Paul takes the helm at RBC Canadian Open
Published
Ryan Paul can still remember the time his father took him to meet Tiger Woods. It was at the 2000 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey and Paul’s father, Bill, was the tournament director.
“He walked me over to the range and Tiger was warming up,” he recalled. “And I got to shake his hand. It made it on the CBS broadcast, just before they went to a commercial.”
On Thursday, it was announced that Paul will follow in his father’s footsteps and become tournament director of the RBC Canadian Open. He takes over from Bryan Crawford, who left Golf Canada in June to become the commissioner of the Ontario Hockey League.
For his new role, Paul won’t have to transition too much. For the past seven years he’s been the tournament director of the CPKC Women’s Open, which was recently held at the Earl Grey Golf Club in Calgary where a new attendance record was set.
For the previous two years, the LPGA Tour awarded the CPKC Women’s Open its tournament of the year. That’ s in part due to the work that Paul and his team put in to make the tournament run smoothly. Now he’ll try to do the same with the men’s event.
“I think this is a natural transition,” stated Paul. “I’ve had involvement with the RBC Canadian Open for a long time, essentially working as Bryan’s assistant during the tournament week, and there are a lot of symmetries between the two events.”
Laurence Applebaum, Golf Canada’s CEO, praised the work Paul has done on the women’s tournament, making it a smooth-running event while handling all the madness that can happen behind the scenes. It was no surprise that when Crawford announced his departure, Applebaum’s first call was to Paul.
“Ryan Paul has done a tremendous job in growing every aspect of the CPKC Women’s Open and he will now take that stellar record into continuing to grow the RBC Canadian Open and maintain the amazing trajectory of this award-winning PGA Tour event,” Applebaum said in a release.
Much of the new role will be the same as the old one, Paul stated. Golf Canada uses the same suppliers for both the men’s and women’s tournaments, so there will be familiar faces in that capacity. He will also work with Golf Canada’s professional championships team that sees plenty of crossover between the tournaments.
In addition, he will continue as a member of Golf Canada’s senior leadership team, contributing to every aspect of golf in Canada.
Paul said he contacted his father immediately after learning he was taking over the tournament director role. He said he learned a lot from his father on the nuances of his job and will carry those with him as he takes over. Most of those involve dealing with people who contribute to the tournament in a variety of ways.
“He always said that you have to take time for everyone,” Paul said of his dad’s advice. “It doesn’t matter if they are a volunteer, an executive, a supplier –everyone has a role in making the tournament better and so you listen to them.”
This year’s RBC Canadian Open will be held at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley June 2-8.