OverDrive - Applebaum on the great feeling surrounding TPC Toronto and how much will change in 2026, and McIlroy’s outlook heading into Friday

Episode Date: June 5, 2025

Gold Canada CEO Lawrence Applebaum joins OverDrive to detail the great feeling surrounding TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley. Applebaum explains the feedback they’ve received about the course and how much will change in 2026. He discusses Rory McIlroy’s outlook heading into Friday and more.

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How are you doing? Good. Actually, Jeff was the first one. I saw Jeff, I guess it was a week ago Thursday. Yeah. You saw me just as I was ripping a drive over the trees right beside the green on my last hole of the day. It was 15.

It was 15. It was brilliant. Yeah. Imagine my colleagues, Lawrence, 15. It was brilliant. Yeah. Imagine my colleagues, Lawrence, questioning what I was doing out there. Well, there's, I mean, there was some, I thought, I was concerned, I thought there was a bit of foul play. And now I was led down that path by our good friend James Dathi. Yeah.

I mean, Dathi. Let's consider the source. Questionable source is what I was probably going to lead with. I did, I did see know i did see jeff and you know mister oneil when he's playing good always a house by the world's no lies everybody hope but i have to be around that i'd rather be around the jeff oneil going

deep and so when jeff oneil was was was i i ran into a six under and the smile was ear to ear, but I think Carlo's smile might have been more. He was a great partner, by the way. You know what? He is a hype man. Well, all he had to offer was not on the course,

it was moral support, but he's the best guy. Because he kept tapping me on the shoulder, he's like, I love you. I never got so many I love you mans in a cart and around a golf, he's like, this is awesome, I love you man. And I have around a golf. He's like this is awesome I love you, man And I have to I'll lead with a compliment because Carlo for guy who has taken up the game a little bit later in life It's gotten pretty good pretty fast

But that playoff was abysmal and it was it was really hard to look at Jeff watching Carlo and he any recovery almost made par which was really good, but the playoff and Seeing the Nylander brothers play so well in the playoff was that that was something that was something that is the NHLPA got a show you know a shout out for our friends who this NHLPA playoff with with the RBC Canadian Opus was really fun Yeah, last Thursday. We've heard all we've only heard about this guy. We didn't even know William Nylander was there Maybe you can throw that out that other players were actually in attendance and as well as me and Carlo played I'll be happy to gas them next year for you. Now the PA unfortunately I'm not a member of the players. Carlo I didn't mean that.

We love him deeply. We love Carlo but he wasn't fishing or anything was he? No I told him no thanks not happening. You can't have that kind of later now did your man get much airtime i'm sorry i've i've been a little bit occupied but did your man get much airtime for yesterday for his is stellar hit stellar moments i i sent one video saying this guy has no first he jitters whatsoever and apparently you read the drive i did match the drive on

one a rock up and around the corner probably 280 285 Listen I'm not going to come in here and talk about my golf game. I don't operate 280 285 I mashed the golf ball off one what type of number a serious number though like it It ran out to do it. It was down fan down hill 280 by the end of it. I like that. I think that's fair. Listen and then I skull the five iron and it was trouble from there but it's all good. We had a great day and I don't think it's coincidence we played with Taylor Pendreth

and he was five hundred today. Yeah right there's something about when we whoever we play with Lawrence and I on the... Fleetwood, Taylor. Yes yes absolutely. And and and you you've seen you've seen pendee play it's it's a to see him play so well today to lead our Canadian group he was relaxed as anyone that that I've had a chance to play with and he said an interesting stat that he probably played the golf course more than anybody else in the field there's there's one local kid cougar Collins who won our Ontario qualifiers Bruce probably played a's probably played it three or four hundred times. But Taylor Pender has played this golf course a lot, and it's just awesome to see this beautiful, long extension, gorgeous swing,

great guy too. It matches the ball. He hit one off one about 275. I was impressed. Do the guys that have anything, I know you're really with dinners and and entertaining people and taking care of business to the canadian guys like to they have a dinner with all themselves or they just kind of got there to busy doing their own thing as well it this week in particular yet i think what's so neat and it makes us all sort of a nice stories

these guys are great group of brothers and even there's a nice East Coast West Coast thing with with hads and Nick Taylor with the Ontario guys but they support each other they're they're together that three ball that played together there was a nice comfort nice rhythm with I think was Mack and Nick and and Pendy yeah and they hang out together they've got a lot of things going on here this week you know with family and they're all pretty relatively close by.

So they're a little bit busier this week, but they generally enjoy each other. They're generally pushing each other. And I think that what we used to feel like, is a Canadian going to win a PGA Tour event this week, next week. We're talking about majors now, and we've never talked that way. And it's what makes this kind of a golden moment of golf in Canada. Who has the biggest input on the pairings? Who the Canadian guys are with? Like is that you or is that the tour? Is that? Sometimes we ring Jamie. I weigh in. I would weigh in for sure. You just love this Hunter Thompson kid.

That was his pick. But that's gotta be a lot. It's a complex thing to put groupings out there with knowing you know where the stars are on the course morning late early it's that's a complex thing isn't it yeah there's two things that that the first thing is to answer your question is that everything inside the ropes setting up the golf course the yardages the pairings it's all driven and led by the PGA Tour. And they are so elite and excellent at what they do. There's so many things that go on out here that make it work. A lot of it is based on the marquee groups of who's going to be on TV sort of later in

the afternoon, which is really great. Hence you've got the marquee-rory group growing off early late. But that is the thing about golf. Like, look what happened today. We had that early group go off. It was pretty difficult conditions and then all of a sudden right now you're seeing some really low scores. Lawrence Appelbaum with us, the CEO of Golf Canada. So the three of us with Chris Humanek came up here two years ago, maybe two and a half, three years ago,

and we were playing the North Course and you guys are building the new like state-of-the-art home of golf Canada up here on the 13th fairway of the championship course now TPC North and when we were out here like kind of whispering like the open I think the open might be on its way now that it's here it's a new course a new setup you guys announced a couple weeks ago to be here next year as well for 2026 now that the balls are in the the air, the people are on the course, how are we feeling about Osprey Valley and TPC Toronto? Yeah, we've had a lot of great meetings with all our friends from the tour who've come up and put feet on the ground.

And also we've had so many of our title partner, RBC, and a lot of their folks and clients were up yesterday for the Pro-Am and have been up today to enjoy the day. Jaw drop, jaw dropping is the adjective that I've heard which has been really pleasing is it is such a beautiful facility. It feels like a little bit north of the city, a little bit, the earth feels good. It feels like you're out here. It's expansive and beautiful. But what they've built at TPC Toronto, the clubhouse, the villas, the three golf courses,

it really is a sort of field of dreams. And having back-to-back RBC Canadian Opens for us to learn about the property in 2025, to come back in 2026, to get you guys right on top of the green in 2026 is one of the things I'm already thinking about for next year. Yes, push for that. So this is what we're trying to do. Literally hovering over the green you think that's going to go well without yelling and screaming about mariner about a hot or evidence are goes yes and they'll be like shut your mouth

were in the backswing or you know i don't think it would be a bad idea i mean i think there's there's potential for us to be right in the mix what the u.s. open in tennis don't they have like an underground almost kind of booth where they're commenting on the... Yeah, get us underground. Yes. I want to be in the bunker. I love that. I love the references, you know, a shout out, a shout out to never get a chance to shout out to my wife who used to work at the US Open. They have a bunker. You're thinking also of Wimbledon by the way. They've got a bunker right there. Yeah, the Wimbledon bunker. They're like, they're lower, right behind. I know what you

mean. That is what we should be doing. Get us in the bunker. So we have, we have this by the way bunker yeah the Wimbledon bunker they're like they're lower right behind I know that is what we should be doing get us in the bunker too so we have we have this new insider experience that you guys can see this these great stadium seats right on inside the inside on the on the deck there but can you imagine Cory Connors he's teeing it up he looks back Jeff gives him the wink he's like you know green light go for it this is a good whole position i like that idea wheels are in motion for next year what i like is between two and three tomorrow me sitting on those inside seats to get a glimpse of some guys hitting some shots is that possible let's make it happen

do not make it happen he wants an alumni ring he wants inside seats we're fifty feet away from the tee, we work here, an hour before work, we should have a little bit of fun and check it out. Okay. Hazy, join me. I'll be there, pal, you know I'm gonna be here all day tomorrow. Now all of a sudden they're... This guy twists my arm and then I'm like it's not a bad idea. Not a bad idea. Sit there for an hour, watch some shots. Why not? Sit there for an hour. Listen, it gives me a nice, it gives me a nice segue to tell people that we're almost in a sell-up position for Friday. We're looking good for the weekend.

But 3 o'clock, I don't know if 3 o'clock is too close to the show, but an hour or two before the show, we're going to get a couple of guys from Overdrive out of the Insider Experience Stadium seats. I think that's going to be pretty popular. I love it. Rinkhole 14. What is it? RBCCanadianOpen.com? That's gonna cause a buzz.

I think that creates a significant buzz. So how often do you reset, like you mentioned, learn the grounds and then for next year you change it up? Like how important is that? Where does your mind actually go? Like we're goofing around about this, but like how much would realistically change between now and next year? I think when you're having an inaugural PGA Tour event, the tour is very involved in player feedback, caddy feedback.

We had a lot of discussion yesterday. We were actually, Brian and I were able to have the course architect or the renovator who led the renovation, a gentleman named Ian Andrew, walked with us. He was right at Pendee's ear listening to how he's playing a hole, how he's looking at it. So all that course feedback comes to play. Most of our team at Golf Canada is trying to look at logistics and trying to improve on moving on the golf course. And this is a big ballpark, so a lot of moving parts and delivering food and drinks to suites.

But we also want to focus on a great consumer experience and we want people to have a great time whether they're a general admission ticket or a suite buyer. And we acknowledge, you know, we learned some things today with the really tough weather and some parking challenges that we had and the team's already reset for tomorrow in the weekend. But for us, you forget that at these stadiums

that you guys spend your lives in, these are established concrete, beautiful, you know, beautiful stadiums, rings, barns. We have to build this city from almost scratch. And so it's a real testament to this grouping that we have of the tour, our title sponsor RBC, Golf Canada and TPC Toronto. And I got to probably give a shout out to our great partners at the province, Fonteria province frontier who really supported this event and really made golf a priority in this province so it's been amazing. That's cool. Lawrence Applebaum with us the CEO of Golf Canada. So McElroy won over like Rory's I know he's your guy you're a brute for the Canadians but we love McElroy what do we expect in him to shoot tomorrow how How does he reset? Yeah, I think we were talking about a little bit before that he went out a tough time today when the weather was a little

Bit dodgy and and sort of endured some some some rain a little bit of wind It's softened the golf course now. We got great conditions and guys have really shown it I had a chance to briefly chat with him after the round and and I think he's he's really focused on an amazing number tomorrow I think if you look at his second second round scores He's he's super competitive and very aggressive so Rory McIlroy in sort of very focused position. I think will be great That's the beauty of it RBC Canadian open comm For tickets because he's going out in the afternoon, and he knows the number he's gonna have to shoot like that is that's that's get your popcorn out you can't ask for better entertainment than that because if he comes out tomorrow

and he's like I'm shooting 65 he's probably gonna shoot 65 might even shoot 64 might shoot a six might even shoot 64 has anyone touched up on 64 today by the way allison shot a 61 i'm going to unfortunately your course record is in holding up a new camera and champ shot a sixty two yes so there's some numbers out there man that some numbers that it had been a glorious going low tomorrow it couldn't be more ideal in this in this last couple hours where softer golf course

it's sunny it's great it's actually you can't believe what beautiful saw this morning it's gorgeous weather right now is when you get up and say this is scoring weather that you just know when beautiful out and you just dial it in well that's coming tomorrow macaroy in the afternoon you have the canadians on the afternoon pendert will be out by using a little deep tomorrow man it like he's yet to take it downtown let's see it happen tomorrow afternoon out here at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley all right LA

great seeing you man what you got I guess you're busy would you get dinners every single night just a big shooter on you know what this show is so elite in so many ways but the focus on the dinners is we love it that's that's that's the inside info we're really looking for any pasto last night or tonight you know these two would be asking a can we roll by the dinner this is a true story where i was at laurence has has a reception on the wednesday night of the canadian open uh... or over at the heathlands

is a beautiful new clubhouse unbelievable out of your side i was standing in the court of lawrence was up on the mic and speaking and I was in the corner and there were three servers with three different platters surrounding me like I was Homer Simpson and I was one timing them. Every fifth word he'd say. You were playing Wacom Bowl with the serving plates. I was mashing food last night and it was phenomenal. Wow. The one thing that was really nice, this the Homin family, Chris Humanic, they built this Heathlands facility for events and it's a wonderful space for a lot of things, but they've done a restaurant and it's an elite experience. And Brian decided he was going to do a tasting menu last night. So he just went to work. Come on, you're representing us.

I know we're idiots, but you have to do better. They had a charcuterie set up there. I was posted like Patrick Ewing up on this thing Like literally people can you move and I was like actually I can't oh, I'm standing here I was setting up shop around that thing. It was a great setup great senior Lawrence as always great Thank you for joining us. We love seeing you every year. We'll be seeing you all week. We're gonna be here tomorrow I'm gonna be here Saturday It's gonna be an you all week. We're going to be here tomorrow. I'm going to be here Saturday. It's going to be an unbelievable weekend. Thank you guys. Great to see you here. It's actually one of the things I get asked about

probably the most of the non-golf things is are the Overdrives guy is going to be set up? Is TSN going to be here? So we know you love golf. It's another year's gone by. Our scores have gotten a little bit better and we still have to get Jamie you know we see Jamie getting out there a little more than we're getting about next year 100% he'll be in there there is Lawrence Applebaum CEO of golf can a great scene LA thank you for doing this and the next big thing your first place to hear it all, iHeart New Music. Your priceless...

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