2023 RBC Canadian Open: PGA Tour Betting Odds
Oakdale Golf and Country Club is a 27-hole facility that will use part of each of the course’s three nine-hole tracks (Thompson, Homenuik, Knudson) for the full 18 holes of this tournament. The ninth hole on Knudson course will be the finishing hole for the championship.
It will play to a par 72 at nearly 7,500 yards. The front nine will play nearly 400 yards longer than the back. In 2018, the course underwent a major restoration. Oakdale will become the 37th track in the 117-year history of the event (and only the seventh since 1977). It will host again in 2026 to coincide with the celebration of Oakdale’s centennial anniversary. Eight-time Tour winner George Knudson was a former Oakdale club pro. and fellow Canadian Golf Hall of Famer Wilf Homenuik has enjoyed a 30-year teaching tenure as an Oakdale club professional.
Returning this year is the RBCxMusic Concert Series, featuring six-time Grammy Award-winning group the Black Eyed Peas on Friday and seven-time Grammy Award-winning Alanis Morissette performing on Saturday. Fans also will actually be to play a hole on the course, called Hole Zero.
“It’s going to be a legit 150-yard plus par-3, that you get to play like a real hole,” said Aubrey Levy, senior vice-president of marketing and content for theScore, which is sponsoring the hole through its betting service. “It’s not just come up and take a swing at a simulator or range. You play an entire hole.”
With the ultra-tough US Open next week, a lot of big-name players are opting to skip the Canadian Open – which has one of the smaller purses on Tour at $9 million (US). Some are hoping to use this tournament as a way to gain entry to the season’s third major.
The Canadian Open was canceled from 2020-21 due to COVID but returned last year at St. George’s Golf and Country Club, and Rory McIlroy won for the second time in the tournament – also 2019 at Hamilton Golf and Country Club. Rory shot 19-under 261 last year to beat out Tony Finau by two. McIlroy shot a final-round 62. He became the first Tour pro to defend his title at two different courses since Jim Furyk won RBC Canadian Open in 2006 and 2007.
The last playoff at the Canadian Open was won by Jhonattan Vegas in 2017 over Charley Hoffman at Glen Abbey. Vegas was the last repeat winner of the tournament, although technically McIlroy is going for a threepeat with those two canceled years. Leo Diegel won the Canadian Open a record four times, all back in the 1920s.
The RBC Canadian Open Golf Odds
Rory McIlroy is the highest-ranked player in the world in the field at No. 3 and +400 to win for a third time at a third different course. McIlroy has one victory this season and comes off a T7 at the PGA Championship.
Sam Burns is +1200 with Matt Fitzpatrick, Tyrrell Hatton and Cameron Young each +1400, and Shane Lowry, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood each +2000. Burns has a win this season. Fitzpatrick will be looking for the “RBC double” as he won the RBC Heritage in a playoff over Jordan Spieth earlier this year.
A handful of Canadians have won their national championship but not since Pat Fletcher in 1954. No Canadian-born golfer has won it since Karl Keffer in 1914. Mike Weir was in great position to win in 2004 with a three-stroke lead on the back-nine Sunday but lost in a playoff to Vijay Singh. David Hearn took a two-shot lead into the final round in 2015 but couldn’t hold it.
Corey Conners was the top finisher last year at sixth to win the Rivermead Cup, while Adam Svensson was T21, Mackenzie Hughes T28, Nick Taylor T28, Adam Hadwin T35 and Aaron Cockerill T48. Stuart MacDonald, Roger Sloan, Mike Weir, David Hearn, AJ Ewart, Jared du Toit, Myles Creighton, Wes Heffernan, Brendan Leonard, Max Sekulic, Callum Davison and Albin Choi missed the cut. Michael Gligic withdrew.
Conners is +1600 this week with Hadwin +4000, Taylor +6600, Svensson +7000 and Hughes +9000 – needless to say, this tournament has more Canadians than any other on Tour and 12 alone got sponsor invites, led by Mike Weir, who is playing in his 31st RBC Canadian Open, one short of the record.
For the first time in Tour history, three Canadians come into the week with a win already this season – Conners, Svensson and Hughes.
The RBC Canadian Open Golf Predictions
Take McIlroy for a Top 10, but we think Corey Conners (+1600) finally ends his country’s drought at its national championship. He comes off a T12 at the PGA Championship.