Tag: Ontario

TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley’s North course to be renovated this year by architect Ian Andrew

Andrew plans to expand green sites and move bunkers and tees, adding length with a focus on strategy.

TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley announced this week that it will renovate its North course and practice facilities starting in August 2023. Architect Ian Andrew will lead the project that is scheduled to wrap up in 2024.

Work will include expansion of the green sites with expanded run-offs, plus relocated bunkers and tee boxes. The practice facility will be overhauled with new short game areas and practice greens, and a new clubhouse and accommodations will be constructed.

TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley is home to two other courses as well, the Hoot and the Heathlands. The North – originally known as Toot – was designed by Doug Carrick and opened in 2001. TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley joined the PGA Tour’s TPC Network in 2018 and is the site of the Osprey Valley Open of the PGA Tour Canada series on the Heathlands course.

TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley North
TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley’s North course in Canada (Courtesy of TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley/Chris Fry)

“For more than 20 years the North course has been known to golfers as a welcoming and wide modern course that players of all skill levels can enjoy,” TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley president Chris Humeniuk said in a media release announcing the news. “With this renovation, the course will be elevated into a compelling test for high-level championship play while retaining its identity as fun, friendly and accessible for all players.”

The media release said the club began collaborating with Ian Andrew Golf Design in 2022 with a focus on enhancing competitive features, providing additional shotmaking options and strategic demands to the parkland course. The layout will be stretched from 7,151 yards to more than 7,500.

The Canadian Andrew worked as an associate for Carrick on the original design of the North. He has since started his own firm, and his work across North America includes renovations to St. George’s Golf and Country Club and Oakdale Golf and Country Club in Canada.

“This property, and the North course in particular, is a special place for me, having worked with Doug on the original design of this bold and truly fun golf course,” Andrew said in the media release. “With TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley at the forefront of so much excitement in Canadian golf, I’m thrilled to play a part in this project and look forward to continued collaboration with Chris and the Osprey Valley team.”

In 2022, TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley and Golf Canada announced a partnership to build what they call a new Home for Canadian Golf, including Golf Canada’s national headquarters, the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame, the national headquarters for the First Tee – Canada and more.

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Alberta lifts ban on UFC betting with James Krause under investigation

Alberta had banned betting on UFC over integrity concerns.

After a week-long ban, UFC betting in the Canadian province Alberta is permitted again, Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis announced Friday.

AGLC reversed course after retired fighter and current UFC coach James Krause’s license was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. On Dec. 2, AGLC had announced that wagers on UFC were no longer allowed to be offered or accepted due to potential risks of wagering integrity. That same day, UFC announced that Krause would not be able to participate in UFC events pending the outcome of an investigation.

The suspensions of Krause, his managers and fighters are the reason why AGLC lifted its ban on betting.

AGLC’s ban had come the same week as a ban in Ontario on UFC betting.

That ban has not been lifted, though the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario reportedly said it’s encouraged by the recent developments.

Suspicious betting on a fight between Darrick Minner and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke on Nov. 5 triggered the investigation into Krause, who coaches Minner.

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Alberta becomes second Canadian province to ban UFC betting over integrity issues

Alberta joins Ontario in banning UFC betting.

Alberta has joined Ontario in banning wagers on UFC events, according to reports Friday that cite a statement from Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis.

According to the statement, Alberta stopped offering and accepting UFC bets effective Thursday, the same day Ontario also banned UFC wagers due to concerns about the UFC’s non-compliance with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario’s betting integrity requirements.

The Ontario commission said it learned of publicized alleged incidents in recent weeks, including possible betting by UFC insiders and reports of suspicious betting patterns in other jurisdictions.

Alberta also cited possible risks of wagering integrity as its reason.

Retired fighter and current coach James Krause’s license was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the UFC announced Friday per ESPN’s David Purdham. It was not immediately clear if the suspension was related to the bans in Canada.

Pending bets on the UFC in Alberta were voided and returned to players.

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Wagering on UFC banned in Ontario amid concerns of insider betting

UFC hasn’t complied with Ontario’s integrity requirements.

Sportsbooks in Ontario are no longer allowed to offer and accept wagers on the UFC, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario announced Thursday.

The ban, effective immediately, is due to concerns about the UFC’s non-compliance with AGCO’s betting integrity requirements.

According to the release, UFC does not prohibit all “insiders” from betting on UFC events, which goes against AGCO’s Registrar’s Standards, which are rules to safeguard against odds manipulation, match-fixing and other sports integrity issues.

Insiders are classified as including an athlete’s “coaches, managers, handlers, athletic trainers, medical professionals, or other persons with access to non-public information.”

“The Standards exist to protect the betting public and to provide the necessary safeguards against odds manipulation, match-fixing and other integrity issues,” AGCO Registrar and CEO Tom Mungham said in the release. “This is not a decision we take lightly, knowing the popularity of UFC events in Ontario’s sports books. However, the risks of insider betting on event and wagering integrity should be highly concerning to all. It certainly is to us. We will continue to work with gaming operators, the OLG, iGaming Ontario and UFC to ensure that wagering on UFC events meets the AGCO’s Standards.”

The AGCO said it learned of publicized alleged incidents in recent weeks, including possible betting by UFC insiders and reports of suspicious betting patterns in other jurisdictions.

In October, the UFC notified its athletes in a memo obtained by ESPN that fighters and members of their teams were prohibited from betting on UFC fights, “in light of clear direction that we have received from regulators responsible for the regulated sports betting industry in the United Staes.”

However, a month later, several sportsbooks across different states reported suspicious bets on a fight between Darrick Minner and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke. That prompted an investigation by a U.S.-based betting integrity firm.

In response, the UFC said it had no reason to believe either fighter or anyone associated with their teams behaved unethically.

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LA Open winner Brooke Henderson on golf shutdown in her native Ontario: ‘It’s really unfortunate’

Brooke Henderson won her 10th LPGA title in Hollywood as golf courses in her native Ontario have been ordered closed due to COVID.

Brooke Henderson won her 10th LPGA title in Hollywood as golf courses in her native Ontario have been ordered closed until May 20 due to COVID-19 restrictions.

While it’s a ray of sunshine for the most ardent supporters in Brooke’s Brigade, it’s still a head-scratching and frustrating situation for golfers across Canada.

“You know, I think golf is a great way to be outdoors and get some exercise, and it’s really unfortunate that they’re shut down right now,” said Henderson after winning the Hugel-Air Premia LA Open by one stroke over Jessica Korda. The 23-year-old is the winningest Canadian golfer in history.

“Hopefully they’ll open up sooner than later. It’s a great way to, like I said, get exercise, fresh air, and also have a little bit of social by doing it pretty safely.”

Rick Young, president of the Golf Journalists Association of Canada, penned a letter to Ontario Premier Doug Ford on April 19 that called for a reversal of the controversial decision.

“Across North America, at this moment, Ontario is the only province, state or territory not allowing the sport to be played,” Young wrote. “This despite more than 26 million recorded rounds by approximately 1.8 million of your constituents with next to zero reports of COVID-19 transmission last season or this season.”

According to an article in the Toronto Sun, the Ontario government has closed all recreational amenities including golf courses, basketball courts, soccer fields and playgrounds with some exceptions.

Grocery stores and similar retail settings that permit in-store shopping were limited to 25 percent capacity.

Former Notre Dame guard Nikoa Djogo transfers to Northeastern

A former Irish player has announced where he’s transferring to.

It’s been two-and-a-half weeks since former Notre Dame guard Nikola Djogo announced he would enter the transfer portal. With a year of eligibility remaining, Djogo decided he would use it, albeit elsewhere. Djogo announced his selection Friday, opting to play his final college season at Northeastern. There are no hard feelings from his former program, which wished him all the luck in the world:

Djogo, a native of Hamilton, Ontario, will join a program that been adding a lot of Canadian players lately. This past season, the Huskies had three freshmen from Djogo’s homeland — two from Ontario, and one from Quebec. Djogo undoubtedly will serve as a mentor for these players because of that connection, if nothing else. Of course, Djogo will be learning a system they’re already familiar with, so it will go both ways.

In four seasons with the Irish, Djogo averaged 2.7 points and 2.1 rebounds over 13.1 minutes a game. He saved his best season in South Bend for last, averaging 5.0 points and 3.0 rebounds on 53.9 percent shooting from the field. It will be worth watching to see if he improves upon that even more in Boston.

Notre Dame’s Nikola Djogo will enter transfer portal

Nikola Djogo just completed his fourth season at Notre Dame.

Nikola Djogo just completed his fourth season at Notre Dame. Although he was honored during Senior Day, redshirting his freshman season means he has another year of eligibility. Djogo intends to use that year, but he announced Tuesday that it won’t be with the Irish as he has decided to enter the transfer portal.

In his final season with the Irish, Djogo had career highs across the board. The Hamilton, Ontario native averaged 5.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and shot 53.9 percent from the floor in 24 games. His best game of the season was an 18-point, seven-rebound performance in a Feb. 14 win over Miami.

It’s possible he will continue to improve in his final college basketball season, but he obviously thinks his services will be better served elsewhere. When you’re most likely coming to the end of your competitive playing career, you might as well do so with the best opportunity available. Best of luck to him as he moves on from South Bend.

Who’s faster? Rare footage shows wolf chasing coyote on snow

An ice fisherman in Ontario, Canada, claimed to have saved a coyote from ambush by two wolves by startling the larger predators with his snowmobile.

An ice fisherman in Ontario, Canada, claims to have saved a coyote from  attacking wolves by startling the larger predators with his snowmobile.

Ryan Thorburn told Michigan Live that he had just quit fishing when he spotted the coyote running from two wolves. His footage (posted below) shows one wolf in a high-speed pursuit on the snow, with the coyote galloping for its life.

“They ran right past me, the one right in front of me you see in the video, then the second wolf behind me,” Thorburn said. “The one behind me stopped and stared at me. It did frighten me because I don’t trust wolves. This was definitely a surreal experience.”

Thorburn, an ER nurse, said the wolves “did get the pounce on the coyote” before he used his snowmobile to distract the wolves, allowing the injured coyote to escape.

RELATED: Angler hauls 4-foot tiger muskie through tiny hole in ice

“I spooked the wolves by slowly creeping around the corner. The wolves caught glimpse of me and ran away, and the coyote got up and ran the opposite way,” Thorburn told For The Win Outdoors.

According to multiple reports, wolves can run in bursts up to 38 mph, while coyotes have been clocked at 43 mph.

–Image courtesy of Ryan Thorburn

Good, bad, worse: Fighting spirit on one card, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on the other

Good, bad worse: Celebrating fighting spirit on one card, bemoaning Julio Cesar Chavez Jr’s actions on another

GOOD

Jermell Charlo and Tony Harrison gave us a spirited main event Saturday night, going back and forth in a competitive tussle until Charlo landed a big left hook that led to a dramatic 11th-round knockout.

In the process, Charlo regained from this bitter rival the junior middleweight belt Harrison took from him a year ago. Great stuff.

That wasn’t my favorite part of the Fox card, though. Fans love when a fighter hired as “opponent” refuses to cooperate because of innate, unexplainable fighting spirit that isn’t necessarily commensurate with his ability. And I’m a fan.

I’m referring specifically to heavyweight Iago Kiladze and lightweight Rene Tellez Giron, who were “opponents” on the Charlo-Harrison II undercard at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.

Kiladze was supposed to be just another step in Efe Ajagba’s ascent to stardom. The 33-year-old Los Angeles-based Georgian had been stopped in three of his previous four fights and hadn’t had his hand raised in victory since he beat a relatively unknown Cuban in 2017.

Iago Kiladze (right) proved against Efe Ajagba that you can’t always keep a good man down. Stephanie Trapp / TGB Promotions

In other words, Kiladze doesn’t have championship pedigree. He has pride, though. And presumably dreams, as ever fighter does. We saw it on Saturday.

Ajagba, a 6-foot-6 Adonis from Nigeria, put Kiladze down in the second round and had people thinking, “Well, this isn’t going to last long.” Kiladze got up. Ajagba hurt Kiladze the following round, leaving him on shaky legs that seemed about to collapse. Kiladze didn’t give up. Instead, he stunned everyone watching by landing a hard right counter that put Ajagba on his butt.

Kiladze went down hard again in Round 5 and, this time, he seemed to be finished. Nope. He got up and continued to fight his heart out. The underdog’s corner threw in the towel shortly thereafter, which was fortunate: He never would have done so.

Giron was hired  as a stepping stone in the career of undefeated U.S. Olympian Karlos Balderas but Giron, just another in a long line of anonymous, but unusually tough Mexicans who happens to have an impressive left hook, turned their matchup into a firefight and emerged victorious.

Undefeated? Giron didn’t care. An Olympian. Meant nothing to him. Hot prospect? Maybe that could be him instead. He had a job to do and he did it with infectious passion.

Who doesn’t love a stirring battle between gifted rivals like Charlo and Harrison? I’ll always admire that kind of ability. There’s something just as special about no-names – like Kiladze and Giron – who believe in themselves even if no one else does and fight like they want to be the best in the world.

Thank you to the featured fighters, thank you to the no-names.

BAD AND WORSE

Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. had surgery to repair his broken nose after his fight with Daniel Jacobs on Friday in Phoenix. Ed Mulholland / Matchroom Boxing USA

I don’t begrudge Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. using his name to make a good living in boxing. I’d probably do the same thing.

The problem with Chavez is that he has abused the privilege, as we saw before, during and after what was supposed to be a super middleweight fight against Daniel Jacobs on Friday in Phoenix. Consider his actions:

  • Junior refused to submit a sample for a random drug test administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency on Oct. 24, which resulted in a temporary suspension by officials in Nevada. The fight was moved from Las Vegas to Phoenix as a result.
  • He missed weight by 4.7 pounds, which required the parties to renegotiate the contract. He ended up losing $1 million in the process but walked away with as much. Jacobs, making his debut as a full-fledged 168-pounder, had to face the equivalent of a cruiserweight at fight time.
  • He quit after the fifth round of the fight with a broken nose and cut above his left eye, claiming he couldn’t breathe. That sparked a near riot as angry fans threw everything they could get their hands toward the ring.
  • And he blamed head butts and elbows for his injuries when replays seemed to show that punches caused the damage.

Chavez might’ve been excused if all this added up to a one-time indiscretion. Many fighters run into problems – including broken noses that make it difficult to fight – at some time or another. However, with him, it has been one misstep after another most of his career.

He has failed other tests for banned substances. He has missed weight more than once. And he has skipped training sessions, a clear indication that he hasn’t taken the sport seriously. Trainer Freddie Roach, with whom he worked on Saturday and for his fight against Sergio Martinez in 2012, said Chavez missed a month’s worth of workouts leading into the latter event.

Chavez, only 33, probably will fight again because he still has a name that can earn him the kind of paychecks many more-serious fighters can only dream. A lot of people wish he wouldn’t, though. He has worn out his welcome.

And that’s a shame. Junior had some ability. Had he done things the right way, he probably would’ve been considered a less-gifted, but worthy successor to his great father. Instead, he’ll be remembered as someone who behaved more like entitled brat than a professional boxer.

Jermell Charlo stops Tony Harrison to regain title in Round 11

Jermell Charlo ended a close fight by stopping Tony Harrison in Round 11 to regain the 154-pound title Harrison took from him a year ago.

One can’t let his guard down against a fighter like Jermell Charlo, not even for a split second. Tony Harrison did so and lost his title as a result.

Harrison, defending the junior middleweight belt he took from Charlo by a controversial decision almost exactly a year ago, said afterward that he was coasting past his rival in the rematch Saturday in Ontario, California. And some will agree with him. One judge and I had him winning 95-94 after 10 rounds.

Then one punch rendered all else irrelevant. Charlo landed a left hook midway through Round 11 that sent Harrison reeling and then down. And he was hurt badly. He got up but then absorbed a series of hard punches that put him down again and prompted Charlo, assuming he had won, to leap onto the ropes in celebration.

Harrison got up again but one more barrage of punches with his back against the ropes convinced referee Jack Reiss to end the fight. The official time was 2:28.

Just like that, Charlo turned a close fight into a convincing victory to regain the title he lost to a man he really can’t stand.

“I got my belt back,” a jubilant Charlo said in the ring immediately afterward. “… [And] I didn’t leave it up to the judges.”

The fight didn’t play out as many expected. Harrison, the boxer, walked down Charlo much of the fight. And Charlo, who was assertive at times, wasn’t quite as aggressive as some people thought he needed to be to win the fight.

The new champ was very aggressive in Round 2, coming out at the bell like a wild man. Harrison, a clever defensive fighter, was able to withstand the pressure until a left hook from Charlo put him on his behind.

The rest of the fight was give and take, as a number of rounds could’ve gone either way. One could argue that Harrison controlled the action with his jab and enough power punches – including many to the body – to win the majority of the rounds.

Plus, many of Charlo’s punches, as ill-intended as they were, landed on Harrison’s gloves and shouldn’t have been considered scoring blows.

At the same time, Charlo was busier than Harrison at a number of junctures and was able to get enough punches – some of them hard, eye-catching shots – through Harrison’s guard.

Two judges had Charlo winning by the same score after 10 rounds – 96-93, or six rounds to four. The third judge gave Harrison six rounds. Those scores or anything in between were reasonable given the competitiveness of the fight.

And none of it mattered midway through Round 11. The left hook changed everything. Harrison was able to get up from both knockdowns that round but never fully recovered, which became obvious to Reiss in the end.

Some people will argue that the stoppage was premature because Harrison wasn’t taking heavy blows at that moment. However, Harrison, who initially protested vociferously, gave Reiss the benefit of the doubt when he was interviewed.

“Jack is a championship referee,” said Harrison, who clearly was devastated after the fight. “I ain’t gonna question whatever he saw. I started to get a little lax and got caught. … [Charlo] earned it. I hate it. But he earned it.

“… I’d like to do it one more time,” he added, seemingly almost in tears. “I felt like I let us down. I felt like I let me down. Damn.”

Charlo was gracious afterward, or as gracious as he could be given the nasty pre-fight trash talk that resulted the controversial decision in the first fight and the fact Harrison had to postpone the rematch because of a nagging ankle injury.

Still, Charlo followed tradition by walking over to Harrison’s corner to congratulate him on a good fight.

“I’m a gentleman at the end of the day,” Charlo said. “I have a family to feed, so does he. May the best man win. I showed good sportsmanship. But at the end of the day, I don’t that dude – period.”

Charlo-Harrison III? The winner was asked whether he’d be willing to fight Harrison again and initially indicated that is open to the idea but then said, “I’m off to bigger and better things,” which doesn’t bode well for Harrison.

Charlo was also asked about Julian Williams, who holds two 154-pound titles.

He responded, including brother Jermall in his answer: “We’re history making twins. I’m down for whatever makes history.”