Weekly Fantasy Golf Preview: RBC Canadian Open

RBC Canadian Open

TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley
Ontario, Canada

The PGA Tour heads to Canada for another edition of the RBC Canadian Open.

It occurred to me the other day that while I've been spending much of my time focusing on the guys at the top of the PGA Tour this year, you know, Scottie, Rory, etc…that I may have missed what might be the actual storyline of this season to date and that's the emergence of a pack of new winners of signature events this season.

It happened again on Sunday, with J.T. Poston picking up the first signature win of his career, but he's not the first with a breakthrough win this season.

While I've been focused on the many top-5s of Scottie Scheffler and "what's wrong" with his game, guys like Jacob Bridgeman have been winning big events. While I was wondering if Rory McIlroy had another Green Jacket in his future, Akshay Bhatia was winning the Arnold Palmer. While I'm trying to figure out if Tommy Fleetwood will ever win again, Kristoffer Reitan wins the Truist Championship.

It really is a "forest for the trees" situation, but it stops here. Yeah, I'm still going to be primarily focused on the top of the PGA Tour, but that doesn't mean I have go into these events (and I'm going to use another horse racing term) with blinkers on. In case you haven't noticed, and maybe you haven't, because up until this past Sunday, I didn't really, there are a lot of golfers turning in life-changing performances. A win at a regular tour stop gets you a 2-year exemption and access to bigger events, but a signature win gets you into even better events and let's be honest, the winner's check from a signature event sets just about any of these guys up for years. That's buys you something that money can't buy, wait a second, that gets you something that money can buy in certain situations and that's freedom. Freedom to not worry about how you're going to fund this venture for the foreseeable future.

We generally only see what goes on between the ropes with these guys, but behind the scenes, there's so much more. Each one of these guys is running a business. Every time they hit the road, there are expenses that need to be factored in, and I'm not just talking about lodging and food. There are several people that get paid, there's a team, every single guy out there has a team and they all need to get paid. Sure, within these teams, they have managers who might take care of all these matters, but it still has to weigh on these guys, that they are responsible for the welfare of some, if not most of their team members. Cashing a signature win check and knowing that you're going to get every opportunity you could ever want for the next couple years must be a huge relief for these guys.

Now, the question for us is, how does that affect their play afterwards. Looking at the list of winners that came as a bit of a surprise, I'd say that the results haven't been there yet for most of them. Cameron Young has taken his career to the next level is short fashion, but Young winning a signature event wasn't a really a surprise, it was more just a matter of time. It's the guys like Reitan and now Poston that will be interesting to watch over the next year or so. Do they also go to another level in the coming months? Only time will tell.

As for this week, it's a little tricky from a fantasy/gambling perspective as we have just one year of course history in play.

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FAVORITES

All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook as of 4:30 PM ET Tuesday.

Tommy Fleetwood (13-1) 

What a coincidence, I just mentioned the question surrounding Fleetwood winning again and here he is installed as the favorite this week. As we all know, the favorites have not fared well this year and while that's largely due to Scheffler's inability to win lately, there is some added pressure to being the favorite and pressure in this game is rarely a good thing. Fleetwood had an incredible 2025 season, he picked up his first PGA Tour win and earned over $18 million and while most of us thought that would open up the floodgates, that hasn't really happened. Fleetwood has played well in spot, but he hasn't scored a lot of high-end finishes this season. He is however coming off a top-5 this past week, so maybe he's about to go on another run, like he did at the end of this past season.

Matt Fitzpatrick (13-1)

It's interesting that Fleetwood and Fitzpatrick are the co-favorites this week, but has more to do with the public I think than what the odds makers actually think will happen. Fitzpatrick is clearly having the better season of the two, but he has little in the way of experience being near the top of the odds chart. As for Fitzpatrick's prospects this week, it's tough to say because we don't have much course history here, but we can glean a little bit off of his performances at this event over the years. Fitzpatrick has two top-20s in three starts at this event, and while we don't know if that will translate to the current course, we do know that he's on pace for his best season ever on the PGA Tour. He should be in the mix on Sunday, but there's not a ton of value at this price.  

Sam Burns (15-1)

I had Burns pegged as the likely winner this past week heading into the weekend, and while he wasn't able to close out on Sunday, he did fare well overall. Burns is having a decent season, but shockingly, the Memorial was his first top-5 this season. He's obviously missing out on the high-end finishes to start the season, but it looks like he's moving in the right direction. Burns has played very well at this event over the past four years, cracking the top-10 in three of his starts, including this past year where he finished runner-up on the current course. Of the favorites, Burns looks like the best play when factoring in the odds.

Visit our golf betting section for the latest PGA odds and finishing props from multiple sportsbooks.

THE NEXT TIER

Wyndham Clark (20-1)

Clark is definitely on a heater right now and the question is, how long will it last? Clark has had some high highs in his career, but he's been in a bit of rut over the past couple seasons, so much so that his win two weeks ago at the Byron Nelson came as quite a shock. He backed that up with another strong performance at the Memorial though, so another question that's fare is, is this is heater or is he back to his old form? I guess we'll get those answers in the next few weeks, but as for this week, he's getting some decent odds. I think the form will carry over another week and Clark just might be in the mix again on Sunday.  

Kristoffer Reitan (25-1)

Okay Kristoffer with two f's, it's time to show the world what you've got. I mentioned earlier that it will be interesting to see what these new winners will bring the rest of the season, and while Reitan didn't exactly have much in his first start after his win, that was a major and we can excuse him if he wasn't quite mentally there for that one. This past week was a different story though as Reitan showed some of that winning form on his way to a T6 at the Memorial. This will be Reitan's first start at the Canadian Open, but that won't be much of a disadvantage as most of the players in the field have just one start on the current course.

Shane Lowry (35-1)

Lowry is not having a great season, it's not been terrible, but certainly not up to his standards either, yet I think he might be ready to go on a bit of a run. Lowry played pretty well last week, but a three-putt from three feet on the 18th-hole on Saturday threw him off course. Prior to that, he was in stalking distance of the leaders, but the double-bogey in that spot not only push him down the leader board, but it had to affect him mentally. His game overall looked pretty sharp at Muirfield Village though, so I think he's capable of making a run this week. Lowry played on this course a yearo ago and finished T13, so he definitely can get around this track.  

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LONG SHOTS

Alex Fitzpatrick (35-1)  

Fitzpatrick's story is one of the craziest ones we've seen in the past couple decades. He's a guy that was really on anyone's radar, seemingly only a once-a-year player on the PGA Tour and suddenly, not only does he have his tour membership, but he's also playing like he belongs. I'll admit, I thought that after Fitzpatrick got his golden ticket that he'd just kind of exist on the PGA Tour, not really doing much of anything, but it's been the exact opposite as he's posted three top-10s in four starts since the Zurich. A solo win would be in a whole different category, but if he keeps giving himself chances on the weekend, he'll probably get a win at some point.

Eric Cole (40-1)             

Cole had a fantastic rookie season in 2023, but his play regressed in the two seasons that followed. He might be on his way back to his rookie form this year however as he's found some great form over the past couple weeks. He posted a runner-up at the Charles Schwab Challenge two weeks ago and backed that up with another strong performance at the Memorial this past week. That's the good news. The bad news is, he's yet to win on the PGA Tour and he missed the cut here last year. That however is why he's a long shot this week, his form is good enough to win, he'll just have to overcome the course and his inability to close it out on the PGA Tour. It's a tall task, but one that's been done plenty of times.  

ONE-AND-DONE LEAGUES

Highly-Chosen Pick: Sam Burns – The top two guys on the odds chart are generally slated for Signature Events or majors, so I'm assuming that Burns will be among the most popular plays this week. It's a good play as Burns seems to be rounding into form. I also wouldn't expect Burns to be looking ahead to the U.S. Open, something that both Fleetwood and Fitzpatrick might do as the week wears on.   

Moderately-Chosen Pick: Wyndham Clark – Whenever you have an event with a smaller purse, you're looking for guys like Clark. Guys that have big upside, but aren't really in your mix for the bigger events. The problem with Clark this week is that he'll be pretty popular. I mentioned Burns as a popular play as well, but there might be some OAD players that would save him for a bigger event, or maybe they've used him already. That's probably not the case with Clark as he wasn't really an option up until a couple weeks ago.    

Lightly-Chosen Pick: Alex Fitzpatrick – Fitzpatrick will probably be lightly-owned for the rest of the season because nearly everyone used him for the Zurich. Wouldn't it be funny if that wasn't his peak for this season? Most OAD players took him that week with the notion that he'd never have a chance to top the $1.3 million from that week, but his 4th-place finish at the Truist earned him nearly $1 million and his 6th-place finish this past week was worth over $700k. A win in Canada would be his biggest check this season. Not saying it's going to happen, but it would be pretty funny if it did.      

Buyer Beware: Collin Morikawa – He's a big name in a field that doesn't have a lot of big names, but I don't think this is the spot to use Morikawa. The Cal product has been battling a back injury all season and while it looked like he finally got past that in April, his two most recent starts have brought back some concern. It might be that he's healthy again, but his game was just off in his two most recent starts, but whatever the reason, I don't think Morikawa is making a run this week. If anything, he'll use this week to gauge where he's at as the U.S. Open approaches.     

My Pick: Shane Lowry – It's not often that I base my pick primarily on a hunch, but things haven't gone well this season, so I'll try to shake things up a bit this week. Don't get me wrong, it's not like there aren't any reasons to like Lowry here, but there are certainly better plays on paper at least. With that said, I think Lowry was ready to make a run at the Memorial until the gaff on the 18th green in round three. I think that episode not only put him out of position going into the final round, but it might have derailed him a bit mentally as well. With a few days to clear his head, he'll realize that his game is almost there, and if he stays focused, he could win this week.     

Previous Results

View the PGA earnings report to find total winnings and winnings per entry via our fantasy golf stats pages.

FANDUEL PICKS

Upper Range: Sam Burns ($11,700)
Middle Range: Shane Lowry ($10,800)
Lower Range: Mackenzie Hughes ($8,900)

SURVIVOR LEAGUES

This Week: Kristoffer Reitan – I'm not sure I've ever used a first-timer in this format, but my options are extremely limited this week. My first pick was Burns, but I used him already. Same for Lowry, so then I'm left with a bunch of guys with good track records here, but poor form, or the opposite. Well, not everyone, but everyone I thought about taking fell into that category. That left me with Reitan, who is now a few weeks removed from his win, so the hangover should be gone. His form looks good coming into this week, so even though he's new to this event and venue, he should manage to make it to the weekend.   

Previous Results