LOUISVILLE, KY. — Golf is very much an individual game, but with the 2024 PGA Tour season chugging along, the Canadian contingent — as a whole — continues to improve.
The obvious next step, with two Canadian winners on the PGA Tour already in 2024, remains securing better results at majors.
“It’s just neat that there is six of us in the top 100 in the world and playing these big tournaments,” Mackenzie Hughes told Sportsnet at the PGA Championship in Louisville, KY. “To do these things together, to watch all these guys have success and be part of that is really cool.
“We feel a lot of support from back home, too.”
The Hamilton, Ont.-born Hughes is one of six Canadians teeing it up this week at Valhalla Golf Club for the second major of the season. That number ties the record for the most Canadians at the PGA Championship in the event’s history.
Hughes, Taylor Pendrith, Nick Taylor, Adam Svensson, Adam Hadwin, and Corey Conners make up the six pack.
Pendrith, from Richmond Hill Ont., comes into the week with all the momentum, having won his first PGA Tour event two weeks ago and backing that up with a top-10 finish at the Wells Fargo Championship last week — a Signature Event on the PGA Tour, which means a limited field with increased purses and FedExCup points. Hughes finished T6 there. Conners, meanwhile, was in the final group on Saturday at last year’s PGA Championship before dropping to T12, but he’s finished in the top 15 in each of his last three PGA Tour starts.
Conners, Hadwin, and Pendrith are now separated by just five places in the Official World Golf Ranking (Nos. 49, 51, and 54, respectively) as they battle for a spot on both the Olympic and Presidents Cup teams. A big week at a big event like the PGA Championship will do wonders for their standing.
The PGA Championship is followed in two weeks by the RBC Canadian Open, where Abbotsford, B.C.-raised Taylor defends, and then in another two weeks is the U.S. Open — making this a busy summertime stretch.
“I’m mindful for the golf ahead,” Conners, from Listowel, Ont., told Sportsnet. “Each week is a big week and we’re trying to do our best and prepare the best as possible but trying to be mindful of what’s ahead. Busy schedule but nothing I’m not used to.”
While the good results are stacking up for the Canadians so far in 2024 if there’s been one knock on this crew its their record in major championships.
Hughes and Hadwin have just one major top-10 finish, Conners has three (all at the Masters), while Pendrith, Taylor, and Svensson, a native of Surrey, B.C., have none.
Taylor, who missed the cut at the Masters, said he tried to take what he could from Augusta National and hopefully apply what he learned for this week — and more majors moving forward.
“Sometimes at (majors) you’re trying to do a little more than what you typically do. That could be anything from preparation to feeling like you need to emphasize a certain part of your game to be better,” Taylor told Sportsnet. “I probably forced things a little bit in the past.”
Hughes, too, said when he first started playing majors he tried to make them out different because he felt they were a “different entity.” Now that he’s been on Tour for more than a half-decade, he’s found a good recipe.
“We prepare to play hard courses on the PGA Tour pretty much every week,” Hughes said.
Valhalla is certainly going to play as a hard course this week, with length added from 2014 and five new tee boxes. The rough is long and thick, and rain through the week will make it feel even longer.
“Driving it in play in general, but in the fairways (will be key). It’s a long track but I like it. It’s set up pretty fair. There’s no doubt that if you have length it’s going to be an advantage,” Taylor said. “But the greens are pretty receptive so even if I have two or three clubs more than some of the guys, I’ll have some opportunities there.”
“Driving is definitely going to be most important,” said Conners. “Hit a lot of fairways means you’ll be able to attack the hole locations.”
The Canadians have kept their usual practice routines going — a nine-hole game on Tuesday between Hadwin, Taylor, Conners, and Pendrith, with Hughes walking and chipping and putting alongside — with Taylor and Hadwin (also from Abbotsford) hoping for a Vancouver Canucks victory that didn’t end up happening. Taylor hasn’t been able to watch his beloved team because, he admits with the laugh, the games just start too late (two kids under five will do that).
Conners and Pendrith played together again on Wednesday on the front nine while Taylor and Hughes returned to the back nine again. This group — all winners now on the PGA Tour — doesn’t appear to be dropping from the upper tier of golf any time soon.
But at another major championship, they all know it’s time to test their mettle again against the very best in the world.
“I feel like, over time, I’ve proven not just to myself that my game is good enough to be up there if the stars align, and I have a chance to win coming down the last nine, then that’s great,” Taylor said. “But obviously good enough to compete and that’s the main focus I’m coming into this week about.”
CANADIAN TEE TIMES/GROUPS FOR FIRST AND SECOND ROUND –
(All times ET)
7:48 a.m. / 1:13 p.m. – Adam Svensson (with Zac Oakley and Ryo Hisatsune)
7:59 a.m. / 1:24 p.m. – Adam Hadwin, Taylor Pendrith (with Martin Kaymer)
8:21 a.m. / 1:46 p.m. – Corey Conners (with Adam Schenk and Nick Dunlap)
9:10 a.m.* / 2:35 p.m. – Nick Taylor (with Sepp Straka and Takumi Kanaya)
1:57 p.m.* / 8:32 a.m. – Mackenzie Hughes (with Luke List and Austin Eckroat)
*Starting on No. 10
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