New Tour direction a (mostly) positive thing for Canadian Open’s future

RBC Canadian Open tournament director Ryan Paul was in Ponte Vedra, Fla., this week with plenty of the PGA Tour’s key stakeholders. 

And he liked what he heard. 

Paul, who became the lead of Canada’s lone PGA Tour stop in 2024 after seven years of running the CPKC Women’s Open, knows a lot remains unconfirmed after new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp’s address Wednesday. But as far as the RBC Canadian Open is confirmed, he feels good.  

“When you’re a tournament director, you take (the update) back and what it means for your own event. There are a lot of reasons to be satisfied with where the RBC Canadian Open is and where it’s going as we look forward to the future,” Paul told Sportsnet.ca in an exclusive conversation. 

Rolapp announced this week six key themes that the Tour would be working through and toward as it inches closer to a whole-hog changeover of its business model and schedule structure. But while nothing is set in stone — and it’s likely there won’t be any aggressive changeover until 2028 — there’s reason for optimism from the Canadian camp. 

One theme was Rolapp wants to play more golf in bigger markets in the United States (Toronto is the fourth-largest city in North America), and with the Canadian Open being a national championship — and sponsored by a key business entity in Canada — it seems like it is all systems go. 

“He did bring up the markets a few times and in the conversations we’ve had — Toronto is an important market to the PGA Tour. That part does feel promising for us,” Paul said. “We’re also a national open, which feels promising. We’ve got a great title sponsor with RBC, who have supported our event since 2008 and Canadian golf. 

“Our event has been strong and growing every year, so there is a lot of positives going forward for this event if you look at it as a who’s-in and who’s-out type of thing.” 

As an organization, Golf Canada has been riding the wave of record-setting participation numbers in golf since the COVID-19 pandemic. At its annual general meeting this week, the National Sport Organization announced an increase of 3 per cent in total operating revenue year-over-year, reaching an “organizational record” of $62.7 million last year, which included an increase in positive financials on the national-championships side as well.   

In his address this week, Rolapp stated how the PGA Tour could trend toward having a two-track system, where the upper track would include Signature Events, the majors, and the Players Championship, whereas the lower track would be aspirational and an opportunity for good play to be rewarded. 

While most of Rolapp’s comments on the future were well received, he and the Future Competitions Committee will bring these specific details to the PGA Tour’s board later this year and another announcement is set to come June 22. 

One thing that gave one multi-time Canadian PGA Tour winner pause was the likelihood of the decrease in tournament field size to just 120. Mackenzie Hughes told Postmedia at TPC Sawgrass that if the RBC Canadian Open’s field was trimmed there may not be enough room for it to be considered truly open. 

The current field size of the Canadian Open is 144, with 16 of those spots being given out to sponsor exemptions — most of whom are Canadian. 

“If you go 120, all of a sudden you don’t have the space to put the (16) Canadians. And, obviously, I got to play it twice as a Canadian Amateur champ, so obviously I benefitted from that. So, we’ll see how it all shakes out,” Hughes said. 

Paul, however, said the answer to the question about sponsor invites was more so wrapped in the Signature Events, where a big-name player was essentially gifted FedExCup points just because of who they were and not on merit. Jordan Spieth is the most consistent example of this. 

Paul believes that Rolapp, an outsider coming to golf — he’s spent almost his whole career with the NFL — merely wondered why the sponsors were responsible for populating the field when the events are part of the PGA Tour schedule. That seemed different, Paul explained, than any other sport. 

“(Rolapp thought), let’s put it on us to put forth the best product and that’s what our sponsors are going to get — they’re going to get the best fields that we can (give them),” Paul said. 

The unique thing about the RBC Canadian Open is that there are two levels of cross-country qualifying and, technically, any Canadian has the opportunity to tee it up at the Canadian Open as it stands now. 

“There is a place for sponsor exemptions, and it has to make sense. I don’t know what changes are coming, (but sponsor exemptions have) been reduced for a lot of events. As a national open, we still have more than other tournaments. I don’t think this would be a one-policy-fits-all,” Paul said. “We’re 144 with 16 sponsor invites and another event would be 144 with four sponsor invites. 

“The Tour has been respectful of the RBC Canadian Open and its history as a national open to retain exemptions for qualifying and for our Team Canada players.” 

There won’t be any changes to how things operate for the 2026 edition at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, but updates will likely filter through come summertime. The Canadian Open does not have a venue for 2027, but RBC announced in 2025 it would be extending its title sponsorship in a “multi-year agreement.”

“The PGA Tour will aim to put the best product on the golf course and that’s what the new model is supposed to do,” Paul said. “There was nothing shared that we didn’t already know but it laid out the framework which was appreciated by all groups.”