RBC Canadian Open Power Rankings

The PGA Tour crosses the border for the RBC Canadian Open from TPC Toronto.

TPC Toronto held the Canadian Open last year when Ryan Fox beat Sam Burns in an epic play-off, and the PGA Tour returns to the venue for a second straight year.

Wide fairways that are amongst the easiest to hit all year mean that players will be pulling driver just about everywhere, giving longer hitters a slight edge over their more accurate counterparts. Indeed, Fox, Burns and Kevin Yu finished first, second and third last year with Cameron Young T4 and Byeong Hun An T6.

While fairways are wide, players can't indiscriminately spray the ball about with testing rough punishing the wildest drivers in the field, but when finding the short grass, greens are also easy targets, meaning short game skills aren't particularly tested.

All in all, TPC Toronto is a very straightforward tee-to-green assignment, not dissimilar to the likes of TPC Craig Ranch, TPC Deere Run, TPC Twin Cities, Black Desert and Detroit Golf Club, where less fancied players have a chance to mix it with the best in the field.

Greens are a bent/poa mix as has been seen at Glen Abbey, Bethpage, TPC River Highlands and Silverado.

Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick, Robert MacIntyre and Justin Rose provide plenty of British interest this week and you can see how many make up our Power Rankings below.

5 - Collin Morikawa

Having skipped last week’s Signature Event at the Memorial, Collin Morikawa gets some tournament reps in ahead of the US Open.

Well backed for the Players back in March, a back injury suffered after the first hole forced his withdrawal, but he bounced back with an excellent T7 at the Masters and a T4 at the RBC Heritage.

A T62 and T55 are Morikawa’s most recent finishes at the Cadillac and PGA Championship, and though TPC Toronto seems to suit longer hitters, it’s hard to discount a player with Morikawa’s ball-striking ability.

While the two-time major winner tends not to visit the easier courses, he does have finishes of T4, T2 and T8 from his three visits to TPC Deere Run and Detroit.

4 - Wyndham Clark

Wyndham Clark’s recent good form continued at the Memorial where he was one shot off the play-off.

Another excellent Sunday propelled Clark into the mix and the former US Open winner must be brimming with confidence right now.

Clark’s strong iron play was being undermined by sloppy putting earlier in the season, but the flat stick is behaving again, and he now boasts form figures of T21-T16-T20-MC-1-3.

The 32-year-old isn’t the bomber he used to be, but he can still shift it off the tee, ranking 42nd on the PGA Tour this season for driving distance, and at a test that’s not dissimilar to the one he faced at TPC Craig Ranch a fortnight ago, Clark will very much fancy his chances.

3 - Nicolai Hojgaard

One of the few Europeans who’ll be annoyed it’s not a Ryder Cup year, Nicolai Hojgaard is currently playing the golf of his life.

Although he missed the cut at the Memorial last week, Muirfield Village perhaps doesn’t suit the big-hitting Dane, certainly not in the way TPC Toronto should.

In the last 12 months, Hojgaard has finishes of T4 at the Scottish Open (another bomber’s track), T2 at the British Masters, T3 at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and T4 at the Dubai Desert Classic.

This season on the PGA Tour, Hojgaard has been T3 at Phoenix, T6 at the Cognizant Classic – a course that doesn’t play to his strengths – second at the Houston Open and T2 at the Truist Championship.

Generally, Hojgaard’s best finishes have come at venues that allow him to flex his muscles off the tee, and TPC Toronto will do just that.

2 - Sam Burns

It’s strange that someone who won three PGA Tour events in a year, and who’s taken down Scottie Scheffler and Cameron Young to win the WGC-Match Play, could have their winning credentials questioned, but that’s where Sam Burns is at the moment.

Burns is now three years removed from his last win, and hasn’t been all that close to winning since.

He was perhaps unfortunate at last year’s US Open and ought to have won last year’s Canadian Open.

Burns found himself in the mix at the Memorial last week but came up short again, and with the new PGA Tour schedule, wins are becoming harder to come by.

Burns is long off the tee and remains one of the best putters in the world, ranking fourth this season for SG: Putting on the PGA Tour, and with improving iron play and an excellent performance at the venue last year, Burns has strong claims this week.

1 - Matt Fitzpatrick

Perhaps a little regression was due for Matt Fitzpatrick after three wins in four events, and he’s unlikely to be too concerned by his recent dip, even if it’s seen little brother Alex finish above him in two of the last three outings.

Fitzpatrick this year has been about as good tee to green as Scottie Scheffler as hard as that might be to believe. The only separator between them is Scheffler’s added distance and the fact that Fitzpatrick’s putting hasn’t actually been that elite to say he’s won three times.

Nevertheless, of the players in the field this week, Fitzpatrick has been by far and away the best. While he might be outdriven by enough players at TPC Toronto, it’s hard to see Fitzpatrick not creating – and converting – plenty of chances to find himself in amongst it.

Any odds displayed were correct at the time of writing and are subject to fluctuation.