It isn’t often a billionaire businessman wanders around a golf course without a club in his hands, but that’s exactly what Calgary oil baron Clay Riddell is doing.
Riddell is one of the founders – or patrons as they are referred – of the Shaw Charity Classic, the Champions Tour golf tournament that kicks off on Friday, with pro-ams today and Thursday.
“This is going to be a really exciting week,” says Riddell as he strolls across the bridge towards the clubhouse at Canyon Meadows, the private club where he’s a member and where the tournament will be held. “This is going to be a great week for Calgary.”
If anyone recognizes the chairman and chief executive of Paramount Resources, and one of the world’s richest men according to Forbes, as he walks around the course, they aren’t letting on. Riddell is one of four Calgary businessmen who officially launched the tournament late last year. Riddell, along with his son Jim, entrepreneur Guy Turcotte, Canadian Natural Resources chair Allan Markin, and Bonavista Energy chair Keith MacPhail, were contacted about the notion of creating a tournament last summer by PGA Tour golfer Stephen Ames and Kim Koss, business development director for the Calgary Chamber of Commerce. Unable to secure a Canadian Open for the city, largely due to the lack of a golf course able to host the event, Koss and Ames dreamed up the notion of holding a Champions Tour event, the tour for players 50 years and older. Champions Tour tournaments takes less infrastructure and can be played on shorter courses than those on the PGA Tour, and therefore could be accommodated on a facility in Calgary.
“A lot of people in the city wanted to do this for a long time,” says Koss, saying he and Ames have been doing smaller corporate outings in Calgary for several years to test the waters. Koss is currently acting as the director of sponsorship and business development for the Shaw Charity Classic. When it became clear a Canadian Open wasn’t likely to happen any time in the near future, it was determined a Champions Tour event was the best fit. It didn’t hurt that Ames will join the tour next year when he turns 50.
Once approached, it turned out Riddell and his partners weren’t just keen on the idea – they were also prepared to pay for the event. The purse for the tournament is $2-million, with $300,000 share going to the winner. Riddell and his partners would have been on the hook for the entire costs, but that’s before Shaw, parent company of Global News, came on as title sponsor, with secondary sponsorships from the likes of RBC.
“The economics are to cover the costs with the profits going to charity,” says Koss, adding that he hopes the charitable donation will be upwards of $1.5-million. “We are building capacity on this as part of a three-year plan, and the big beneficiary of this, aside from the charities is the city of Calgary and the province.”
None of this will happen overnight. While the tournament expects to draw more than 50,000 fans over the course of the week, it is the corporate support that really adds to the bottom line of a professional golf tournament. Koss says the support has been strong this year, but the patron group hopes to expand it over the next two years.
“One thing is clear, we are doing this right, as a world-class event,” Koss says. “That will ultimately drive the corporate dollars.”
As for Riddell, he’s actively involved in the tournament, right down to helping determine where it would be played. Riddell has been a member at Canyon Meadows, a private club just outside Calgary’s core, where he’s played for as long as he can recall. Even then, he was worried about member support for the tournament, which will be held at the course through 2015.
“Whenever there’s a vote you never know how it is going to go,” Riddell says, though members voted 91% to hold the tournament.
And his involvement hasn’t stopped there. He’s been promoting the tournament, and actively scrutinizing every aspect of its finances.
“I sign every cheque,” he says. “I wanted to know where and how all the money was spent.”
With that Riddell walks into Canyon Meadows’ clubhouse. The tournament is just about to start, but there’s a sense that Riddell’s work is far from finished.
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