Doug Roxburgh: Inside Canada At The WATC

In addition to assisting the Canadian side to a tie for 9th place among the 65 nations competing, Roxburgh provided the RCGA with a daily blog of insightful commentary that is well worth sharing.

In order to best appreciate the Canadian team's experiences BC Golf News is pleased to be able to present Mr. Roxburgh's views and comments beginning a few days before the Men's competition began.

Blog 1 - Sunday October 11, 2008

Hello to all from down under Adelaide, Australia. It's now my turn to take over Mary Ann Lapointe in keeping you up-to-date on the 2008 World Amateur Team Championships.

The men's team of Nick Taylor (British Columbia), Dave Markle (Ontario), Jordan Irwin (Alberta) along with men's head coach Henry Brunton and myself all arrived after the long trek from Canada and were on hand yesterday (October 10) at The Grange GC to cheer on our women's team. What a great day.

Congratulations to the team of Maude Aimee Leblanc, Stephanie Sherlock, Kira Meixner, Dean Spriddle (National Women's Coach) Maryann Lapointe (Non-playing Captain) and (NT Psychologist) for the 4th place finish. They worked hard and battled all day long to slip in just ahead of Japan.

Last night, we all attended the gala banquet with 900 others at the Adelaide Convention Center. The medals were presented to the top three teams and the players had a fun evening together of socializing, dancing and relaxing. This evening is always a highlight of the WATC as it symbolizes the spirit of friendship and cooperation why these two events were started so many years ago. Golf Australia invited some of their past WATC members to attend the evening and it was great for me to see some old friends. As well, five-time British Open champion, Peter Thompson attended the dinner and enjoyed the evening.

For our first practice round we were at Royal Adelaide GC with an 8:26 a.m. tee time. It was warm at 30 C., but the wind was up from the north as a storm was blowing in. Royal Adelaide is one of the top golf courses in Australia. Founded in 1892, and redesigned later by Alistair Mackenzie, it has small firm greens with runoff areas and deep bunkers. It is definitely a tough championship test and unique with a par of 73 - only three par3's and numerous blind shots. Fortunately the rough is not up too high due to the drought down here but there are still plenty of challenges. The guys spent a lot of time around and on the greens to get the pace and picking lines for the tee shots. Dana Sinclair will be heading back to Canada tomorrow but spent with team today and it's great to have her here assisting.

We have a late tee time tomorrow at The Grange GC (hopefully the storm will pass through overnight) for our second practice round and I'll be attending the International Golf Federation bi-annual meeting tomorrow Andrew Cook, RCGA President, where we will get an update on Golf in the Olympics for 2016 and vote on the 2012 WATC site, a decision between three competing countries - Italy, Austria and Turkey.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to all. We're off to try and find some turkey for dinner.

Blog 2 - Monday October 13, 2008

Definitely a change in the weather - a lot cooler as the front came through and still very breezy.

The guys were off at 12:36 p.m. at The Grange GC - the same course that the women's team played on Day 2 and 4 of their event. Henry looked after the team today as I stayed behind for meetings. The Grange is a great test of golf - tree lined with elevated, sloping firm greens surrounded by collection areas. The team focused on getting their yardages and playing different types of shots from around the greens. Golf Australia has done a great job with the selection of the golf courses for this event.

The IGF meetings were interesting. Congratulations to the Turkish Golf Federation on winning the vote for the 2012 World Amateur Team Championships. Turkey put together a tremendous bid and beat out strong competition from Austria and Italy.

The 2012 site will be the Gloria Golf Resort in the resort city of Antalya on the Mediterranean coast. Turkey is a relatively new member in the IGF and this will certainly help to grow the game of golf in their country.

At the meeting, we received an update from Ty Votaw of the PGA Tour on the process to get golf into the 2016 Olympics. Ty has been lent to the IGF to lead this ambitious project which has the support of all the major professional tours. In October 2009, the IOC will choose only two sports from golf, softball, baseball, rugby 7's, squash, karate and roller sports so there is a lot of work ahead to put together the bid and do all the necessary lobbying and promotion to get golf in the Olympics.

By the way, golf was in the Olympics once before, in St. Louis in 1904 and the winner was George S. Lyon from Canada! The trophy is spectacular and is located at Golf House at Glen Abbey GC in Oakville, Ontario.

Later in the afternoon, Andrew Cook and I attended an anti-doping presentation put on by the Australian Sports Commission to educate the players and captains about the World Anti-Doping Agency code. Drug testing is relatively new to golf so it's important for everyone to understand the implications and testing protocols that are used.

A good day of hard work for the guys - early to bed and off tomorrow at 11:57 a.m. at Royal Adelaide GC.

Blog 3 - Tuesday October 14

Back at Royal Adelaide today with an 11:51 a.m. tee time. The weather is improving each day with highs of 20 C and forecast to increase to 30 C by the weekend. The wind was back to its normal direction from the southwest today at 10-15 mph. Royal Adelaide was designed for this wind and the guys found the course much more playable today. The long par fours played downwind and the par fives became three shot holes. The course staff is busy double cutting and rolling the greens and the conditions will be first rate for the championship.

I attended the Captain's meeting in the late afternoon where the conditions of play and local rules were reviewed. The R & A do a great job on this with a power point to ensure all countries are fully aware potential problem areas on both golf courses. As Captain, I can walk with the players during the tournament and give them advice, so it's nice to fully understand the conditions of play. I was sitting beside the Welsh captain, a young lad of 17, who is also the alternate player for the team. He came down last week with his three teammates to practice in Melbourne and was asked yesterday to assume the captain's job when the individual who was coming had to back out due to the financial situation back home in Wales. It will be interesting to see if his players heed his advice!

The draw for the championship came out today and we will tee off Thursday at 8:03 a.m., 8:14 a.m. and 8:25 a.m. We are paired with Malaysia and Spain at Royal Adelaide. Friday we tee-off at 11:45 a.m., 11:56 a.m. and 12:07 p.m. We will be paired with Iceland and New Zealand and will play at The Grange. This is a great draw as we will be with Danny Lee of New Zealand, the number one ranked player in the world.

We had a dinner at a nearby restaurant recommended by the women's team and then headed off early to bed. We have a 7:22 a.m. start at The Grange GC for our last practice day, so we'll need to be at the shuttle at 6 a.m. sharp!

We'll be following the Canadian election results on the internet.

Blog 4 - Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The final day of practice. We were off early at The Grange GC and it was a spectacular day with very little wind. The fairways, greens and bunkers at this course all underwent a major renovation two years ago and it is in fantastic condition. The fairways are ideal and the greens are running at 11 or 12 on the stimpmeter. No excuses - if you miss a shot you have no one to blame. The guys worked hard again with National Coach Henry Brunton on their distances, getting fine tuned, their alignment and club selection. You can tell our players are keyed up to get at it as I'm sure everyone else is as well.

We had to be back to the hotel for the official photographs at 2:00 p.m. and then some relaxation until 5:30 p.m. for the opening ceremonies which were out behind the Hyatt Hotel on the banks of a river. The opening ceremonies are always very moving for me. From the first time I competed in this tournament in Argentina in 1972 with 25 countries to this year with 68, I still get goose bumps when the flags go up. A lot of my old friends that I played against over the years are now non-playing captains like myself and it was fun to see them and revisit old memories. A nice reception and an early dinner followed by a team meeting to review the schedule tomorrow and the final round plans.

Our team is ready. They are great young men and ambassadors for Canada. The preparation is over; the wake up call is set for 5:00 a.m. - now it's time to tee it up!!

Blog 5 - Thursday, October 16, 2008

The first round is in the books and Canada is tied for13th position, 10-strokes behind the United States.

The scoring was really outstanding from some of the teams as the weather was ideal at 25 C with a very light breeze. Nick and Jordan both shot even par 73 and David a 5 over 78. Kudos to Jordan who started well with two early birdies and then gave them back with a triple on #9 after finding the long fescue left of the green and missing a short putt for par on the next hole. He held it together and fought back with three birdies including a great bump and run chip-in for birdie on #16. Nick just didn't have his usual sharp putting/ short game and turned a lower round into even par. He finished with a great birdie on #18 committing to the line and making a good putt. David hit a lot of quality shots and just lost a bit of focus with bogies on the last three holes.

It looks like we will be playing our next two rounds over at The Grange GC, so Henry and the team went over there for an afternoon practice session. The range is better at that course anyway as you are allowed to hit drivers and fairway woods which is not the case at Royal Adelaide. The greens will be a bit faster as well so they spent some time getting the pace. The feel of tournament is like a tour event and practice range volunteers along with the Titleist Pro V 1's make it a great atmosphere.

Our caddies were assigned to the team just prior to the round today and they are great. David has a young boy named Daniel who can't be more than 4 feet and tall and is only 13 years old. He's already a 12 handicap and is taking two days off school. They make a good team together.

My job was simple today. Keep the guys on task, help them with the yardages on the par three holes and decide on club selection. The guys are good spirits and I'm optimistic for tomorrow.

We're off for dinner on the tram out Glenfleg on the coast to another restaurant recommended by Dean Spriddle and the women's team from last week!!

Blog 6 - Friday, October 17, 2008

All-in-all it was a disappointing day. We were off late morning at the Grange GC and conditions were ideal for scoring. We started on the back nine and got off to a good start with some early birdies, but could not keep the momentum going. David Markle showed improved form, but a few loose shots and a tough double bogey on the back nine caught up with him. Dave had a good practice session after the round and I really believe some good things will happen over the next two days.

Jordan Irwin hit a lot of quality shots and his game is rounding into shape. He was looking good and picked up a late birdie on the short par-three 17th, but his 5 foot birdie putt just slipped by the hole.

Nick Taylor was again close to a really excellent round, but his usually reliable putting let him down. The Grange GC is a great course for Nick as it requires a premium on driving and short irons. Tomorrow we'll see some good scoring from him.

We dropped four positions to 17th place, but a lot of teams are jammed in and a good top 10 is definitely not out of reach. Scotland and the United States are playing great golf and have a share of first at 17 under par... remarkable golf.

It was great to have Jocelyn, a Canadian from Windsor, Ontario (now living with an Aussie down under) come out and cheer us on today and she came out last week as well to cheer to the women's team.

We're off late tomorrow, again at The Grange and starting at 12:51 p.m .with Korea and Ireland. The weather is forecast at 32 C with little wind. The guys know that tomorrow is the day to make a move. It's a fine line between contending with a good team score and ending up somewhere down the pack, but this team is capable of moving up. Tomorrow is the day to do it.

Blog 7 - Saturday, October 18, 2008

Finally into the red numbers!! Despite giving up two shots on the last hole, we finished up the day at 2-under to move up the leaderboard into a tie for 12th. The guys played fought hard again. The wind was up, the greens dried out and the hole locations were tough. Nick clearly showed why he is our number one player. He shot an outstanding 68, the second lowest score of the day to move into 7th place in the individual. He is an amazing chipper and pitcher of the ball and today finally got his putter working to salvage some pars and role in some great birdies. Jordan struck the ball better today than the first two rounds but just couldn't get a feel for the greens. Four three putts including one for a double bogey on the last ruined what could have been an under par round and he finished with 74. Dave started well again but lost a couple of tee shots to the right resulting in double bogies and ending up with 76. I still think we'll see a good round out of Dave.

The Scots played great again to take a four shot lead over the United States with Sweden another four shots back. Great galleries have turned out to watch the golf and I have to say that Scotland is definitely the crowd favorite.

We're off at 12:18 p.m. tomorrow back at Royal Adelaide and tee it up with our good friends from Japan and Argentina. It should be a great day - the weather is scheduled to cool down with a northerly wind and the golf course will play its championship best.

23rd Biennial Men's World Amateur Team championship
1 The Royal Adelaide Golf Club: Royal Adelaide Par 73 - 7215 yards
2 The Grange Golf Club: Grange Par 72 - 6930 yards

1 Scotland --- 136 - 137 - 140 - 147 -- 560
2 United States of America --- 136 137 144 152 -- 569
3 Sweden --- 142 - 140 - 139 - 153 -- 574
T4 France --- 139 -148 - 141 - 147 -- 575
T4 Italy --- 147 - 141 - 138 - 149 -- 575
6 Australia--- 147 - 137 - 141 - 153 --- 578
T7 Spain --- 145 - 141 - 140 - 153 -- 579
T7 Netherlands --- 145 - 142 - 142 - 150 -- 579
T9 Canada --- 146 - 144 - 142 - 148 -- 580
T9 Argentina --- 151 - 135 - 146 - 148 -- 580

Team Canada -- 146 - 144 - 142 - 148 --580
T2 Nick Taylor -- 73 - 71 - 68 - 70 -- 282
T53 Jordan Irwin -- 73 - 73 - 74 - 78 -- 298
T120 David Markle -- 78 - 74 - 76 - 84 -- 312

Conducted by the International Golf Federation, which is comprised of the national governing bodies of golf in more than 110 countries, the biennial World Amateur Golf Team Championships are contested over four rounds of stroke play, with each teams score consisting of the two lowest scores each round. The competition is rotated among three geographic zones of the world: Asia-Pacific, North American and European-African. In 2010, the event will be held in Argentina and the 2012 event will be held in Turkey.

ABOUT THE RCGA NATIONAL TEAM PROGRAM
The RCGA National Team Program incorporates advanced coaching, sport science expertise, training camps and world-class competition. The RCGA allocates over $1 million of its resources annually to the National Team program, encompassing strength and conditioning, sports psychology, nutrition, biomechanics and technique development. Players who are selected to the National Amateur and National Developmental Teams represent Canada at six to 10 internationally-sanctioned golf competitions throughout the year. The intent of this comprehensive program is to aid Canada's top up-and-coming amateur players in all areas of their development, helping Canada produce the best golfers in the world.

Team Canada, the pinnacle of the RCGA's High Performance Program, provides access to world class resources including coaching, nutrition, sport science, mental management, equipment and elite competitive opportunities. For more information about Team Canada or to make a donation towards the development of Canada's future golf stars, please visit www.rcga.org.

ABOUT THE ROYAL CANADIAN GOLF ASSOCIATION
The Royal Canadian Golf Association (RCGA) is the governing body of golf in Canada, representing 377,000 members at 1,600 clubs across the country. Recognized by Sport Canada as the National Sports Organization (NSO) for golf in this country, the RCGA's mission is to grow participation in and passion for the sport while upholding the integrity and traditions of the game. The RCGA conducts programs and services to help shape the future of golf in Canada. High performance athlete development, CN Future Links, Canada's national junior golf program, turfgrass and environmental research, the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum, Rules of Golf and amateur status, handicapping and course rating are only some of the initiatives the association leads for golf in Canada. In addition, the RCGA conducts Canada's most prestigious golf championships. The RBC Canadian Open and CN Canadian Women's Open attract the best professional golfers in the world, while regional junior and national amateur championships showcase the best in Canadian golf.

For further information on what the RCGA is doing to support golf throughout Canada visit http://www.rcga.org

Editor's Note:
For the record Canada's only World Amateur Team Championship, Men or Ladies, came in 1986 when the team of Brent Franklyn, Jack Kay Jr., Mark Brewer and Warren Sye won the title in Venezuela.