News Masters

Masters Mondays is a weekly look back at the history of the Masters as we count down to the season-opening Pinty’s Grand Slam of Curling event running Oct. 25-30 in Okotoks, Alta. This Monday we highlight the three years when the tournament was known at the World Cup of Curling.

The World Cup of Hockey is winding down in Toronto with Canada and Europe set for a best-of-three series for the championship this week.

While you may be familiar with that World Cup, there once was a World Cup of Curling with the Masters adopting the name for a three-year period running 2009-11.

Let’s rewind and check it out:

2009

The first World Cup of Curling was also the first Grand Slam of Curling event held in the Greater Toronto Area taking place at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, Ont.

Staying true to the “world” moniker, teams from China, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.S. filled the field with just five Canadian teams skipped by Randy Ferbey, Brad Gushue, Glenn Howard, Kevin Koe and Kevin Martin among the mix.

Despite being outnumbered, four of the five Canadian teams qualified for the playoffs and it was an all-Canadian team final between Howard and Koe. Coincidentally, Howard defeated Koe in the Masters final during the two previous seasons.

Different event name, same result as Howard defeated Koe for a third time 6-4. It was also Howard’s fourth consecutive time winning the event, the only four-peat at any Grand Slam event.

Koe came close trailing by one point with the hammer coming home, but his final angle-raise attempt to win just missed and clipped a guard.

A Three Nations Cup featuring four women’s teams was also held during the 2009 World Cup of Curling. Stefanie Lawton and Shannon Kleibrink represented Canada and faced Bingyu Wang of China and Eve Muirhead of Great Britain in a round-robin tournament. Muirhead, making her GSOC series debut at age 19, finished with a 3-1 record to win the title.

The event proved the GTA had an appetite for big time curling. Since then Oshawa, Ont., has held two Grand Slam events and the Players’ Championship has found a semi-permanent home at Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre. The downtown Toronto venue will host the crown jewel Grand Slam event for the third consecutive year, and fourth time in five years, later this season.

2010

The World Cup of Curling travelled west down Highway 401 with the 2010 edition taking place in Windsor, Ont.

This time the event returned to a more traditional Grand Slam format with 18 men’s teams, however, 15 of them were Canadian with only Niklas Edin of Sweden, David Murdoch of Scotland and Thomas Ulsrud of Norway as international competition.

Winnipeg’s Mike McEwen finished the round-robin portion with a 3-2 record and needed to double his win total on the penultimate day of the tournament in order to reach his first career Grand Slam final. Consider it done: McEwen stole a point coming home to slip past Ulsrud 7-6 in a tiebreaker, stunned Martin 8-3 in just five ends during the quarterfinals and rolled past Rob Fowler 7-2 in five ends in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Jeff Stoughton beat Ferbey 5-4 in the quarters and put a halt to Howard’s “drive for five” Masters/World Cup titles scoring three points coming home to win 6-4 and set up the all-Winnipeg rink championship game.

Team Stoughton moved onto the final minus third Jon Mead, who had to leave early for a business trip in Hong Kong. Greg Balsdon jumped in to spare for the final.

Stoughton opened with the hammer, however, McEwen struck first on the scoreboard stealing one in the second. Stoughton matched with a single in three to knot it up.

The teams kept pace with points in the fourth and fifth ends each with the score tied at 2-2. McEwen added another in seven and held on stealing again in the eighth to win 4-2 and pick up his first career Grand Slam title.

2011

The World Cup of Curling stayed put in Ontario heading up north to Sault Ste. Marie in 2011.

Once again the 18-team field was dominated by Canadians with 16 teams and just two from overseas: Edin and Ulsrud.

Howard was back in business defeating the defending champ McEwen 4-2 in the quarterfinals and Edin 5-2 in the semis to reach the final.

The other side of the bracket saw Toronto’s John Epping topping two Olympic gold medallists taking down Gushue 7-4 and Martin 4-3. While Epping had won a Grand Slam title when he played second for Wayne Middaugh, this was his first time through to the final as a skip.

It was also a father vs. son battle for the title with Glenn’s son Scott Howard playing second for Team Epping. The elder Howard prevailed 6-4 to return to winner’s circle capturing his fifth Masters/World Cup championship.

The match-up book-ended the 2011-12 Grand Slam season with the teams facing off again in the Players’ Championship final. Epping, who was the lowest-ranked seed, pulled off the upset edging Howard 7-6 to capture his second career Grand Slam title and first as a skip.