Four top-10 golfers headline strong Canadian Open field

CALEDON, Ont. – Ryan Paul is riding to The Rink Tuesday morning at TPC Toronto when he comes upon a broken golf cart trying to haul garbage from one point of the course to another. He jumps on a walkie-talkie, and by the time he’s driving back to the clubhouse again, everything is cleaned up. 

“Quick drive, problem solved,” the affable Paul says with a smile. 

You know it’s RBC Canadian Open week when Paul – who is in his second year as the men’s tournament director after running the CPKC Women’s Open five times – starts wielding two walkie-talkies. The first machine is dedicated to Golf Canada and PGA Tour personnel, while the other one is specific to the tournament.  

They’re buzzing already, two days before the tournament officially starts, because Paul knows it feels different this time around. 

There’s one event under everyone’s belt at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley’s North course – which underwent a hearty renovation in 2023 as it prepared for the PGA Tour to make its debut last year – and feedback was immediately received. 

Paul can’t help but smile at what’s to come when balls are in the air on Thursday. By any metric of the mathematical rankings, the 2026 edition of the RBC Canadian Open is supposed to boast the strongest field in recent history. 

There are four golfers in the top 10 in the world – Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, and Collin Morikawa – set to tee it up, tied for the most ever. And there are 15 of the top 50, which is the most ever in the FedExCup era (an almost two-decade-long stretch). Rory McIlroy is not here in 2026 after teeing it up five times and winning twice. He missed the cut last year at TPC Toronto, and the most common question over the last month was, “Where is Rory?” 

Alas, McIlroy had long spoken about changing his playing schedule in 2026, and the Canadian Open was a victim of his cuts. Still, Paul says they celebrated a great field on media day and it got even better over the last few weeks – and even up to Friday’s deadline. 

“Justin Rose comes in immediately after (media day). Then Aaron Rai (who won the PGA Championship in Ma), and Billy Horschel the week after. Then two hours before the deadline (on Friday), we had Viktor Hovland say he was in. He hasn’t played in a month and has never played in Canada,” Paul says. 

“I’m proud of the field and especially when you have strength in numbers. It’ll make for a better Sunday.” 

For a tournament that isn’t dubbed a signature event on the Tour’s schedule – and is sandwiched between a signature event, a major, and then another signature event after that – getting this kind of firepower is an impressive feat that Paul says takes 11.5 months to get right. He attends upwards of five other PGA Tour events through the year including the WM Phoenix Open, The Players Championship, the RBC Heritage, and the Tour Championship (where there are the annual Tournament Director meetings) and says with a laugh the recruiting for 2027 will start Monday after this week’s tournament is concluded. 

TPC Toronto hosted in 2025, and Paul says they went right into collecting feedback from the PGA Tour, from fans and the players and began to broadcast out said changes. The caddies this year, for example, are in an indoor facility versus a tent-like structure. And TPC Toronto opened a new restaurant in the clubhouse of its Heathlands course last year which will be open just for players to book through tournament week – giving them another exclusive dining experience. 

“We know the venue is outside of the (Toronto’s) city core so we’re just trying to give (the players) more amenities. In addition to making phone calls and asking about coming, we’re showing that we’re listening to their comments,” Paul says. 

Paul would, of course, know what he’s doing. The Canadian Open is in his blood. 

Paul’s father, Bill, was the tournament director of the event for upwards of 30 years. Ryan Paul, who is now 38, specifically remembers checking in for the first day of school in September (when the event was hosted at that point of the year) and then by Thursday and Friday of the first week, he headed to Glen Abbey to watch the best players in the world. He remembers getting dropped off with the tournament operations staff to see what was going on as a youngster and, when he got older, he recalls selling sharpies to autograph-hungry fans for $20 as they tried to secure a signature from Tiger Woods — who Paul met briefly on the driving range in 2000 before Woods would go on to win his lone Canadian Open. 

Now the Canadian Open has grown into a serious outdoor sport-viewing experience. There are always plenty of questions about why the tournament doesn’t move around the country, but the fact is, while there are so many great golf courses in Canada, almost none of them have absolutely everything needed to host a modern PGA Tour event. There were 130,000 people on site last year, and of course, that is a metric Paul wants to see grow, but he’s cognizant that Mother Nature will have the final say on that. 

The Rink is a perfect example of the hearty growth undertaken by tournament organizers. What started as almost a throwaway idea 10 years ago has turned into the most populus spot on the property each year. Corey Conners actually suggested, Paul says, to try to make the hole one of the easier ones on the property moving forward – and it just so happens that the 14th hole at TPC Toronto is not only the last par 3 on the course, but also just 144 yards at its longest, nearly 100 yards shorter than The Rink at Hamilton Golf and Country Club in 2024. The build-out takes up 70 per cent of the area around the hole, with an option to make it potentially fully wrapped with grandstands at some point. 

But what good are stands and concerts and merchandise and food options without really, really good golfers to watch? 

The biggest question there, moving forward, is what the PGA Tour’s schedule will look like come 2028? Brian Rolapp, the CEO of the Tour, is set to make a big announcement at the Travelers Championship in three weeks – where Paul will be – but he says he doesn’t know what’s to come there. There’s been plenty of discussions around Track 1 and Track 2 tournaments (majors and signature events in the former) and even a report from Eamon Lynch of Golfweek that the top players in the game will be “strongly encouraged not to drop down” and play Track 2 events. 

RBC is one of just two sponsors on the PGA Tour – Genesis being the other – that lend their company name to two events, and the bank already pays the premium for the RBC Heritage, a signature event on the calendar. 

It’s the big unknown, Paul admits.  

In the immediate, however, the Canadian Open will once again be played the week before the U.S. Open. This year’s U.S Open is just in New York, a short zip from Toronto. But the 2027 edition will be in California, which means tournament officials in Canada will discuss chartering a plane Sunday night. 

While 2027 and 2028 have an ever-growing list of questions already in the queue, for now, things look to be as good as they can be. 

After this week, there are just four full-field events – not including majors and opposite-field tournaments – on the schedule and at the end of the day, guys need FedExCup points. Whether they are trying to finish in the top 50 and get into the big events next year, or the top 100 and re-earn a PGA Tour card, period.  

“The support of TPC Toronto, the growth of the RBC Canadian Open is big, but the changes from the PGA Tour have helped – there are smaller field sizes, there are fewer cards up for grabs, and as players go through their season, their mindset changes,” Paul says.  

By this point in the morning, the sun has hit its peak. Paul has removed his blue quarter-zip sweater as he arrives at the driving range at TPC Toronto, filling up with some of the Tour’s best, preparing for the week. 

But one of Paul’s walkie-talkies starts to buzz — and he’s off just as fast as he arrives.