Canada’s CB Macdonald tournament on hold for 2018

Feb. 17, 2018
By Jim Davis

For those of you wondering why there is no listing for the annual CB Macdonald and Eastern Canadian Hickory Championship on the schedule of events, we have some unfortunate news. Organizers say the event will not be held in 2018 and has been placed on indefinite hold, hopefully to return before long.

“Unfortunately the event will not take place this year due to a combination of a declining participation rate and dramatically increased costs by the golf club, roughly 50 percent higher than last year,” said David Burgess, president of the Golf Historical Society of Canada.

The event had been held since 2002 at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. It had hosted as many as 60 and more players in the past.

“The golf club was not prepared to provide a shotgun start without a guarantee of at least 56 participants,” Burgess said. “We had 39 in 2017. We tried to make other arrangements with the golf club in terms of scheduled tee times and other adjustments but this dialogue proved unsuccessful. These obstacles, combined with Paul Dietz’s retirement from organizing the event, proved too difficult to satisfactorily resolve in a timely manner. We could not commit to something that would place the GHSC in a negative financial position.”

“I very much looked forward to this annual event, having participated for the past decade,” Burgess said. “I am hopeful we can come to some terms to continue the event (possibly in a modified format) in the future.”

The CB Macdonald Challenge was a gutty golf competition with pre-1900 equipment and replica balls and formatted to provide match play competition with a USA team and a Canadian team. That was followed by the Eastern Canadian Hickory Championship played with 1920s era clubs and players in Open, Senior, Ladies, and Super Senior divisions. The CB Macdonald had come to be seen as one of the unofficial “Gutty Slam” events on the yearly schedule, along with the Foxburg Hickory Championship, the National Hickory Championship, and the All American Hickory Open.

The Canadian event is named for golfing legend Charles Blair Macdonald and commemorates an early tournament he organized. While many are familiar with Macdonald’s role in early golf in the U.S., many are not aware that he was born in Canada, on the Niagara peninsula near Niagara-on-the-Lake. His family had a second home there, and he wrote fondly of the area. In September 1895 Macdonald and Charles Hunter of Toronto organized the first U.S.-Canada tournament on the 1875 Niagara-on-the-Lake golf course at the mouth of the Niagara River. This course is said to be the oldest known golf club in North America still on its original site. That event was called the International Championship Tournament. The CB Macdonald Challenge was originated as a re-enactment of that first international golf match in North America.

Doug Marshall, former president of the GHSC and long-time SoHG member, hosted the event from 2002-08 before handing it over to Paul Deitz in 2009. He said the golf course is an historic one and there is no desire to go anywhere else. “If we solve that problem, we have people who can restore the original spirit of the event,” he said. “If we do bring it back it will be simplified to the original format, a Canada–USA match competition and a medal play championship as originally played.”

While Marshall believes an indifferent attitude toward the event from club membership and owners might have been a contributing factor in the current difficulties, he also thought a significant drop in players in 2017 did not help matters. He believes that to be a “one-time deal” perhaps driven by a scheduling conflict with the inaugural Mike Just North/South Challenge Matches that were arranged for Sept. 17-19 on the French Lick Resort. The 2017 CB Macdonald was set for Sept. 8-10. The 2018 Mike Just tournament has been scheduled for early June.

After consulting with the GHSC board, Marshall and Burgess have agreed that the CB Macdonald be placed on hold for at least one year in hopes of coming to better terms with the Niagara-on-the-Lake GC owners and re-establishing the event for 2019. “We just hit a wall this year,” Marshall said.

“I have records and many pictures of the early events up through Paul’s (Deitz) reign as  tournament director,” Marshall said. “Many laughs and good times are pictured. We had handled the problems of players dropping out and a new generation of players signing up. In fact the large number of players was one of the causal irritants with our hosts at Niagara. So we shall see what happens!”

Let us hope that all works out and a new tournament director steps forward as the CB Macdonald has come to be a much-loved hickory golf outing, not just for gutty players, but for those who enjoyed the spirit of the game with the old clubs on one of Canada’s most historic golf courses.

In lieu of the CB Macdonald’s absence this year, the GHSC have invited their U.S. friends to participate in the organization’s 30th Anniversary at the Port Hope Golf Club (roughly 1 hour east of Toronto) on Sunday, July 15, 2018. Click here for event information.

The field at the 2016 CB Macdonald

The banquet at the 2011 CB Macdonald.

Mike Just, seated, and friends at the scenic Niagara-on-the-Lake GC during the 2011 CB Macdonald tournament.