Photo: Patrick Smith, Getty Images
While most of the golf leaders who gathered in Augusta last week bemoaned the rain and the mid-event drop in temperature, from over 80 degrees to barely 50, Mary DePaoli had a different take. She arrived in Georgia from meetings in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where the temperature was minus-18. For DePaoli, anything with a plus sign said spring. A schedule that included meetings in Augusta and then a trip to Hilton Head for her own tournament, the RBC Heritage? Are you kidding?
Mary DePaoli is used to bringing a slightly different perspective to things, certainly to golf. As executive vice president and chief marketing officer of the Royal Bank of Canada, hosting this week’s Heritage Open, but also a mother of two daughters, a Canadian, a former wealth manager who grew up often being the only woman in the room or on the corporate-outing tee sheet, a woman who oversees a global marketing group of 420 including sponsorships not only in men’s golf but women’s golf, hockey and competitive computer gaming, ...