The highlight of Nick Taylor’s career to this point came at the 2023 Canadian Open when he threw an eagle putt 72 feet to beat Tommy Fleetwood and win his national open in a playoff. Barring a major championship win, that will likely be the headline of Taylor’s career obituary whenever he hangs up the golf tee. It is understood that Taylor holds his national open in high regard, as Rory McIlroy does with the Irish OpenAdam Scott with the Australian Open and so on.
But as new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp and the Future Competition Committee work to reshape the schedule and competitive structure of the PGA TourThe Canadian Open, among many other elements of the Tour, finds itself thinking about what the future will look like. Unlike the rocket mortgage, which will cease to exist after this summer’s editionThe RBC Canadian Open will have a spot on the next PGA Tour schedule — it’s just unclear which spot it will be and what the event will look like once the PGA Tour implements those changes.
Last week at the Memorial in Dublin, Ohio, Rolapp spoke briefly to a group of reporters to discuss how the new schedule is shaping up and when it might be implemented. While the proposal is still being discussed, the plan is for the PGA Tour to adopt a two-track system, with top players on one track and players on the bottom track competing to move up. Details have not yet been released, but Rolapp has said the system would see Track 1 host roughly 20 events, including the big four, with a field size of around 120 players and purses of $20 million. While nothing has been decided, players in Track 1 will likely be discouraged or banned from playing in Track 2 events.
“At the end of the day, sports are about how good the athletes are and what the competitive consequences are,” Rolapp told reporters at Memorial. according to ESPN’s Mark Schlabach. “I think we’ve lost a lot of that with the smaller fields, with no-cut events. The competitive meritocracy that makes this sport great and unique is what we’ve taken away from (and is) what we’re going back to.”
As Rolapp and the FCC work to redo the schedule, the Canadian Open and those who make it an annual stop are left wondering what the future holds for the event and others like it. Will it be a Track 1 or Track 2 event? Will it still be considered an “Open” if it is a Track 1 event with a specific field? And regardless of the track it’s on, how will players who make it a staple of their programs deal with the possibility of not being able to improve it because of the track they live on?
“That would certainly be bad,” Taylor said Wednesday, bluntly, ahead of this year’s RBC Canadian Open. “I’ve talked to a lot of guys that are in the PAC, a lot of people with the tour, I think the goal in mind is to have the best product possible. That’s the scenario that I’ve asked and asked, and what happens in that scenario or in that case. I guess time will tell. I wouldn’t like that of course. I know there could be a lot of local events that could have their guys as well. I think we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, but I think it will probably lose the open name because no one can earn their way into it or play in it, so it’s unique to us, if you can’t play in it, that’s going to be a big problem.
Fellow Canadian Corey Conners hopes the new PGA Tour schedule will have a place for the Canadian Open where it can continue to grow as a popular and meaningful stop — one he and other Canadians will still be able to play every year.
“I’m really passionate about this event,” Conners said. “I really care about this event. The Open factor, you know, it’s always been good to have 21 Canadians, it gives some young Canadian players an opportunity to play in such an elite event. So I definitely think there will be some changes. Nothing is completely set, but I’m optimistic that the Canadian Open will continue to thrive and hopefully continue to thrive and hopefully continue to thrive and continue to be a big part of the GA. trying to chasing the trophy.”
The Canadian Open is not only the PGA Tour doesn’t deal with uncertaintyalthough it comes in different shapes and sizes depending on the event. In March, the Cognizant Classic, formerly the Honda Classic, faced a wave of WDs ahead of the tournament. With the event set after the Genesis Invitational and before the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship, it has gone from a popular tour stop that once saw Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler and others in attendance to one that only receives a handful of the world’s top 50 players. It was a hint of what could be in store for the Palm Beaches event.
“It’s tough with every tournament on the PGA Tour schedule, outside of the Signature Events, for a number of reasons,” Billy Horschel of Florida, who is a regular at Cognizant, said in March. “We had this problem before the Signature Events happened. We’ve always had this problem. A decade ago, this event was incredible with this field, but where it fell on the schedule was really good for a lot of the guys that lived here. … This field has been kind of up and down the last couple of years. When you have so many events on the PGA Tour, people try to figure out where they go on their schedule and you. It’s hard to fill a field.
“It’s not just recognition. A whole bunch of tournaments are fighting.”
The Cognizant is said to have a similar place in the bridge’s 2027 schedulesitting between the Genesis and Cadillac Championships and The Players Championship while the Arnold Palmer Invitational is moved to later in March. But with the new Tour structure expected to arrive in 2028, Rolapp’s plan to highlight the lack and rise of the competitive structure will leave many events facing a new reality, or, in the case of the Rocket Mortgage, perhaps see them disappear as the world of the PGA Tour has and has not crystallized.
The RBC Canadian Open has a long and rich history. It was Arnold Palmer’s first Tour victory in 1955 and the country of one of Tiger Woods’ best shots. Its list of winners includes Woods, Palmer, McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Sam Snead, Jim Furyk, Lee Trevino, Jason Day and others.
When Taylor’s 72-foot eagle putt landed to become the first Canadian in 69 years to win his national competition, he etched his name into history. It is a story that will continue. But the PGA Tour’s major restructuring has players and tournaments wondering what their new reality will look like when it finally happens.
