The PGA Tour returns to Canada for the RBC Canadian Open after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Field Level Media’s golf experts provide key tournament notes, odds and best bets for the event that begins Thursday at St. George’s Golf & Country Club in Toronto.
RBC CANADIAN OPEN
Toronto, June 9-12
Course: St. George’s Golf & Country Club (Par 70, 7,014 yards)
Purse: $8.7M (Winner: $1.566M)
Defending Champion: Rory McIlroy (2019)
FedExCup Leader: Scottie Scheffler
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (CBS)
PGA Tour Live: Daily feeds on ESPN+
Social Media: @RBCCanadianOpen (Twitter)
NOTES
–The tournament was last played at Hamilton G&CC in 2019. This will be the sixth time St. George’s has played host to the event (1933, 1949, 1960, 1968, 2010).
–The course features five par 3s and three par 5s, leading to groups teeing off on Nos. 1 and 9 for the first two rounds.
–McIlroy, a 20-time winner on the PGA Tour, seeks his first successful title defense.
–Twenty Canadians are scheduled to tee it up in their country’s national open, including world No. 31 Corey Conners and No. 77 Mackenzie Hughes. A Canadian has not won the event since 1954.
–The top two finishers this week not otherwise exempt will qualify for the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews.
BEST BETS
–Scheffler (+800 at BetMGM) makes his tournament debut while coming off a loss in a playoff in his previous start. He’s trying to become the first five-time winner in a season since Justin Thomas in 2016-17. Scheffler is +700 at DraftKings, where he leads the field with 8 percent of the bets and 7 percent of the handle.
–Thomas (+900) is coming off a missed cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge after winning the PGA Championship. He has drawn a modest 4 percent of the bets and 3 percent of the handle at DraftKings, where Thomas is being offered at +700.
–McIlroy (+1000) has three top-10s in his past four starts and is second in strokes from tee to green and scoring average on tour this season. He is the biggest pre-tournament liability at BetMGM, where McIlroy leads the field with 6.3 percent of the winning bets and 11.8 percent of the handle.
–Cameron Smith (+1200) leads the tour in scoring average (69.253) but has missed the cut in his previous two event starts. He is second at BetMGM with 6.2 percent of the bets and 6.8 percent of the handle.
–Sam Burns (+1600) has won two of his past five starts and is ranked a career-high ninth in the world. He is also +1600 at DraftKings, where Burns is second with 7 percent of the handle backing him to win.
–Matthew Fitzpatrick (+1800) opened at +2000 but has seen his odds shorten as he has drawn 5.7 percent of the handle at BetMGM.
–Conners (+2000) is one of the leading contenders to break the Canadian drought in the event and is third with 5.3 percent of the bets at BetMGM.
–Field Level Media
