OverDrive - Applebaum on the Canadians advancing in the playoffs, RBC extending the Canadian Open sponsorship and the CPKC Women's Open field

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Golf Canada CEO Laurence Applebaum joined OverDrive to discuss Scottie Scheffler's incredible season and his dominance on the PGA Tour, Corey Conners and Nick Taylor advancing to the Tour Championship, the CPKC Women's Open field, RBC extending the sponsorship at the Canadian Open and more.

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apply. All right, joining us now on the line. Lawrence Applebaum, CEO of Golf Canada. How's it going? Lawrence? Good to chat with you. Great to hear from you else, brother. And Dave, wonderful to see you as well and hear you. Absolutely. Always love having you on the show. And we're just talking about the Sheffler shot. We got to watch it on TSN2 again. It's a shot that I honestly won't mind to watch multiple times throughout my life. I mean, where does that one kind of sit for you when you think back of some of Sheffler's greatest shots? Well, I think on an earlier edition of SportsCenter this morning, I think they showed some of the highlights of just this year alone.

And obviously, Scotty Sheffler is having, you know, a season for the ages, you know, reminiscent of, you know, two or three of the Tiger Woods years. So he's playing, you know, amazing golf. But here north of the border, you know, we're just super excited. that both, you know, Corey Connors and Nick Taylor are playing into the Tour Championships and they themselves are both having exceptional years. But you do have to sort of appreciate that you're watching a season of greatness with Shetler.

Absolutely. Well, it's one of the great questions for any sport, Lawrence, is like, would you rather have a dominant force, you know, an all-time great sort of, that is so much better than everybody that it's just awe-inspiring or would you rather have more parody at the top? I mean, how do you see it with golf? Well, I think

history sort of tells us that the most compelling errors are those where there is an A and a B. You know, there's a rivalry that people are striving for it. And I think what was really neat in the Tiger years was

you had different guys coming up and being able to battle tiger for a very short period of time and then he would dispatch them and you'd have another and he'd do the same thing and obviously if you go back to that four-year stretch i mean it was it was nothing short of incredible i've been very fortunate to see scotty up close and you know we've had rory uh start to to battle him in some in some areas and then you had zandershoppy playing pretty well and then a whole host of other people but you know i i'd really look forward to um you know celebrating his year in 2025 and then 2026, you know, obviously I'm very biased, but to see one of

our Canadians start to really drive towards the top, but it has been some really superb golf. And I think for so many of the recreational golfers or, you know, really excellent golfers out there, to take away the mental stability, strength, the performance ability. that Scotty Sheffler has done from just the mental side of the game is something that us inside the game are really following and how really truly generationally has been in that area of the sport. Well, Lawrence, you mentioned it. A couple of Canucks, Cory Connors, and Nick Taylor,

both advancing to the Tour Championship. And I guess I've read just the second time since 2007 that we'll have two Canadians at the tournament. Like, what does that say about the growth and kind of where golf is at here in Canada? Well, it's been a superb time to follow Canadian golf and to be part of it and to be a fan of it. You know, it was, Taylor Pendwith was just on the outside of that top 30 and making a, would have been a historic threesome that we're going into the Tour Championship.

But, you know, McKenzie Hughes had a good year. Taylor Pendwith had a very solid year. And then our two stalwarts, you know, the guys who represented Canada at the Paris Olympics in Corrie. Connors and Nick Taylor have just been so exceptional and it gives us this energy about what's going on in golf and for us, you know, really this week and what's happening at the Mississauga Golf and Country Club is we're going to welcome, you know, 93 of the top 100 professional female golfers in the world and we're going to have 14, we'll find out in the next hour, about maybe even 15 Canadians tipping it up for the CPKC Women's Open.

So all in all, on the men's side and on the women's side, it's just a really special moment to be following Canadian golf. So another big moment for you, Lawrence, I'm sure on the business side of things was the announcement that RBC had extended its partnership to be the title sponsor of the men's Canadian Open, the RBC Canadian Open on a multi-year deal. deal. RBC's been a big part of what has

helped propel Canadian golf to where it is. What's this mean from your perspective? Yeah, Dave, I mean, I think you say, you know, RBC being a big part of it is they are interwoven in the fabric of everything that is

golf in this country. And, you know, this announcement today of them renewing their sponsorship, not only with our event, the RBC Canadian open, but the signature event, the RBC Heritage, was so wonderful and so appreciated. They've really put golf on their, you know, proverbial shoulders, and they support the game at every stage, you know, from the grassroots in our first team program through RBC Community

Junior Golf. They support our women's initiative through She Play's Golf, and then Team Canada. You'll see all of the athletes wearing the RBC shield at both the CPKCC. Women's Open and, of course, Team RBC at the RBC Canadian Open, but they've just been integral to everything we do in the game. We've been able to bring the event to such heights. I know so many of your listeners and you guys yourself were out at the RBC Canadian Open this year at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, and we just are looking to be world-class in

everything we do and to have a world-class title sponsor like RBC and supporting golf. It's allowed us to really be, make the tournament so special and really, you know, make a really special experience for all the fans who come out. With Lawrence Applebaum, CEO of Golf Canada, big tournament this week with the Canadian Women's Open, the CPKC Women's Open this week at the Mississauga Golf Club. What excites you most about this upcoming tournament? Well, I think for us, the CPKCCCCW.

Women's Open. Our title sponsor is the railway, you know, Canadian Pacific, Kansas City. They go across the country and through the U.S. and Mexico. And so like the railway, the tournament goes across the country. We were in the GTA back in 2019 at the Magna Golf Club. And then we've been, you know, to Shaughnessy in Vancouver, to Ottawa, to Earl Gray in Calgary. but to come back to Toronto and to bring what is what is

I like to share is the Brooke Henderson show into the GTA. This golf course, if you're driving up and down the QEW, you get a chance you see the hitting nets high above the screen. And this gorgeous Stanley Thompson, Donald Ross,

golf course amongst the trees, amongst the Credit River is a beautiful spectacle in our city. And we have the best of the best coming to town. We've got, you know, world number one, genotidico, we've got Nellie Korda, we've got Lydia Coe, and of course, to see Brooke in amongst the Brooke Brigade, to see all the little girls and little boys following around is really a spectacle. These women are incredible athletes. They hit the ball so pure. And, you know, at the end of the

season, as you guys know, we've had a great summer, a little bit of rain. this last week has sort of made everything pop. It's like it's like a real field that dreams out here at Mississauga and we're very grateful to the club, to the membership for hosting us here and it's really something

I encourage, if you haven't seen live professional golf, to come out and see it and it's really just a wonderful experience for the family. Yeah, no doubt about it, Lawrence. I mean, and if you haven't seen the Brooke Brigade, that in itself is worth the price of it

mission just to see the frenzy that Brooke causes among the young fans that tend to follow her around. Lawrence, I know you know Brooke at her height has been among the world's best at times. This hasn't been her best year by the statistical measures.

I think she's ranked the world number 58 right now. She's obviously been much, much higher at her best. I mean, what have you sort of seen from her and I guess what are the odds that a trip to her home country where rejuvenate the season and and find and find a new gear yeah for brook i i just ran into her she she

um she she did the uh red eye from from the portland event last weekend and and she really did at at points in the tournament in portland had it really going you she had her the full brook arsenal in play and she she finished sort of top 20 but i do think she's one of those athletes that truly feeds off the energy that's been around her. And as you said, Dave, like when you see her out there and the crowds are four or five deep, she builds on it. She has this incredible momentum.

She might be one of the most positive people on the golf course that, you know, professionally that I get a chance to see where she really engages and connects. And I think that's why she's such a fan favorite. But I would say, you know, there was a streak in the last few C.P. Kese Women's Open where she either won it or was in the last pairing or was able to be a top 10. And I would say that the golf, this golf court suits her. It's playing a little bit longer and Brooks been really strong off the tea. You know, one of the areas

that she's actually gained statistically is on the putting side. And so this place has small greens. They've got, it's playing a little bit longer. So I think that Mississauga is a really good track for Brooke to do well. And I just think that this crowd, this Canadian frenzy that she creates is really going to do really wonderful things. So we're looking forward to seeing Brooke in her full, you know, the full arsenal, I was saying. I know we're all going to be looking forward to it and watching it this week. Good luck with everything. I know you're going to put on a fantastic tournament down there.

Thank you for doing this, as always, Lawrence. Okay, thank you guys. Appreciate your time. Absolutely. Lawrence Applebaum, CEO of Golf, Canada. The biggest songs in the world. You've heard them countless times. Now, learn the details of how they came to be.

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