RBC Canadian Open at crossroads as PGA Tour Championship Series field fills out

RBC made a significant PGA Tour announcement Thursday, but Canadian golf fans will need to wait for an official update about the future of the Canadian Open. 

The RBC Heritage presented by Boeing was announced as part of the PGA Tour Championship Series, which will begin in 2028. This year was RBC’s 15th as title sponsor, and it was the fourth consecutive year the event had elevated status on the PGA Tour schedule, being played as a Signature Event the last three seasons. 

“It is an incredible honour for the RBC Heritage to be a part of the PGA Tour Championship Series. This recognition reflects the strength of our tournament and the support of RBC, Boeing, our sponsors, volunteers and loyal fans,” said Heritage tournament director Steve Wilmot in a press release. 

The RBC Heritage is the ninth announced regular-season event on the 2028 PGA Tour Championship Series. The Tour is set to confirm 11 more in the coming weeks, leaving just four remaining spots in the Championship Series schedule. 

The full 2028 PGA Tour Championship Series schedule will be announced Feb. 22 in a televised event hosted at PGA Tour Headquarters in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. 

PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said at the Tour Championship last week in Atlanta that the PGA Tour is in “active discussions” with 14 prospective partners. 

A 14-for-4 update from Rolapp seems to suggest that we’ve entered a situation of simple economics — when demand outweighs supply, the price goes up. 

As far as the Canadian Open specifically is concerned, the work continues. 

But other entities are actively placing bids for the remaining Championship Series events.  

On the sponsorship side of things in Canada, it’s been reported that Golf Canada has been late to the conversation with Canadian brands to try to marshal upward of US$35 million — or more now, likely — for a winning Championship Series bid. 

With respect to the Heritage, RBC has Boeing as the presenting sponsor. 

The question now is, does the Canadian Open, and its longstanding history, even need to be a Championship Series event? 

“We’ve got to be careful with that because then these national opens lose the fabric of what they are … you can’t call yourself a national open anymore if it’s a closed-off tournament and there’s a certain number of guys,” two-time Canadian Open winner Rory McIlroy said at the Genesis Scottish Open this summer.  

“I think these events need to be treated differently than, you know, the Travelers Championship or RBC Heritage or whatever else that are going to be in the Champions Series. … There’s a little bit more nuance with these tournaments, for sure.” 

Indeed, the way that the Championship Series is structured, those events will feature only the top 120 (or so) golfers on the PGA Tour. There were 20-plus homegrown talents in the field this year at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, many stamping their ticket via sponsor invites from Golf Canada or winning various cross-country qualifiers.  

As it stands, if the event were a Championship Series event, just six Canadians would tee it up. By the time we get to 2028, there may be even fewer. This year was the first time since 2011 that a Canadian did not make it to the second round of the FedExCup playoffs and the first time since 2018 a Canadian did not make it to the Tour Championship season finale. 

If the RBC Canadian Open were to become part of the Championship Series, it would essentially cease as a national open in the truest form. 

As far as the second-tier Challenger Series events are concerned, McIlroy, again, was a vocal advocate for the Canadian Open to be bigger than those. Featuring the next 100-plus golfers in the standings, there would likely be more Canadians in the field but none of the top players in the game — plus, for example, Corey Conners and past champion Nick Taylor. Those in the Championship Series can’t “play down” onto the Challenger Series as it stands. 

“(The Challenger Series) is a glorified Korn Ferry (Tour) event. That’s what (the Challenger Series) is going to be. I don’t think the Canadian Open should be one of those,” McIlroy said at the U.S. Open this summer. 

Golf Canada, as a business entity, needs more time to work through things behind the scenes. But there is other real estate in the new ecosystem of golf to consider. 

The winning option could be to look bigger — and global. 

When the Championship Series was announced, the PGA Tour also brought forth details about how top players from the Championship Series category could be eligible for a “limited series of elevated international events,” played in the fall. These tournaments will be announced later, with the intent to be delivered alongside the DP World Tour, adding that “these events will include prominent national opens” and “will give the best players in the world an opportunity to shine brightly in front of new audiences on an international stage.” 

This, on the surface, would likely be the best-case scenario for the Canadian Open. 

The event would be able to keep its national open status — and even be given an elevated platform — while also seeing a field featuring some of the best players in the world from the PGA Tour (as golfers who are on the Championship Series track could tee it up) and from around the world, along with plenty of homegrown talent. 

As long as the event is hosted early enough in September, there would also be zero issue with the weather conditions in the Greater Toronto Area. 

While there are still some uncertainties about the formalized future of the Canadian Open, there is a pathway to a kind of tournament that would make everyone happy. 

Which is something harder and harder to do in professional golf these days.