{"id":494977,"date":"2026-02-23T22:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/494977\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T22:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:31:07","slug":"claire-welsh-steps-down-after-short-stay-at-golf-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/494977\/","title":{"rendered":"Claire Welsh steps down after short stay at Golf Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CPKC Women\u2019s Open <\/a>has a new tournament director. Again.<\/p>\n

In a surprising turn of events, Golf Canada and Claire Welsh have agreed to go their separate ways. Welsh, a Barrie, Ont., native, spent a decade in Scotland working for the R&A before returning home last November to run the women\u2019s Open. She is now out of that job after just 15 months.<\/p>\n

Neither side offered specifics on the matter, and both said the parting was amicable.<\/p>\n

Brian Newton, previously the national sport organization\u2019s operations director of the CPKC Women\u2019s Open and RBC Canadian Open, has been named Welsh\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n

\u201cClaire has transitioned from the role as CPKC Women\u2019s Open tournament director and turning her attention to a new chapter in her professional career,\u201d a statement from Golf Canada read. \u201cOver the past 15 months, Claire has provided thoughtful leadership to the organization and our National Women\u2019s Open Championship. We are grateful for her commitment and wish Claire the very best of success in this next chapter of her career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Timing-wise, this is a curious move.<\/p>\n

The CPKC Women\u2019s Open at Royal Mayfair Golf Club in Edmonton is just six months away, meaning Newton will have to be brought up to speed in short-order on the high-profile responsibilities that go along with being a tournament director. Those include player engagement, media, marketing and corporate sponsorship among others.<\/p>\n

Optically, Welsh\u2019s short tenure is not great for the association.<\/p>\n

Getting the industry veteran to take over for Ryan Paul \u2014 who moved over to become RBC Canadian Open tournament director following the departure of Brian Crawford to the Ontario Hockey League \u2014 was considered a coup for Golf Canada.<\/p>\n

A strong advocate for women\u2019s golf, the Carleton University alum spent 10 years with the R&A serving in progressively senior positions with The Open and AIG Women\u2019s Open, including head of player relations. Welsh also worked in the R&A\u2019s commercial and communications departments, had a key support role for the International Golf Federation during the lead up to the game\u2019s return at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Before heading overseas, she spent six years with Golf Ontario in marketing and communications.<\/p>\n

In a two-part Q&A for SCOREGolf last summer,<\/a> Welsh expressed her excitement to showcase the game and country through the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was out in the Rocky Mountains in Banff. Never been there. I went out and did some site visits on where we might take the event in the future and I just couldn\u2019t stop thinking about what a fantastic country Canada is and how we have all these incredible golf courses and that idea of being able to show off this amazing country on TV, to the players, to the fans, that is so exciting for me,\u201d she said at the time. \u201cI mean it was cool for me to be out in Banff, a town CPKC literally built years ago as CPR and how integral that was to the establishment of Canada. It\u2019s funny. I had been privileged enough to travel the world and see all these amazing golf courses and cities, but I haven\u2019t had the experience of seeing Canada. To work for an event that moves coast-to-coast, one that connects communities across Canada the way the tournament does, that\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about regrets now that she\u2019s departing, Welsh said there were none.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe job brought me home. It brought me back to Canada, which is where my heart is and it was so cool for me to see Brooke win last year <\/a>\u2014 a career highlight for me \u2014 and no matter where I go next or in the coming years I will look back at that week and that moment as unforgettable,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just couldn\u2019t get any better than that. It\u2019s been an honour and a privilege to play a part in a wonderful historic championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welsh is confident this year\u2019s event at Royal Mayfair will be a huge success under Newton.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrian cares deeply about women\u2019s golf and he is going to do a fantastic job. He\u2019s one of the most impressive people I\u2019ve ever worked with, and I have no doubt that the CPKC Women\u2019s Open is in really good hands going forward. It\u2019s been wonderful for me to work with the team at Golf Canada, but it was the right decision for me to step down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Asked for the specific reason(s) for her departure, Welsh was non-comital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fair question but I really can\u2019t speak to any specifics or that there was one thing that happened without getting into things I\u2019d prefer not to,\u201d she said. \u201cI recognize things like this often draw speculation, but my leaving Golf Canada was an amical parting and there are absolutely no hard feelings at all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The CPKC Women\u2019s Open has a new tournament director. Again. In a surprising turn of events, Golf Canada…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":494978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,48506,53521,42098,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-494977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cpkc-womens-open","11":"tag-golf-canada","12":"tag-lpga","13":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}