ACTON, ONT. — The PGA of Canada’s most prestigious championship is set to be contested at the country’s most talked about golf venue.
Cabot Links plays host to the PGA Championship of Canada sponsored by Mr. Lube and presented by TaylorMade-adidas Golf June 14-18.
Cabot Links, which debuted at No. 2 on SCOREGolf’s 2014 Top 100 Ranking and is currently No. 42 on Golf Digest’s World’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, is located on the western shores of Cape Breton Island in Inverness, N.S.
“The PGA of Canada is very proud and excited to be headed to Cape Breton Island and the awesome Cabot Links,” said PGA of Canada president Constant Priondolo. “I truly believe that all the competitors who play in this year’s PGA Championship of Canada will come away singing the praises of the Cabot Links golf experience.”
Nestled between the rural community of Inverness and the vast Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Rod Whitman-designed course Canada’s first authentic links layout. The natural and rugged Nova Scotia landscape—dramatic seaside, undulating terrain, sandy soil—dictates the layout of the course with every hole affording an ocean view and five holes playing adjacent to the beach.
“We are thrilled and honoured to host one of Canada’s most storied championships, the PGA Championship of Canada—an event dating back to 1912 with decorated winners such as George Knudson, Moe Norman, Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer—that continues to produce exceptional champions,” said Cabot Links managing partner Ben Cowan-Dewar. “We look forward to watching the PGA of Canada’s top-ranked players battle it out in this compelling format—a format that greatly complements the links style of golf offered here at Cabot Links.”
The PGA Championship of Canada will be the first professional championship Cabot Links has hosted since opening in the summer of 2012.
Since re-launching in 2011, the PGA Championship of Canada has been contested as a match play event with players from the four brackets—Stan Leonard, George Knudson, Al Balding and Moe Norman—looking to advance through the six rounds to capture the historic P.D. Ross trophy.
However, this year’s championship at Cabot Links will see a format change with the top 64 players from the PGA of Canada Player Rankings presented by RBC playing two rounds of stroke play. The top-16 players from the 36-hole stroke play portion of the event will fill our the four match play brackets—Stan Leonard, George Knudson, Al Balding and Moe Norman—with the eventual champion winning four match play rounds.
“The format change for this year’s PGA Championship of Canada is bound to be an exciting one,” said the PGA of Canada’s Managing Director of Championships and Events Adam LeBrun. “We feel the players who are playing the best will ultimately make it through to the match play portion of the event where the matches will undoubtedly tight, tough and exciting affairs.”
The player who sits atop the PGA of Canada Player Rankings presented by RBC at the conclusion of the PGA Championship of Canada earns an exemption into this year’s RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont.
Currently Markham, Ont.’s, Bill Walsh sits No. 1 on the player rankings with 316 points, ahead of 2014 PGA Championship of Canada winner Dave Levesque of Montreal and 2013 winner Bryn Parry of North Vancouver.
Past champions of the PGA Championship of Canada include Moe Norman, George Knudson, Al Balding, Bob Panasik, Wilf Homenuik, Stan Leonard, Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer.
The first PGA Championship of Canada was contested in 1912 at Mississaugua Golf & Country Club.