RBC CANADIAN OPEN
Purse: $9.8M
Winner's Share: $1.764M
FedEx Cup Points: 500 to the Winner
Location: Caledon, Ontario
Course: TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley (North Course)
Yardage: 7,389
Par: 70
2025 champion: Ryan Fox (TPC Toronto)
Tournament Preview
It's the week before the U.S. Open. All the golfers participating in the third major of the year are prepping in the way that's best for them. That would be either taking the week off or tuning up at the Canadian Open.
Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are passing on Canada, and it's always difficult for this tournament to attract big names -- though it did snare McIlroy last year.
This year, tournament organizers should be moderately pleased. A strong U.K. contingent headed by Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood and PGA Championship winner Aaron Rai, along with Collin Morikawa, Brooks Koepka, Wyndham Clark and Viktor Hovland, highlight this 147-man field. In all, there are four top-10 players and eight top-25s.
There are 18 Canadians playing in their national championship, notably 2023 Canadian Open champion Nick Taylor, Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith, Sudarshan Yellamaraju and this country's golf legend, Mike Weir. Nine of the 13 sponsor invites are Canadian, but the most noteworthy name belongs to Padraig Harrington.
Many eyeballs will be on Ben James, the latest college sensation to hit the PGA Tour. The Virginia senior was just crowned winner of PGA Tour University to lock up his Tour card through the 2027 season. This will be the 23-year-old Connecticut native's pro debut, though he has played nine prior Tour events. On Monday, he qualified for the U.S. Open for the third straight year. Also on Monday, James was granted a sponsor invite into the final Signature Event of the season, the Travelers, the week after the Open.
TPC Toronto is back after debuting in the rotation a year ago, when Ryan Fox and Sam Burns went to a playoff at 18-under before the New Zealander won the title in a four-hole playoff, contested entirely on the 581-yard 18th.
The North Course at TPC Toronto is a 2001 design of Canadian Doug Carrick with a 2023-24 Ian Andrew renovation. The club's website describes it as "a parkland-style course built around wide corridors and challenging green sites with deep bunkers." There are 48 bunkers total, which aren't a lot, plus water on three holes, all on the back at Nos. 10, 11 and 18. The bentgrass/poa greens are large, average 6,500 square feet.
While the course is long, the fairways are very wide, averaging more than 35 yards. That sets up nicely for the bigger hitters. The rough is again cut at 3.75 inches, though last year that didn't seem to bother the leaders, as you'll see in the Champion's Profile below.
There are six extremely long par-4s at over 480 yards, with four of them 500-plus. Two of the four par-3s are 225+ yards. So there are some very long holes. There are also two par-4s under 400 yards, including the maybe-drivable 350-yard sixth. There are just two par-5s, bookending the course at Nos. 1 and 18. The first one appears to be a must-birdie at only 542 yards. The 18th is 581 yards leading to a very thin green surrounded by bunkers with water on the left and a greenside run-off into the water.
The four hardest holes last year all were super long par-4s. In order, the 530-yard 17th, the 513-yard 16th and the 526-yard 13th and 500-yard ninth. And yet, the hole with the most big numbers was the 225-yard 11th. That hole alone accounted for more than a third of the double bogeys for the entire week.
As for the weather, some showers are in the forecast for the first two days, though it doesn't sound like very much. Otherwise, high temperatures will be in the 70s across the tournament and it could be pretty windy throughout.
Open Championship qualifying: The top three finishers who are otherwise exempt will gain entry into the Open Championship next month.
Historical Canadian Open factoid: The Canadian Open dates to 1904, making it the world's fifth oldest pro golf tournament, behind only the Open Championship, U.S. Open, Western Open (now the BMW Championship) and the South Africa Open.
Tiger Woods Canadian Open factoid: In 2000, Woods earned his ninth victory of the year and pulled off what is often considered the greatest shot of his career. Sitting in a fairway bunker on the par-5 18th at Glenn Abbey on Sunday, he sent a 6-iron 213 yards over water and birdied the hole for a one-stroke win over Grant Waite.
Key Stats to Winning at Muirfield Village
The most important indicators every week are current form and course history. "Key Stats" follow in importance.
• Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee, Driving Distance
• Strokes Gained: Approach/Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green
• Proximity from 175-200 yards
• Strokes Gained: Putting
• Par-4 Efficiency 450-500 yards and 500-550
Past Champions
2025 - Ryan Fox (TPC Toronto)
2024 - Robert MacIntyre (Hamilton)
2023 - Nick Taylor (Oakdale)
2022 - Rory McIlroy (St. George's)
2021 - No Tournament
2020 - No Tournament
2019 - Rory McIlroy (Hamilton)
2018 - Dustin Johnson (Glen Abbey)
2017 - Jhonattan Vegas (Glen Abbey)
2016 - Jhonattan Vegas (Glen Abbey)
Champion's Profile
In last year's debut at TPC Toronto, Fox and Burns went to a playoff at 18-under and both showed a well-balanced stat line.
Fox ranked 33rd in SG: Off-the-Tee, sixth in Approach, 22nd Around-the-Green and 16th in Putting, along with sixth in greens in regulation. The big-hitting Kiwi was 21st in driving distance but only 43rd in driving accuracy, yet it obviously didn't hurt him.
Burns ranked 18th Off-the-Tee, 12th in Approach, 27th Around-the-Green and ninth in Putting, plus 20th in GIR. He ranked 13th in both driving distance and accuracy.
Kevin Yu, who finished one shot back. ranked first in Off-the-Tee and sixth in SG: Putting.
So all three guys hit their drives relatively far and putted quite well.
There is one other tournament of semi-relevance to examine. The Fortinet Cup Championship on PGA Tour Americas was played there in September 2024, with a winning score of 5-under by Will Cannon, who is now on the Korn Ferry Tour. There were windy conditions, however, It played longer -- 7,445 yards -- than it will this week. Johnny Keefer, now on the PGA Tour and in the field this week, shared third place two strokes back.
Cannon ranked T42 in driving accuracy, T32 in greens in regulation, second in scrambling and T13 in putts per GIR.
Runner-up Sandy Scott led the field in greens in regulation and ranked 24th in putting. Keefer was strong across the board and ranked seventh in putting.
Like last year in the Canadian Open, the top three on the Fortinet leaderboard all putted decently or better, albeit with much lower scores.
The over/under on the winning score as determined by golfodds.com was set at 261.5 under par, which is 18.5 under.
DRAFTKINGS VALUE PICKS
Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap
$10,000 and up
Tommy Fleetwood - $10,300 (Winning odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +1150)
Fleetwood came close to winning for the second time on the PGA Tour at the Memorial. After an eagle on the par-5 15th lifted him into the solo lead, a bad bogey on 17 did him in. He wound up tied for fourth -- his second top-5 in his past three starts. Fleetwood is ranked 10th on Tour in SG: Tee-to-Green, with a No. 1 overall ranking in SG: Around-the-Green contributing mightily to that total.
$9,000-$9,900
Wyndham Clark - $9,700 (+2350)
Clark may be the hottest golfer going. He followed up his win at the Byron Nelson with a solo third last week at the Memorial, a tournament he had a share of the lead in with two holes to play. His two best clubs have historically been his driver and putter, but right now he's ranked 10th on Tour in SG: Approach.
Shane Lowry - $9,900 (+3400)
Lowry played here last year and tied for 13th. He hasn't missed a cut since THE PLAYERS and is coming off his second top-25 in three starts, both of which came in Signature Events. Lowry is ranked 43rd in SG: Approach, 25th in Putting and 29th in Total.
$8,000-$8,900
Alex Fitzpatrick - $8,700 (+3900)
Ever since winning the Zurich Classic alongside older brother Matt, Alex has been the best golfer in his family. He's coming off a third straight top-10 in Signature Events. He hasn't played enough rounds to be ranked statistically in the season-long totals, yet if the TOUR Championship started today, he'd be in it.
Eric Cole - $8,100 (+4500)
Cole experienced heartbreak two weeks ago with a playoff loss to Russell Henley at the Charles Schwab. But he came right back last week with a top-10 at the Memorial. He struggles off the tee but has outstanding stats everywhere else, ranking 33rd in SG: Approach and top-10 in both SG: Around-the-Green and Putting.
$7,000-$7,9000
Ryan Fox - $7,800 (+5200)
We're not fond of picking defending champions. But the course is such a good fit for Fox, plus he's playing well and is priced in the $7,000s. He's made five straight cuts and is coming off a tie for 27th at the Memorial. Fox remains one of the longer hitters on Tour and is ranked top-50 in SG: Tee-to-Green.
Steven Fisk - $7,400 (+8600)
Fisk has made six of his past seven cuts -- missing only at the PGA Championship. He's coming off his first top-10 of the season at the Charles Schwab and has two other recent top-20s. Fisk is ranked in the top-25 on Tour in SG: Putting.
Taylor Moore - $7,100 (+11000)
Moore has missed only two cuts all year, and both were in Texas. Not to worry, Canada is pretty far from Texas. Moore has an interesting stat line: He's terrible on approach, ranked outside the top-140 on Tour, but quite good everywhere else, especially with his driver and putter.
$6,000-$6,900
A.J. Ewart - $6,900 (+18500)
We needed to pick one Canadian, right? But there's a lot to like about Ewart other than the fact he's a native of British Columbia. He is playing his best golf of the season, with top-20s in his past two starts among his five top-25s on the year. He's ranked ninth on Tour in SG: Putting and 35th in greens in regulation. That's pretty darn good at any price.
Padraig Harrington - $6,100 (+130000)
This honestly was the hardest week we can remember in trying to find a golfer $6,500 or under. So, we're not actually advocating Harrington. It's just that he might be the best play among a lot of bad possibilities. On the other hand, the 54-year-old Champions Tour star did just tie for 18th at the PGA Championship and still hits the ball very far.
Making DraftKings lineups for the RBC Canadian Open? Load them up in RotoWire's PGA DFS Lineup Optimizer.
