Waxing nostalgic: I miss the days when the Canadian Open was a big tournament. Not that I'm quite old enough to remember the Canadian Open in all its glory. But now it's just another PGA Tour stop in-between the big events - in-between those "must play" tournaments that dot the schedule and reduce all other events to filler.

Excluding the U.S. Open and British Open, the Canadian Open is the second-oldest tournament on the PGA Tour (only the Western Open ... ahem, the BMW Championship, is older). But like the U.S. Open and British Open, the Canadian Open is a national championship.

And while it was never on the same level as those other two national championships, the Canadian was on a level just a smidge below. Sort of a WGC tournament of its time. The big stars wanted this title.

When Lee Trevino won the Canadian Open in 1971, he also won the U.S. Open and British Open - making him the first golfer to win all three in the same year (some guy named Tiger later did it, too). You don't hear anybody today extolled as the guy who won the U.S. Open, British Open and St. Jude Championship in the same year. But Trevino is still proud of that achievement, because when he achieved it, it was akin to winning the U.S. Open, British Open and Players Championship in one season.

Throughout his career, Jack Nicklaus was desperate to win this event. It's well-known that Nicklaus finished second seven times at the British Open. Not as well-known is that he finished second in the Canadian Open seven times, too. But he never won. He kept trying, though, and some of his best post-1980 showings came in a handful of majors and in the Canadian Open. Three times in the 1980s - 1981, 1984, 1985 - Nicklaus was runner-up here. He also finished second in 1965, 1968, 1975 and 1976.

The guys Nicklaus finished second to were, in chronological order, Gene Littler, Bob Charles, Tom Weiskopf, Jerry Pate, Peter Oosterhuis, Greg Norman and Curtis Strange. That's a pretty good champions row right there.

The tournament struggled into the 1990s, though, with sponsorship problems among other issues, and with fields thinning out. But it still produced some great champions: Tiger Woods in 2000 (he hasn't played the Canadian since 2001), Vijay Singh in 2004, Jim Furyk the last two years.

There's no way, with its "big event" strategy, the PGA Tour can keep all its tournament officials happy. Half the tournaments on the schedule are going to get the shaft - are going to appear to be the "B" team - no matter what. But if I were prioritizing events that deserved to be built back up, the Canadian would be one of them.

Update: Perhaps I wrote this too soon. Golfweek says there's a "Canadian Open revival under way."