Bubba in and then out of the Canadian Open; Levelwear hires former Sunice whiz
TED BITS, Ted McIntyre - BUBBA IN, THEN OUT OF THE CANADIAN OPEN; AND LEVELWEAR HIRES FORMER SUNICE WHIZ
I have to share a story with you. I was invited to a Dominican Republic PR function last night at Toronto’s Sutton Place hotel. I phoned in advance to ask about parking. It was something like $25 for overnight parking.
I said, “I’m only visiting.”
The lady replied, “It’s $4.50 per half hour for underground parking.”
I asked, “Isn’t there public parking around there?”
She said, “Yes, directly across the street. It’s like a $10 max.”
Turns out it was only $5 from 7 p.m. til midnight. There was only one other car in the entire lot…a 45-second walk from the front door of the hotel. I half expected to find the tires gone and the car up on block when we returned. Bizarre. I’m gonna have to remember that one!
BUBBA WITHDRAWS FOR PERSONAL REASONS
Yesterday the Golf Canada (a.k.a. the RCGA) released that the long-hitting Bubba Watson would be playing at this year’s RBC Canadian Open at St. George’s. About the same time as that was going out, Watson was being interviewed about his cancer-stricken father, and noted that he would take time to visit his dad following the British Open, which meant he had decided not to visit Toronto.
“Once we had confirmation on Bubba’s commitment to play in the Open, along with a couple of others, we prepared the release, waited on a couple of other items, then we sent the release,” noted tournament director Bill Paul in an email to me this morning. “Unfortunately, I got word this morning that regretfully he is not able to participate during to personal reasons.”
Still, the Open field looks impressive this year, its notables including Mike Weir, Stephen Ames, two-time champ Jim Furyk, Ricky Barnes, former Canadian Open champion Scott Verplank, fan favourite John Daly (my bet is he’s withdrawn before the second round), Anthony Kim, Sean O’Hair, Rickie Fowler, Camilo Villegas, Hunter Mahan, Luke Donald, Retief Goosen, Tim Clark, Y.E. Yang, Matt Kuchar, Fred Couples, Paul Casey and defending RBC Canadian Open champion Nathan Green.
LEVELWEAR’S NEW STAR’S FROM THE OLD GUARD
Toronto-based Levelwear’s golf apparel division has recruited Angela Grams in the title of Lead Product Design and Development Consultant beginning Spring 2012.
Grams has a wealth of experience in the outerwear industry (from design, development, sourcing, production to marketing) and was involved with Sunice for over a generation in the company’s formative years. Grams will be working out of her Calgary office.
