{"id":731878,"date":"2026-06-12T11:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731878\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T11:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:49:14","slug":"matthew-anderson-finishes-with-late-charge-up-the-leaderboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731878\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Anderson finishes with late charge up the leaderboard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada’s Matthew Anderson watches his tee shot on the 11th hole in the third round of the RBC Canadian Open golf tournament in Caledon, Ont. on Saturday. He fired a 6-under 64 in the last group of the day at the RBC Canadian Open to finish Thursday\u2019s first round in a six-way tie atop the leaderboard.Frank Gunn\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Fans were headed to the exits at TPC Toronto, vendors were counting their tills and packing up for the night, but Matthew Anderson was still putting in work.<\/p>\n

Anderson, from nearby Mississauga, Ont., fired a 6-under 64 in the last group of the day at the RBC Canadian Open to finish Thursday\u2019s first round in a six-way tie atop the leaderboard. Anderson said he wasn\u2019t distracted by the dwindling gallery following him around the course, instead focusing on the shot in front of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I had a few supporters out there with me, which was really nice,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cWith the quiet golf course it was cool to hear a loud cheer when you make a birdie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was interesting, but I wasn\u2019t really too focused on that, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sahith Theegala of the United States scored a 6-under 64 during the morning wave at TPC Toronto to take the clubhouse lead, and then Anderson, Argentina\u2019s Emilliano Grillo, and Americans Eric Cole, Brooks Koepka, and Sam Burns matched that performance in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Anderson has played in 13 events on the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour this season, only making the cut five times. He didn\u2019t see the weekend in his last five tournaments leading into this week\u2019s Canadian men\u2019s championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, you\u2019re always working on stuff. I obviously haven\u2019t played my best recently like on Korn Ferry,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cYou\u2019re always working on stuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Matthew Anderson hits a tee shot on the second hole during the second round of the Visit Knoxville Open 2026 at Holston Hills Country Club in Knoxville, Tennessee.Andrew Wevers\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always working on things you can get a little better at, and you never know when it\u2019s going to click. It happened to kind of click today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Theegala said that he intended to watch the afternoon\u2019s wave and see if anyone would mount a challenge to his early lead, even as the course firmed up after a downpour during play in the morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy watching because I feel like as pro golfers, we don\u2019t watch a lot of golf,\u201d said Theegala. \u201cWhen we have a morning tee time, I\u2019ll just try to catch a little bit of coverage in dining or when I go home and recover.\u201d for the most part I\u2019ll do my own thing, get on my iPad and play some video games or some chess and go get a nice dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

At RBC Open, Brooks Koepka is enjoying his post-LIV life<\/a><\/p>\n

A heavy rainfall around 10 a.m. local time softened the North Course, but as the temperature rose in the afternoon, birdies remained gettable. Grillo said that most PGA Tour golfers are so used to faster greens that a softer playing surface could actually throw them off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we come to slow greens, it\u2019s hard to see more break and more speed,\u201d said Grillo. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to get it there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you hit a little too firm on four-footers coming back on the greens. It\u2019s not the most ideal situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koepka, a former world No. 1, was part of an exodus of players that left the PGA Tour for the upstart LIV Golf circuit in June 2022. He returned to the PGA Tour in January of this year under two conditions: he was ineligible to qualify for equity bonuses until 2030, and he agreed to make a US $5-million charitable donation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been nice to be back. I\u2019ve enjoyed it,\u201d said Koepka, who made four birdies on his last five holes. \u201cI think the players have been very receptive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t heard \u2013 at least nobody has said it to my face \u2013 anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson was certainly happy to be tied with Koepka.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cI definitely imagined being in contention this week. I had no doubts I could do it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously feels great out there to feel the juices flowing and be in there and doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Svensson of Surrey, B.C., was in a 12-way tie for second, a shot back of the leaders.<\/p>\n

Reigning champion Ryan Fox of New Zealand shot a 4-under 66 to sit in a tie for 19th.<\/p>\n

Fox was in the day\u2019s marquee group with Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., who won the national men\u2019s golf championship in 2023. Taylor was three under tied for 32nd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canada’s Matthew Anderson watches his tee shot on the 11th hole in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,622,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-731878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-golf","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731878","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=731878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}