HAMILTON — Taylor Pendrith, whose birthday falls on the first day of this year’s tournament, recalls vividly his first RBC Canadian Open 10 years ago at Royal Montreal. He was tied for third after the first round and got to see, up close, what it takes to be a PGA Tour golfer.
Fast forward a decade, and this year there will be 28 Canadians in the field — a record for the modern era.
While the event is lacking in top-tier star power as compared to years past, the Canadian contingent is more than up to the task of holding the weight of the tournament.
“It’s an honour to play in your national open, so I’m excited for all these younger guys playing,” Pendrith said, “because my first one was really special.”
This year’s Canadian Open at Hamilton Golf and Country Club features all the names Canadian golf fans have come to expect including, of course, the defending champion, Nick Taylor. Pendrith, Corey Conners, Hamilton’s own Mackenzie Hughes, Adam Hadwin and Adam Svensson are the standard six pack, all ranked inside the top 100 in the world and teeing it up at majors and the Signature Events.
David Hearn is set to play in his 20th Canadian Open this week, while Mike Weir is teeing it up in his 31st — just one back of the all-time record held by George Cumming.
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“I remember my first one, you know it doesn’t feel that long ago but it obviously is,” Weir said. “My game feels like it’s in a great place to pay great here this week, and as long as I feel that I’ll keep going.”
Hughes called Weir the “godfather-like” figure of Canadian golf — always there if he’s needed. And Weir is quick to heap praise on the top-ranked group.
“They’re top-100 players, and all very capable. Nick won (the Canadian Open) last year, but all of them are very capable of winning this week or any event on the PGA Tour,” Weir said, “and hopefully some bigger events going forward.”
But while the six inside the top 100 are firmly part of the week-to-week discussion on the PGA Tour, there’s plenty of Canada’s next generation of male golfers in the field, this week such as Stuart Macdonald and Matt Anderson — winners this season, both, on PGA Tour Americas. Anderson walked right up to Tommy Fleetwood and asked for a practice game. They played together on Tuesday afternoon.
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“Really lovely guy. Got a bright future ahead of him,” Fleetwood said of the young Canadian. “Hit the ball really, really well. He just looked like he was enjoying it a lot, which I think is really important.”
Jared du Toit is hoping to re-create some of his magic from 2016 when, as an amateur, he got into the final group on Sunday. Michael Blair, who is from nearby Ancaster, got through the Monday qualifier. There’s Aaron Cockerill, Canada’s top-ranked golfer on the DP World Tour, and Richard Lee, Canada’s top golfer on the Asian Tour.
From veterans to amateurs, Tour winners to Tour hopefuls, this Canadian crew is ready to go — and at least they don’t have to answer the question about when they think a Canadian is finally going to win the Canadian Open again.
“Now I can just answer, ‘Nick Taylor,’ so it’s easier,” Pendrith, who had never done a pre-tournament press conference before this week, said with a smile. “It was amazing to see him do it. And end the drought in that fashion.”
Pendrith and Taylor are grouped together for the first two rounds alongside Rory McIlroy — who won the Canadian Open the last time it was played at Hamilton. Even he knew how important Taylor’s win was. The tournament, McIlroy said, “deserved” that finish.
With a laugh, Pendrith knows Thursday and Friday are going to be special. Save one thing.
“I feel bad for my parents, who probably won’t be able to watch me play golf,” Pendrith said with a laugh.
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One thing the top-ranked Canadians on the PGA Tour are looking ahead to is the Presidents Cup in Montreal in September. Currently, only Nick Taylor is one of the automatic qualifiers — ranked inside the top six in the standings — with Conners at No. 9 and Hadwin at No. 11; Pendrith is No. 14 and Hughes is No. 18.
Hughes said Weir has reached out “a few different times” to just go play golf and not worry about the standings. Good golf, Hughes said, will take care of everything.
“He knows how much I want it,” Hughes said. “When I see him at tournaments or here this week, it’s fun to think about how that dynamic would be in Montreal and having him as my captain.”
Weir said he’s trying not to bother the Canadian guys with too much Presidents Cup talk this week — knowing how busy it already is — but the event just four months away is firmly on top of Weir’s mind.
“It’s coming together well. I keep my eye on our team and how it changes week-to-week. The movement of players up and down and, yeah, it’s exciting, we’ve got a lot of great players,” Weir said. “They all seem very eager to make the team, so that makes my job easy, because they really want to be on there. I think we’ll be 12 players strong.”
So, a record number of Canadians are ready to roll at Hamilton Golf and Country Club. Unlike the last two years, there’s not been any dramatic golf-news bombshells to hit the Canadian Open (even the charges against Scottie Scheffler from the PGA Championship being dropped barely registered), so for fans of the sport in Canada, they can look at this week as an exciting one for Canadian pro golf and Canadian pro golfers.
“It’s a huge event, and to see Nick do it last year was unbelievable, it was super inspiring,” Pendrith said. “I think all the Canadians on Tour right now are playing great, so the more flags that we can get up top of the leaderboard and try and chase it down on Sunday, the better. It should be a fun week.”
