When The RSM Classic wraps up Sunday, the best-ever PGA Tour season for Canadians will end.

Some may argue Mike Weir’s 2003 campaign — where he won three times, including the Masters — may top this one, in terms of pure significance. The Canadians who won this season all point to Weir’s Green Jacket triumph as a key, if not the most important, moment of their golfing upbringing. Without Weir’s 2003, we may not have had 2023.

But there’s no point in arguing in historical whataboutisms. This year happened. Four Canadians won on the PGA Tour in the 2022-23 season — the Tour’s final wraparound effort after 10 years, before it returns to a calendar-year season starting in January — with Mackenzie Hughes winning the Sanderson Farms Championship last October, Adam Svensson winning The RSM Classic (where he is the defending champion this week), Corey Conners winning the Valero Texas Open and Nick Taylor winning the RBC Canadian Open. There was nearly a fifth, too, as Adam Hadwin lost in a playoff at the Rocket Mortgage Classic (and finished second, paired with Taylor, at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and this fall’s Shriners Children’s Open).

There were also multiple Canadian winners on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Canada, plus Brooke Henderson on the LPGA Tour, Stephen Ames winning four times on PGA Tour Champions, and Alena Sharp on the Epson Tour. Sharp also won bronze at the Pan-Am Games just a few weeks ago.

The PGA Tour has the most eyeballs, however, and the collection of titles over the last Tour season for Canadians will be part of the game’s history in this country.

Henry Brunton was part of Golf Canada’s development program when it first launched in the early 2000s and one of the lead coaches on the squad, overseeing plenty of Canada’s biggest golfing names including Taylor and Matt Hill — who, at the time, was the world’s No.1-ranked amateur. Brunton says Canadians should temper their expectations going forward. But that doesn’t mean he, like everyone else in Canadian golf, didn’t enjoy what unfolded over the last 12 months.

“People should realize that this success, that this incredible wave of phenomenal accomplishment on the men’s side is a statistical anomaly. A country like Canada should not, statistically, be doing this,” admits Brunton, who continues to be a high-level teaching professional in both Canada and the United States, and who penned a research paper titled, ‘The Development of Expertise for Elite Competitive Golfers and the Related Probability of Advancing to the PGA Tour.’

“The guys are obviously doing it, though.”

Next year could be primed to be even better with the Summer Olympics in Paris and the Presidents Cup returning to Royal Montreal. The International team will have Weir as its captain, and there’s already a WhatsApp group chat with the International-team hopefuls included. Weir has already begun sending them videos, and that includes a half-dozen Canadians.

“It’d be an honour to play for Mike and I think it’d be pretty memorable playing in Canada for that team. It’s something I’m looking forward to,” Svensson said from St. Simons Island, Ga., as he prepares to defend his maiden Tour title.

Svensson was a can’t-miss prospect growing up in British Columbia winning hundreds of events as a youngster and parlaying that success to a celebrated career at Florida’s Barry University, a Division II school. He won nine times there, including seven in one season en route to winning the D-II Player of the Year.

His win at The RSM Classic last year was him reaching golf’s pinnacle, though. Svensson is a stoic kind of guy, but even a PGA Tour title brought out some tears from him. Svensson, who won by two shots, was 108th after an over-par opener on Thursday and didn’t think much of his chances until he stepped on the gas for the final 54 holes. His 10-foot birdie on the penultimate hole a year ago, he says, remains a life highlight. That was what put him ahead for good.

Funny enough, Svensson can’t remember a time when he ever defended a title. Any time he has won, he often moved on — either up in age or up in golf’s ladder. This would be the first. The biggest perk? He’s got a special cabin all to himself right on site at the picturesque Sea Island Golf Club.

Svensson’s win a year ago was one of three top-10 finishes through the season for him. He hasn’t missed a cut since June and has played more golf than anyone else through the fall out of the guys who finished in the top 50 in the FedExCup standings prior to the Tour Championship. The FedExCup Fall, a swing of seven events, were really meant to give guys like Svensson — who finished inside the top 50 in the standings — a kickstart to their offseason.

Instead, Svensson played five of the seven, giving him a total of 35 for the season.

“I just love playing. I love competing and I feel like I learned so much each week. Even if I don’t play good, I still learn and if I play great, I learn. I feel like the more events I play, just the better and better I get,” Svensson said.

“It’s been my best year on the PGA Tour and I feel like I've played my best golf in my career. I feel like I'm getting better and better. And hopefully I can keep it going.”

Not just was it Svensson’s best year on the PGA Tour — it was Canada’s. The RSM Classic begins Thursday Nov. 16 with Svensson, Conners, Hughes, Taylor Pendrith and Michael Gligic the Canadian contingent.

Canadians look to cap off historic PGA Tour season, ride momentum into 2024

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