Fazio selection stirs brouhaha
By LORNE RUBENSTEIN
Wednesday, September 10, 2003 - Page S1
I t's been mentioned here that the American architect Tom Fazio will design a new course near Montreal that will play host to the 2006 Bell Canadian Open. Neither the owners nor the Royal Canadian Golf Association have made the formal announcement. When they do, there's bound to be an outcry that an American and not a Canadian will design the course in Terrebonne, Que., that is supposed to play host to the tournament.
The furor has already started. One Calgarian wrote, "Why aren't we using a Canadian architect? Fazio is a great architect, but what's Canadian about him?"
Another fellow wrote that "the RCGA should be ashamed to be in talks with Tom Fazio about the new Montreal facility they're planning to construct. Shouldn't the Royal Canadian Golf Association have an interest in a Canadian architect?"
Tom McBroom, one of a small group of fine Canadian architects, weighed in yesterday with his views. McBroom, a Toronto-based designer, was in Collingwood, Ont., looking at property for a course he's doing with Tom Lehman, the 1996 British Open champion who played last week in the Bell Canadian Open at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club.
"It makes me sick," McBroom said of the decision to use an American architect. "What sense is there in using a U.S. architect? It started with the RCGA picking Jack Nicklaus to design Glen Abbey. Fazio is a great designer who does great work. It's nothing against him, but this decision just leaves me shaking."
The RCGA didn't make the decision to choose Fazio. Gord Stollery and Michael Columbos are the partners in CCQ, the firm that owns the Terrebonne property. Stollery and his sister own Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ont. The South course at Angus Glen was the venue for last year's Bell Canadian Open. The South course will also play host to the 2007 tournament. It was Stollery and Columbos who hired Fazio.
"Fazio works for me and not the RCGA, 100 per cent," Stollery said yesterday from Angus Glen. "We invited Fazio to come to the Canadian Open in Hamilton. I don't believe he was there but three of his architects were. The RCGA jumped all over them."
CCQ hasn't yet announced Fazio as the designer of the Bell Canadian Open course. But Fazio's the guy. Graham Cooke, who is based in Beaconsfield, Que., will design another course on the Terrebonne property. Both courses will be public.
"What went into our decision is no more and no less than that Fazio is the No. 1 architect in the world," Stollery said. "I don't mean this as a negative for Canadian architects, but the Fazio team is very impressive. We're getting a good name to start with and we'll get a good product."
Stollery has been around golf a long time, and said he believes there are too many of what he calls "golf snobs," who reflexively think that old is better than new. He was impressed with the way the Hamilton course played and with how well the pros received it, and he plans to pay attention to their comments.
"Fazio won't build a so-called 'stadium course,' " Stollery said. "Architects hate that word. This doesn't mean that the course won't be spectator-friendly. It will. It only makes sense to put the clubhouse on a piece of high ground so that there's great viewing around the 18th green. And the more I look at the property, the more I like it."
Nobody would call Hamilton a stadium course. It wasn't all that easy to get around. Yet the setting around the last green was as 'stadium' as one could get. The architect, Harry Colt, wasn't exactly thinking about the Bell Canadian Open when he laid out the course some 90 years ago. But it stood up because it was the right course in the right setting.
"We considered Canadian architects," Stollery said. "We've been stewing on this for a long time. It's our decision and the RCGA is supportive of it. They don't own the course. We own the course."
Stephen Ross, the RCGA's executive director, once expressed mixed feelings about whether to choose an American or a Canadian architect for the Terrebonne course. But he refused to comment on the choice of Fazio.
"Until the principals are ready to announce the architect, I don't want to say anything," Ross said. "We told them that it was important for them to make the decision, and that we trust them."
Stollery and Columbos must prove that the trust is well placed. Most players didn't like Angus Glen's South course last year. Fazio has done plenty of tremendous courses, including the National Golf Club of Canada in Woodbridge, Ont., which he worked on with his late uncle George. PGA Tour player Ian Leggatt of Cambridge, Ont., considers the National the best test in the country. Fazio will have to do something special in Terrebonne.
A Canadian architect could also do something special. Chances are that Fazio knows this, and that he'll accept the challenge and come up with the goods. He has a blank canvas. Let's see what he does with it.
rube@sympatico.ca