The British Invasion, Burns' big chance, and TPC Toronto underrated? 10 things for the Canadian Open

Golfpocalypse is a collection of words that runs prior to each week’s PGA Tour event, mostly ABOUT that event. Reach out with your hottest takes on absolutely anything at shane.spr8@gmail.com. We’ll publish the best emails here.

My two opening thoughts on the Canadian Open:

A. The fact that we had Nick Taylor burying a 72-foot putt to win a playoff in 2023 and then Adam Hadwin getting trucked by an overzealous security guard proves that even on a week that looks sort of mediocre on paper, incredible things can happen in professional golf.

B. The fact that Taylor’s putt and Hadwin’s trucking even happened means we’ve probably had the best moment we’ll ever have at this tournament, and all I want to think about is Shinnecock.

Which one is more true? Let’s find out!

[Tries to think of sophisticated joke about Canada, immediately gives up.]

Yahhh, let’s do the ten things there, eh, ya hosers???

1. The British blokes are taking care of their colony

It would be very easy for this week to be an OWGR dud, like Colonial before it, but the English plus Robert MacIntyre are taking of their colonial subjects and showing up en masse to make sure we have some fireworks at TPC Toronto. Of the top six players in the world playing this weekend, five are fellow subjects of the queen: Matt Fitzpatrick, Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood, Aaron Rai and Bobby Mac. (The other one, Collin Morikawa, has to show up because he grew up in a California town called La Cañada, so this is technically his national open.)

Joking aside, I realize that Canada achieved its independence in 2004, but it is nice we have some English firepower to keep this one lively.

2. Has Fitzy peaked?

As little as six weeks ago, there were two guys who appeared to be on top of the golf world, and they were Cam Young and Matt Fitzpatrick. I swore up and down one of them would win a major this year, possibly both, but it’s starting to look like their late-emerging duel at the Players is as good as it’s going to get at the big tournaments. Young should have done way better at the Masters, but then he looked like a golden god at Doral. Fitzpatrick was just okay at both the Masters and PGA, but looked extremely sharp winning at the Heritage. Since then, though, both are kind of slogging along, making cuts but falling to the middle of the weekend pack. Can either of them find that torrid form again, or is it the latest example that elite form in golf is a vanishing commodity?

Unlike the Heritage, TPC Toronto doesn’t really fit Fitzpatrick’s game especially well, but the differences are pretty marginal at this (basically) bog standard tour course, so it’s more just about where his game stands ahead of the U.S. Open.

3. Bet your house on Sam Burns

Actually, I don’t advocate gambling real money, mostly because the very few times I’ve tried it in my life, I have lost (except for one very good day at the Saratoga Race Track as an 11-year-old), but that doesn’t change the fact that Sam Burns feels like the heavy favorite here. Last year was his first time at TPC Toronto, where he made a playoff before losing to Ryan Fox, so he clearly likes the course and is coming off a tremendous week at the Memorial, where he had a real chance to win on Sunday.

What do you think of when you think of Sam Burns, in 2026? My first thought is always “great putter,” which is borne out yet again by this year’s stats (4th in SG: Putting), then I think “Scottie’s friend,” which segues quickly into “they can’t win together at the Ryder Cup.” The fourth thought, though, sort of became cemented in my mind after Oakmont last year, and it’s that I’m not sure he’s the world’s best pressure player…even though he’s definitely had good pressure moments, like when he out-dueled Scottie at Colonial in 2022, or beat him again in the semifinals at the 2023 WGC-Match Play, which incidentally is the site of his last win. But in general, he’s shaky under pressure at majors, and only has three top-tens in 23 tries.

I guess what I’m saying is that it would feel very Burns-like to win in Canada, and then no-show at Shinnecock. Bet your house.

4. Who else should we care about?

My most interesting other five:

Fleetwood — Came on strong late at Memorial, does he have some juice in him before the last two majors?Morikawa — Fell of a cliff his last two events after a pretty elite start to the year, and hasn’t played since the PGA. Is his back anywhere close to good?Wyndham Clark — This #*$@ing guy is going to win at Shinnecock, isn’t he? ISN’T HE?Bobby Mac — Won this tourney in ’24, but is he completely washed in 2026? Is there any life left?Kristoffer Reitan — Is he sneaky elite? He’s thrived at hard courses, Quail Hollow and Muirfield Village, but can he light it up at a relatively easy course?

5. Is there anything interesting about TPC Toronto?

Let’s put it this way: If you’re a golf writer in Canada this week, it’s a good time to explore the city and let ChatGPT write all your articles. Even if the AI gets all the details wrong, I’m not sure anyone would notice.

Kidding! I’m kidding, fellow writers. Don’t do it. Just pre-write your stories yourself, then go to Toronto.

On a serious note, I really enjoyed this piece at The Fried Egg (on their members forum, by Brian Decker, a director of marketing at TPC Toronto) on one thing to watch at each hole this week, and I wish a local expert would do this for every hole. The bottom line from Brian Decker’s post is that it should play a little harder this year due to weather conditions, and that there’s actually more than meets the eye here despite a few very easy holes. Also, the pictures of this place are gorgeous.

The hole I think I’m most intrigued by is no. 10, which is a very short par-4 (416 yards) that has played shockingly difficult in two different tournaments. As Decker writes, the combination of a swerving fairway, awkward wind and water that can claim even approach shots that land on the wrong part of the green make this one a devil, and it’ll be fun to watch the tactics these guys use to play it, especially on the weekend. Also get excited for no. 4, the Dikembe Mutombo of par-3s, and check this fun explainer they made on why it’s such a bear.

6. The Golf Tweet of the Week: Pavon’s Horror Opus

Last year, on that 10th hole, Matthieu Pavon made a tidy 12. Rather than hang his head in shame, he wrote a brilliant Twitter thread that began with, “The easy guide to making a perfect 12.” It’s a masterpiece, and well worth your time. Start here:

(Sadly, Morgan Johnson at the PGA Tour informed me that Pavon’s 12 wasn’t the highest score of the year; that went to William Mouw, who made a 13 on no. 16 at the AmEx.)

7. Ranking the sponsor’s exemptions

Canadian – Drew Nesbitt, Ben Silverman, Joey Savoie, Matthew Anderson, Yohann Benson, Lew Dawson, Justin Matthews, Ashton McCulloch, Adam HadwinNot Canadian, but old – Padraig Harrington, Camillo VillegasBoth Canadian and old – Mike WeirNeither Canadian nor old – Declan O’Donovan

Hadwin better get himself trucked by a security guard again, or this is a snoozefest.

8. One normie pick, one weird pick

I’m sticking with Burns from the normie angle, but I’m going with my favorite Canadian of all-time, Sudarshan Yellamaraju, for the weird pick. We’re not talking about this guy enough! He learned golf in a dome in Alberta! From YouTube!

9. Rogue Golf Thought: The USGA simply cannot coward out at Shinnecock

Okay USGA, so you absolutely screwed the pooch in 2004, resulting in total humiliation and a complete leadership turnover in your championship division, and then everybody yelled at you again for losing the course in 2018, and Phil Mickelson actually hit a moving putt. I can see why you would want to err on the side of caution, and why Padraig Harrington told Eamon Lynch on Monday that it’s playing way easier than he expected. But Shinnecock is meant to be chaotic! Take it from me, a guy with absolutely nothing at stake: Embarrassing the players, or yourselves, is way better than taking the fearful approach and letting these guys get to 15 under on a course that should be installing itself permanently in their nightmares.

Unlike Oakmont, which was a boring kind of difficult last year, Shinnecock is hilarious difficult, and we need to embrace that. Don’t let the specter of the past, and all its massive disgrace, stop you from rolling the dice again. Turn off the water! Quintuple roll the greens every morning! Shave the greenside rough! If you’re not ready to be hurt again, just turn the whole thing over to the PGA of America and have them accidentally start a mud slide or something.

10. Rogue Non-Golf Thought: Going off dairy and wheat is a massive pain in the ass

I’m on day three of an “exclusion diet,” which I’m doing because I have a weird throat thing called eosinophilic esophagitis that makes me feel like I’m choking to death once every few days (fun!), and which probably means I’m mildly allergic to some major food group, and for the next two months I have to figure out which one. (Why don’t they just test me, you ask? Apparently those tests don’t even work, due to the mysteries of digestion. Science is terrible.) This is not the end of the world, and I could probably stand to not eat seven pounds of pretzels with cheddar cheese every night at 11 p.m., but man, you take away wheat and dairy, and all the extremely easy meals and snacks I once counted on are gonezo. No more fig bars, no more easy pasta, no more sandwiches. I just went to Whole Foods and pored over the ingredients info at their hot bar, finally found something that worked, and then paid $25 for some chicken, vegetables, and soup. This is not sustainable!

(It’s also surprisingly hard not to accidentally eat the banned food. I absent-mindedly took a bite of the spaghetti I made for my kids on day one, and on day two I ate about seven mini meatballs, not realizing until my wife told me that meatballs are held together by bread. WHO KNEW???)

Now I know why some vegans just eat nothing but potato chips. Once you find something that works, it’s way easier to go back to the well over and over instead of undertaking the impossible labor of preparing a salad. If you need me for the next two months, I’ll be eating nothing but avocados with bagel seasoning, the odd apple and endless mega-packs of Fritos.

Read the full article here