CALEDON, Ont. \u2014 Some of the biggest names in golf are set to tee it up at the RBC Canadian Open this summer, while tournament organizers also announced the event will return to TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley in 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n
RBC and Golf Canada shared some of the initial field commitments Monday at the facility \u2014 about 45 minutes north of Toronto\u2019s airport \u2014 and amongst the splashy confirmations are three golfers ranked inside the top 10 in the world: Matt Fitzpatrick, Collin Morikawa and Tommy Fleetwood.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brooks Koepka will also return to the RBC Canadian Open for the first time since 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cStrength of field is sort of everything when you think of tournaments,\u201d RBC chief brand officer Shannon Cole told Sportsnet.ca. \u201cThat\u2019s what drives viewership, that\u2019s what drives fandom, that drives attendance, that drives storylines \u2014 it\u2019s an important foundational element that we focus a lot on because strength of field drives everything else.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fleetwood and Fitzpatrick have been mainstays at the lone PGA Tour stop in Canada but Morikawa, like Koepka, hasn\u2019t teed it up since 2019, finishing tied for 14th.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both Fitzpatrick and Morikawa\u2019s wives are pregnant and expecting their first children this summer but, for now, the pair is in.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Koepka re-joined the PGA Tour earlier this year from LIV Golf and must play at least 15 events on the Tour schedule as part of the rules of his return. Since he cannot receive sponsor exemptions into signature events, Koepka must fill his tournament list as much as he can \u2014 for example, he’s playing an alternate-field event this week in Myrtle Beach. His star power, however, hasn\u2019t diminished.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other notables who are set to join the field include Max Homa and Tony Finau, while Ryan Fox will return to defend his title from 2025. Fox won last year\u2019s Canadian Open in a playoff over Sam Burns after hitting what he called \u201cthe best shot\u201d of his life on the fourth playoff hole. There is now a plaque on the 18th fairway of the North Course at TPC Toronto dedicated to Fox and his tournament-winning shot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a massive event for my career,\u201d Fox said by telephone to the assembled media group. \u201c(The RBC Canadian Open has) storied history. To get a win was unbelievable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
RBC-sponsored golfers Burns, Shane Lowry and Sahith Theegala will be joined by a plethora of Canadian talent including 2023 RBC Canadian Open winner Nick Taylor and the country\u2019s top-ranked male golfer Corey Conners.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mike Weir has also accepted a sponsor invite and will compete in his incredible 33rd RBC Canadian Open, just one back of the all-time record total held by George Cumming.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In all, 11 Canadians were confirmed Monday to tee it up in a few weeks. Tournament director Ryan Paul said there will be likely close to 20 Canadians in the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFans want to come and watch the best and players want to come to the best venues and compete for a national open,\u201d Cole said. \u201cThere is excitement and validation (for the field) and hopefully more to come.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
One golfer who was not announced Monday who had played each of the last five RBC Canadian Open events was Rory McIlroy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McIlroy, a two-time winner in Canada, has long said he would be culling his schedule, and it appears the Canadian Open will be a victim of that trim for 2026, although Paul said \u201ctalks are ongoing\u201d with McIlroy\u2019s team \u2014 and, technically, he has until 5 p.m. ET the Friday before the tournament begins to change his mind. McIlroy won the event in his first start in 2019 and again in 2022, the first event after the COVID-19 hiatus, and if that is it for him, well, no one would be upset to have that run in the tournament\u2019s history books.<\/p>\n
As part of Monday\u2019s announcement, RBC and Golf Canada also confirmed TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley\u2019s North Course will host next year\u2019s Canadian Open \u2014 making it three years in a row for the Caledon facility, which underwent an impressive overhaul leading into hosting the 2025 edition of the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is the first time the Canadian Open will be played at the same venue in back-to-back years since 2015-2018 when it was contested at Glen Abbey Golf Club.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chris Humeniuk, the president of TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, said the North Course at TPC Toronto is now positioned as a \u201clegacy venue\u201d for the event.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re incredibly honoured to host Canada\u2019s National Open Championship, and to be part of the ongoing legacy of this historic event,\u201d said Humeniuk. \u201cWe were thrilled with how the venue was received during our first time hosting the event in 2025 and look forward to building on the success of that event with our commitment to continuous improvement and collaboration with our partners at Golf Canada, RBC and the PGA Tour.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The North Course at TPC Toronto is not yet open for the season \u2014 TPC Toronto\u2019s Hoot course opened May 1 while its Heathlands course opens May 8 \u2014 but Humeniuk said Monday his team is \u201cvery confident\u201d the course will be in great shape. He said the agronomy team from the PGA Tour has already been up to TPC Toronto and said there had been \u201cextra steps\u201d taken as it warms up for the season. They will continue to keep play off the course and limit traffic as tournament week nears, he said.<\/p>\n
The 2026 Canadian Open will be held June 11-14.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paul, the tournament director, said there would be more field commitments to come along with other tournament announcements, including concert performers and more. Paul also confirmed organizers that would show Canada\u2019s opening match of the World Cup on screens across the property on Friday of tournament week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALEDON, Ont. \u2014 Some of the biggest names in golf are set to tee it up at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-647900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}