Canadian Open contenders face formidable challenges, on and off the course

Under a literal and figurative haze, a golf tournament will be played at Oakdale Golf and Country Club this week.

A year removed from perhaps the most exciting RBC Canadian Open in history, with Rory McIlroy edging playing partners Tony Finau and Justin Thomas in an epic battle at St. George’s Golf and Country Club last June, this 112th playing of the men’s national championship is off to a shaky start.

The shocking news of the PGA Tour agreeing to join forces with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which finances LIV Golf, has overshadowed everything thus far. In fact, one has to go pretty far down the transcript of interviews to find any questions and answers that pertain to actually playing golf.

Without question, the merger has been a major distraction.

“I mean, I’m answering a question now about something that’s not really pertaining to this week or this championship,” Mackenzie Hughes said pointedly on Wednesday.

But the case was the same last year at St. George’s with LIV’s launch that week and look how that turned out. A spectacular scenario again this Sunday — a Canadian in the winner’s circle or McIlroy dueling, say, Matt Fitzpatrick — is a big ask, but there is definitely a feel among players that it’s high time to get going. Enough of the politics and let’s play ball.

“To be competing in my national championship, the RBC Canadian Open, to me it’s still a little bit of a pinch-me moment, even though I’m in year seven (on the PGA Tour) and I’ve played in a fair number of these already,” Hughes said.

In Oakdale, the players will face the kind of traditional country club at which this tournament has been contested in recent years. Though it is not of the same quality as St. George’s or 2019 host Hamilton Golf and Country Club, like those courses it will be defended by gnarly rough and wickedly sloping greens. In addition to driving the ball well to avoid the thick stuff, handling Oakdale’s putting surfaces was something Hughes, known for his wizardry with the wand, pointed to as a key to success.

“You can leave yourself in spots where you’ve got putts with 10 feet of break, so those putts require a lot of touch and imagination and feel,” explained Hughes, who played a practice round here two weeks ago and nine holes Wednesday morning.

“I was out in the pro-am today, I had a great group of guys and they had asked me, ‘Oh, what does this putt do and is it like four, five feet (of break)?’ And I’m like, ‘Just add an extra few feet and you’re good.’ A lot of these putts that are breaking a ton you can’t play high enough, and you’re trying to just kind of marry that line, speed and get that high as possible line. That, to me, is really fun. I almost would prefer a putt that breaks four, five feet than a putt that’s 30 feet and dead straight — just the way my mind works. I’m looking forward to hopefully rolling in a few of those for the crowd this week.”

Hughes is one of 21 native sons in the field and among three Canadians to win on the PGA Tour this season, along with Adam Svensson and Corey Conners. All three are inside the top 40 in the FedEx Cup standings, as is Nick Taylor, owed to two runner-up finishes — at the big-money WM Phoenix Open in February and alongside Adam Hadwin at a team event in New Orleans. They help comprise the deepest and most successful crop of Canucks in tour history, leading to a strength-in-numbers hope that one will wind up on top and end Canada’s near 70-year winless drought at this tournament.

“I feel like all parts of my game are as strong as they have ever been really,” stated Conners, who finished sixth last year at St. George’s. “It’s just a matter of going out there and getting the ball in the hole. I do feel good about everything and, yeah, hopefully can play well and get myself near the top of the leaderboard for Sunday.”

One player who has reason to be pleased by Tuesday’s news of a merger in men’s golf is Mike Weir. Assuming players who left for LIV Golf are repatriated onto the PGA Tour somehow over the next year, the International team he will captain at next year’s Presidents Cup in Montreal will be much stronger.

Part of the storyline of last year’s Presidents Cup, which saw the Americans drub their counterparts once again, was the exclusion of golfers such as Cam Smith, Joaquin Niemann and Louis Oosthuizen, who may have given the Internationals a fighting chance.

This is the first Canadian Open to not have a PGA of Canada pro in the field since 2004, when the association was awarded one exemption. Wes Heffernan, who tops the PGA of Canada’s player rankings, withdrew for personal reasons. The PGA of Canada was not given the spot to pass on to another member. Michael Block, the PGA of America club pro who gained fame at the PGA Championship, did get an exemption.

Golf Canada CEO Laurence Applebaum said 120,000 people will attend this year’s Canadian Open. Included in that projected number, however, are corporate hospitality guests. While Oakdale members have supported the tournament tremendously, word is general admission sales have fallen short so far. Applebaum noted Golf Canada has had a good week with ticket sales and said he hoped the next 72 hours will go well, too.

Canadians making their first Canadian Open start: Will Bateman, amateur Taylor Durham, Étienne Papineau and Sebastian Szirmak. Weir is making his 30th Open start.

Jason Logan is the editor of SCOREGolf magazine, which is co-owned by Torstar, the Star’s parent company. He is based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @jasonSCOREGolf