Toronto, Canada: After two delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, St George’s Golf and Country Club finally was afforded its chance to play host to the RBC Canadian Open, the country’s national championship.

Built in 1929 and designed by famous Canadian architect Stanley Thompson, St George’s features 14 elevated tees, undulations and valleys throughout the course.

Jacobsen played a part in the championship as the venue’s Golf Course and Property Manager Ian McQueen and his team utilised The Eclipse 2 walking mowers and SLF530s, HR600s, AR321s and LF1880s to prepare the 7,025-yard course.

The crew received tournament-week support from Jacobsen representatives and local distributor GC Duke.

“This is our national championship in Canada,” McQueen told Golf Business Industry. “It’s a big event, and without the support of Jacobson and our local distributor, GC Duke, who is supporting us with equipment, we would not be able to accomplish what we need to.”

McQueen added the following thoughts on tournament preparation: “Preparing for this championship has taken some time. We started this in 2018 to host it first in 2020 and, as everyone is aware, it got postponed twice.

“The build-out of the stands started in the winter, and we finished building out the grandstands on June 1, with the tournament starting the week of June 6. But it’s taken a good two years in prep work to achieve the standards we want to present for the Tour.

“The most important thing for us to get right is getting the surfaces to the firmness that we want to present the players. Green speeds are one thing, but having a firm green surface is another.

“Having true lies in the fairways with firm fairways for them to hit off is, I think, our number one goal that we’re trying to achieve.

“I think with the tight cut surfaces that we have, the floating head Eclipse 2 walk mowers that Jacobsen provides means we are able to dial the clip rates in. This allows us to get to the trueness of the greens we need.

“Also, with our undulating fairways in the tight areas, the smaller LF1880s have allowed us to mow tighter and get to the surfaces where we can’t go with other mowers.

“We’ll start mowing daily on greens leading into the championship, and we’ll start mowing fairways, tees, and approaches daily leading into the advanced week of the tournament.”

Rory McIlroy won the tournament as large crowds meandered the St George’s grounds throughout the week.

Jacobsen is an Executive Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.