HAMILTON – Golf Canada CEO Laurence Applebaum said the RBC Canadian Open is unlikely to move from the Greater Toronto Area any time soon.
While there are no other venues confirmed beyond the 2025 event at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley, it won’t be going around the country for a variety of reasons.
The event has become so big and so successful that there are just a limited number of courses that could play host.
There is also a baked in group of volunteers, long-term vendors, and key partners who all have their headquarters in the GTA.
It may disappoint the grander group of golf fans across the country, but there are plenty of unseen layers to this tournament.
“This is a behemoth of an operation and to have a golf course like (Hamilton) with not only 18 holes, but an additional nine holes and a practice area and an incredible clubhouse. And just the logistics operationally, it allows us for us to do what we’ve always dreamed doing,” Applebaum said. “There are less properties that can do that nationally. That said, it’s also an expensive, really expensive endeavour to (move it).”
Adding TPC Toronto to the rotation, tournament director Bryan Crawford said, gives the event a “bit more stability.” That venue has 54 holes, just underwent a multi-million-dollar renovation, and has plenty of space for everything the Canadian Open has become. Crawford said they first visited TPC Toronto and began envisioning it as a Canadian Open host in 2019.
Sportsnet reported earlier in the week that Oakdale Golf & Country Club (the host of the 2023 edition, won by Canadian Nick Taylor) would not be hosting in 2026 – as was its original plan. Golf Canada is hopeful it will host again in the future, though.
Tournament officials are keen to pull together a potential rotation that includes Oakdale, St. George’s Golf and Country Club, Hamilton, and TPC Toronto.
“All of those venues have voiced their interest in hosting again,” Crawford said. “And for the most part, it’s just a matter of figuring out the proper cadence that that works for their membership, because this is a big lift, it’s a lot on a membership.”
They would not confirm what kind of rotation that would look like (whether TPC Toronto would get it two or three years in a row and they go somewhere else, for example), but while there are plenty of other top-tier venues around the GTA – Mississaugua Golf and Country Club, for example, will host the CPKC Women’s Open next year – the scope and scale of the event takes a lot out venues out of the mix.
“The challenge is while there’s tons of great properties inside the ropes, there just are not as many properties that have the right mix of everything else that you need,” Crawford said.
There is also, of course, the cost of doing business. The Canadian Open is Golf Canada’s biggest money-making operation and funds from the tournament trickle down to all of its programming.
“Everything we do flows through the RBC Canadian Open,” Applebaum said. “Our program with the First Tee, our Team Canada program, having more Canadians (play golf). We understand that we’re trying to pay for a lot of programs and our assets through the RBC Canadian Open.”
This year’s event already featured the biggest corporate-structure build out in tournament history, while merchandise sales are up 20 per cent year-over-year (it wasn’t even open on Monday or Tuesday) and concessions are up 48 per cent year-over-year through just two days of actual tournament action.
The biggest question of the week perhaps remained unanswered, however.
The future title sponsorship of this event is to be determined, as RBC has only signed, officially, to sponsor this year’s Canadian Open. Conversations are ongoing, Applebaum said.
“We’ve had an incredible week here spent a lot of time together with both RBC and the PGA Tour, and we know that those discussions will continue in real earnest,” Applebaum said.
Regardless of the future of this event, there’s plenty of reason to celebrate the present. This year’s event, Crawford said, is trending towards being the most-attended Canadian Open in tournament history.