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The Honourable Mr. Justice William Johnston.
(Ken Gigliotti / Winnipeg Free Press)
A number of changes were made to the tournament during
Johnsgon’s time on the executive, including the addition of a
second qualifying round for the men, and the interwoven
match-play schedules. Men’s play used to feature qualifying
Saturday and Sunday and then matches Monday through
Thursday, culminating in the championship. The juniors and
women would start Thursday and end on the weekend. Now,
days off are provided to everyone, and every championship
match in every section takes place on Saturday. “It was a
tremendous change,” said Johnston. “A lot of guys would
complain about having to play six days in a row.”
Johnston credits that scheduling change to Barry Diller,
who was tournament director for about 20 years. Diller is
also responsible for helping to speed up play by establishing
white chalk lines on the left and right of No. 10, requiring
golfers to go to a drop zone on the fairway if their tee shot
landed beyond the chalk. He did something similar on No. 15,
too, drawing a chalk line in the middle of the fairway and
having golfers who hit stray tee shots to take a one-shot
penalty and hit their third shot from the centre line. “It really
speeded up play and was a great innovation,” said Johnston.
The experiment about 25 years ago with two shotgun starts
had one major drawback, said Johnston. “The first wave (of
golfers) took up all the spots in the parking lot and the second
wave would arrive and have to park at Onanole,” he said, the
words dripping with hyperbole. “We were trying to maximize
the number of competitors, but we’ve come to the conclusion
that 224 (men) is the comfortable number.”