2019

O Canada! RBC welcomes new homegrown top-talent

JACKSON, MS - OCTOBER 28: during the final round of the Sanderson Farms Championship at The Country Club of Jackson on October 28, 2018 in Jackson, Mississippi. (Photo by Matt Sullivanl/Getty Images)

Four Canadians join Team RBC as golf brand ambassadors 

Toronto, January 8, 2019 — Today, RBC welcomed its newest Team RBC golf brand ambassadors: Corey Conners, Brittany Marchand, Ben Silverman and Roger Sloan. These four Canadians join an elite roster of players, including Canadians Adam Hadwin, Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp.

Ahead of a historic golf season marked by the most Canadians ever on the PGA TOUR, RBC continues to grow its commitment to the game on home soil by evolving its brand ambassador program. Now, all Canadian players that have reached the pinnacle of performance and secured status on the LPGA and PGA TOURS are eligible to join the Team RBC Canadian program – currently 10 members strong.

This expansion is also part of RBC’s ongoing support of Canadian golfers and includes funding for Canada’s National Amateur Golf Team and Young Pro Squad, as well as contributing to the national amateur golf championships, in partnership with Golf Canada.

Team RBC was established in 2009 and is comprised of 18 elite male and female golfers who embody the pinnacle of golf performance. Along with RBC branding on their apparel and golf bag, these new ambassadors will support RBC’s client-hosting experiences and marketing initiatives.

As the title sponsor of the RBC Heritage and RBC Canadian Open, RBC is also proud to be the Official Banking and Financial Services partner for all Team RBC ambassadors.

Quick facts:

Quotes:

“I’ve had the opportunity to partner with RBC when I was on Team Canada’s Young Pro program. This feels like a great next chapter in my journey as I compete on the PGA TOUR and I’m thankful RBC is with me again and for all they do for golf in Canada.”  – Corey Conners, Team RBC Ambassador

“I am so proud and so grateful to be a part of the Team RBC family . RBC has given so much to our game and their support enables us to continue to grow and develop on the world stage I look forward to getting to know the team and am excited about the milestones ahead.” Brittany Marchand, Team RBC Ambassador

RBC has been a longstanding supporter of golf, helping us build stronger connections with our clients and fans around the world. We’ve been on a journey with many of these athletes as amateur players, like Corey and Brittany. Now we’re continuing that partnership as they strive to reach the highest level of golf on the international stage.” Mary DePaoli, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, RBC

“Today’s announcement is an important moment for Canadian high-performance golf. To see Canadian athletes recognized for their hard work, efforts and performance is just outstanding. It’s also another demonstration of RBC’s longstanding and continued support of golf both at the amateur and professional level.”  Derek Ingram, National Men’s Team Coach, Golf Canada

2019

Spittle and Page to be inducted into Canadian Golf Hall of Fame

OAKVILLE, ONT. (Golf Canada) – The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum today announced that amateur and professional golf standout, Rod Spittle, as well as celebrated collegiate golf coach Herb Page have been selected for 2019 induction into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame.

Spittle, 63, from Niagara Falls, Ont., will be inducted in the player category, while the 67-year-old Page, who is a native of Markham, Ont., will be inducted as a builder for his accomplishments as a collegiate golf coach with the NCAA Division I Kent State Golden Flashes. With their inductions, the pair become the 82nd and 83rd honoured members of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame.

“The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame strives to recognize the outstanding achievements of golf’s greatest players and supporters and it’s an absolute privilege to welcome Rod Spittle and Herb Page as our newest honoured members,” said Sandra Post, Chair of the Hall of Fame’s Selection Committee. “Rod was an accomplished player at the amateur level and later as a professional, while Herb has made a significant impact in the lives of countless student-athletes through his long tenure with Kent State’s golf program. I know I speak on behalf of the entire selection committee as well as the honoured members when I say they are both very deserved of their appointments.”

“I am humbled and thrilled beyond words to be inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame,” said Spittle. “It is an honour to be recognized and included in this group of golf ambassadors and elite players, the induction will be even more special for me since the ceremony will be hosted at Hamilton Golf & Country Club, where my dad caddied as a youngster and where I won my first Canadian Amateur in 1977.”

With his induction, Page becomes the 25th person inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame’s builder category and the first-ever coach.

“It’s been an honour and a pleasure to have the opportunity to help so many young student-athletes grow both on and off the course,” said Page from his home in Ohio. “It’s always great to be recognized for your hard work and this nomination is extra special, but the real gratification comes from seeing players mature into outstanding people.”

Spittle and Page officially join the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame during an induction ceremony that will take place Tuesday, June 4th, 2019 during RBC Hall of Fame Day as part of the 2019 RBC Canadian Open on the grounds of Hamilton Golf and Country Club.


ADMISSION TO RBC HALL OF FAME DAY (TUES. JUNE 4) OF THE 2019 RBC CANADIAN OPEN IS FREE WITH THE PURCHASE OF A THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY OR SUNDAY TICKET.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS.


Rod Spittle…
Born July 18, 1955 in St. Catharines, Ont., Rod Spittle had a successful amateur career, finishing runner-up at the 1973 Canadian Junior and winning the 1977 and 1978 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championships while playing Division I golf at Ohio State.  Provincially he also helped Ontario win back to back Willingdon Cups (1977-78). During his collegiate golf career, Spittle helped the Buckeyes win the BIG Ten Championship three consecutive years (1976-1978) alongside teammates John Cook and Joey Sindelar, who both went on to enjoy successful professional golf careers that included PGA TOUR victories.

After graduating in 1978 with a degree in Business Administration, Spittle opted to focus on supporting his family by selling insurance for 25 years and continuing his passion for the game in amateur golf. He won a pair of Columbus (Ohio) District Amateur Championships (1989 and 1987) and three Columbus (Ohio) District Mid-Amateur titles (1994, 1995 and 1997). He went on to claim the Ohio Mid-Am Championship three times (2000, 2001 and 2003) prior to turning professional in 2004, shortly before turning 50.

Spittle and his wife, Ann, left their regular jobs behind and made a 5-year plan to fulfill the dream of playing professional golf. In 2009, four years into that plan, Spittle’s goal of being a full-time Tour professional took a severe hit after he failed to secure PGA TOUR Champions status and did not play in a single event.

In 2010, the final year of the five-year plan, Spittle was forced to Monday qualify into events. Playing with limited status, Spittle got into only five events the entire 2010 season. He Monday qualified into the final event of the year, the AT&T Championship, and in a storybook ending, he played stellar golf all week and beat Jeff Sluman in a playoff for his first-ever professional title. Just like that, his dream of playing professional golf, nearly dead and gone, gained new life with a full exemption for 2011 as a PGA TOUR Champions winner.

In 195 starts over his 13-year PGA TOUR Champions career, Spittle missed just five cuts and earned more than $4M in prize money. He never missed more than one cut in any year and played nine full seasons without missing a single cut. He had a pair of runner-up finishes, a pair of third-place finishes and had 23 top-10s. He played his final PGA TOUR Champions event on home soil, finishing T17 at the 2018 Shaw Charity Classic.

On a personal level, he and his wife Ann have three children (Leslie, Steve and John) and seven grandchildren. The Spittle’s proudly support Special Olympics initiatives in their hometown of Columbus, Ohio. Spittle was inducted into the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame in 2013.

Herb Page…
Born March 16, 1951 in Markham, Ont., Herb Page has been a fixture on the Kent State University campus since arriving as an undergraduate three-sport student-athlete (golf, football and hockey) in 1970. Nearly 50 years later, now the university’s director of golf, Page has grown to become one of the most respected golf coaches in the world.

For more than 40 years, Page has been an untiring coach to his players and a terrific ambassador for the game of golf. Even after decades of significant accomplishments under his direction, the Kent State Golden Flashes golf program continues to reach new heights. He has built an empire in the Mid-American Conference with a legacy that seems to grow stronger with each passing year.

He has led the Golden Flashes to 23 Mid-American Conference (MAC) titles and 28 NCAA Regional appearances – advancing to the NCAA Championship 18 times during that span. Kent State won three NCAA Regional titles (1993, 2001 and 2010) and earned top-10 National finishes in 2000 (9th), 2008 (6th), 2012 (5th) and 2018 (10th). Page has garnered 24 MAC Coach of the Year awards (1983-1984, 1990-1996, 1998-2001, 2003, 2005-2006, 2009-2010, 2012-2014, 2016-2018) during his distinguished career.

He helped to develop countless golfers who have gone on to enjoy successful professional golf careers and opened a pathway for numerous Canadians to pursue NCAA post-secondary golf. Canuck alums who have been coached and recruited by Page include David Morland IV (1987–1991), Bryan DeCorso (1991–1995), Ryan Yip (2002–2006), Mackenzie Hughes (2008–2012), Corey Conners (2010-2014), Taylor Pendrith (2010-2014) and Jon Mills (1998–2002), who now serves as Page’s assistant coach with Kent State. Other notables among the nearly 30 Canadians to play at Kent State under Page include Brian Tisdelle, Paul DeCorso, Ron Reycraft, Chuck Crawford, Spencer Dobbs, Josh Whalen, Billy Walsh, Danny Sahl, Mark Bourgeois J.P. Paiement and Dustin Risdon, as well as current player Johnny Travale and future player Chris Vandette, who has committed to the school starting next year.

Page, who coached two PGA TOUR winners, also mentored Kent State graduate Ben Curtis, who claimed the 2003 Open Championship as well as a runner-up finish at the 2008 PGA Championship, before retiring from competitive golf to open his own golf academy.

He also played an instrumental role in the 1997 launch of the women’s golf program at Kent State, opening a post-secondary for path for Canadian women from B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Quebec including Jennifer Ha, Kira Miexner, Josee Doyon, Taylor Kim and Kirby Dreher as well as Veronique Drouin who is Women’s Head Coach at Oklahoma and Jan Dowling who is Women’s Head Coach at Michigan.

Among his many career honours and achievements, Page has been inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame (2003), Northern Ohio PGA Hall of Fame (2005), Northern Ohio Golf Association Hall of Fame (2012) and Ontario Golf Hall of Fame (2012). He is a past winner of the Golf Coaches of America Labron Harris Award (2008) and was selected to coach the International team at the 2018 Arnold Palmer Cup.

Page and his wife, Dr. Paula Treckel, reside in Kent, Ohio.

 

2019

Marshaling our way to success

By: Brent Long

You never know who you might meet next when you volunteer to marshal at the RBC Canadian Open.

That’s not Jennifer Mazzarolo’s sales pitch when it comes to signing-up volunteers for the 2019 RBC Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf & Country Club (HGCC) next June. It does however explain, how the 13-year member at HGCC finds herself managing the largest group of volunteers – the “Quiet, Eh!” people – the marshals.

While she was on the waiting list to become a member at the club in 2006, Jennifer first volunteered as a marshal for the RBC Canadian Open at HGCC. As is tradition, the host club marshals No. 18 and Jennifer found herself enjoying the “Inside the Ropes” experience, but she also learned a valuable lesson.

During Wednesday’s Championship Pro-Am, PGA TOUR players sign a lot of autographs. Jennifer had a nice collection of signatures on a flag until Mark Calcavechia passed by and walked away with her Sharpie. “I couldn’t believe he stole my Sharpie. For the rest of the afternoon I was out of luck when it came to autographs,” Jennifer says. “It was a great event and for the most part the players are great guys, who appreciate the volunteers. Without all of the volunteers this tournament would not happen.”

In 2012, when the RBC Canadian Open returned to HGCC, Jennifer took on the added responsibilities as an Area Captain, overseeing Hole Captains and marshals on three holes. She followed that up as a Vice-Chair of Marshaling in 2013 and 2018 at Glen Abbey, before taking on the leadership role as Chair of the Marshal Committee and it’s 650 marshals for her third Open at HGCC in 2019.

“In 2018 we had three weather evacuations and I drove Brooks Koepka, Mackenzie Hughes and Ricky Barnes back to the clubhouse in my golf cart on 3 separate occasions,” Jennifer says. After years of waiting, she finally got a ball signed by her favourite player, Graeme McDowell that now sits in a protected plastic display case at home.

“The highlight of 2018 was meeting Dustin Johnson (see above). There was a photo op with Dustin and all Committee Chairs & Vice-Chairs. I was right out front, just below the RBC Canadian Open trophy. It pays to be short. When I stood up, he was right there. I congratulated him on the victory and he shook my hand and thanked me for volunteering. It was a great moment. Who knows, maybe it will be Tiger Woods in 2019,” says Jennifer, a CPA, CA and self-employed finance and accounting recruiter who enjoys leading and inspiring others.

And if the RBC Canadian Open isn’t keeping Jennifer busy enough, she also sits on the HGCC Board of Directors as Vice-Chair of both the Finance and Membership Committees, is a member of the Hamilton CPA Board, serves with the Good Sheperd Centre in Hamilton and enjoys volunteering for both provincial and federal election campaigns.

Planning for the 2019 RBC Canadian Open started as the 2018 Open at Glen Abbey had wrapped up where Jennifer touched base with hole marshals and hole captains to see if they might be interested in joining her at HGCC for 2019. She also extended an invite to clubs that sent volunteers to HGCC for the 2012 RBC Canadian Open through the Adopt a Hole Program. Clubs like Beverly Golf & Country Club, Dundas Valley Golf & Curling Club, Burlington Golf & Country Club and Oak Gables have agreed to return to oversee a hole per club (minimum of 20 volunteers registered) and Westmount Golf & Country Club is bringing a team of volunteer marshals for the first time.

Assisting Jennifer from HGCC will be Sheila Drury and Denise Johnston as Hole Captain and Co-Captain on the 18th hole, as well as four outside Vice-Chairs, with decades of RBC Canadian Open experience. In October, Jennifer hosted a course tour for key members of the Marshaling Committee to make sure everyone is familiar with the course.

“It can be a long week with long hours in the sun, but it’s also a lot of fun,” Jennifer says. “It’s not easy work being a marshal. There’s a lot of spectators on the move. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes. There are a lot of moving parts. Someone gets three birdies in row and suddenly, we need to send a couple of extra roving marshals to the group to help with crowd control. It’s our job to make sure everything is moving smoothly and when it doesn’t, we need to respond quickly. The marshal team interacts with Golf Canada, the PGA TOUR and practically every other volunteer committee, so it’s important to build relationships and work as a team to ensure a smooth tournament.”

Jennifer knows the countdown to the 2019 RBC Canadian Open is on. She is also aware that volunteer numbers aren’t yet where they need to be – so please consider volunteering as a marshal. You never know who you might meet and do keep an eye on your Sharpie or someone might walk off with it.


To learn more about volunteering with the RBC Canadian Open, click here. 

2018

PGA TOUR tournaments generate $190 million in charitable impact in 2018

Golf in Schools

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA – For 19 years, every Monday through Friday, Sets Tasaka, 80, has taken the bus from his home in Wailuku, Maui, to Hale Makua’s Adult Day Health Center. Hale Makua – which improves the well-being of those in its care through compassionate, personalized health services and is a primary beneficiary of this week’s Sentry Tournament of Champions – has been a second home to Tasaka, who for decades served the Maui community frozen treats with his brother, Henry, at their family’s century-old Tasaka Guri-Guri shop.

Impacting the lives of Tasaka and hundreds of thousands of others, the PGA TOUR and its tournaments generated a record $190 million for more than 3,000 charitable causes in 2018, announced today from this week’s event, the Sentry Tournament of Champions. The charitable total, which brings the all-time total to $2.84 billion, includes donations made by tournaments on the PGA TOUR, PGA TOUR Champions, Web.com Tour, Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica and PGA TOUR Series-China.

“Through the world of golf, the PGA TOUR and its tournaments, backed by its network of volunteers, drive positive impact at unprecedented levels to support and improve local communities,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “By supporting a PGA TOUR event, you make an impact on countless philanthropic organizations in your community. As remarkable as our nearly $3 billion in donations is, what really matters are the remarkable stories like Sets’ that every tournament has. It’s a credit to our partners – host organizations, title sponsors, volunteers, the fans in the communities in which we play, as well as our players, who are relentlessly supportive of the impact the TOUR makes on so many lives.”

Since its move to Maui in 1999, the Sentry Tournament of Champions has generated more than $6.3 million in charitable impact for the community, including the Hale Makua’s Adult Health Center.

“We are privileged to help so many great people who, in some cases, just need to be reminded they are loved,” said Hale Makua CEO Wesley Lo. “The goal of Adult Day Health is to assist with maintaining or restoring their ability to live on their own at home. Without the financial support of the Sentry Tournament of Champions and the PGA TOUR, this and so many of our other programs simply could not exist.”

“Adult Day Health gives me something to do every day,” said Sets Tasaka, who lost Henry, his regular lunchtime visitor at Hale Makua, when he passed away in 2015. “At home, I would have had nothing to do, and just watched TV. Every day I’m here, I feel good.”

Each PGA TOUR tournament is an opportunity to give back to your community in one of three ways – attending an event, volunteering, or donating money. Not-for-profit tournaments under the PGA TOUR umbrella donate their net proceeds to support local organizations, totaling close to $3 billion in donations to date. The impact these tournaments make throughout the year is possible thanks to the 100,000 volunteers annually who commit their time to ensure each event is a success.