royal Montreal, where Canadian Mike Weir beat Tiger Woods in their Sunday singles match.
Now held in odd-numbered years, the 2019 Presidents Cup will return for the third time to Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia in 2019. Quail Hollow Golf Club in Charlotte, N.C., will play host to the event in 2021, while Harding Park in San Francisco has been named as the 2025 site. The 2023 site remains to be determined.
Abbotsford’s Adam Hadwin played in his first Presidents Cup earlier this fall at Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey.
Sigurdson said Shaughnessy members seem generally quite positive about a Presidents Cup bid.
“With an event like that, it is not super tough to sell,” he said. “Certainly it is a marquee event that we could be quite proud of.”