The Canadian Open has spent much of its long life as the championship that deserved better. It is the third-oldest national open in golf, behind only the Open itself and the US Open, and yet for years it sat in scheduling slots that guaranteed a thin field and a quiet week. Not this time. When play begins at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley on Thursday, four of the top ten players in the world will be on the first tee sheet, and the week before the US Open suddenly looks like one of the more interesting stops of the season.
Fox comes back to defend
The defending champion is Ryan Fox, the New Zealander who outlasted Sam Burns over four playoff holes here last June. Fox has built a career out of being awkward to beat in exactly these circumstances, a big hitter with a short game that travels and a temperament that does not seem to register occasion, and he arrives with the chance to do something nobody has managed at this event since Jhonattan Vegas: win it twice running. National opens tend to be kind to players who simply get on with it, and there are few players on Tour who get on with it quite like Fox.
The course he is defending on is the North Course at Osprey Valley in Caledon, Ontario, a par 70 stretched to just shy of 7,400 yards. It is not a venue with a century of championship lore behind it, but last year’s playing revealed a course that asks proper questions, demanding purposeful driving and real control of spin into the greens. A par 70 of that length leaves nowhere to hide a loose long iron.
The strongest field in years
The names making the trip north are the story. Matt Fitzpatrick arrives at the top of the betting lists chasing a fourth win of an already remarkable 2026, and on current form it is hard to argue with the bookmakers. Collin Morikawa, Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood join him, which gives the tournament four of the world’s top ten and the kind of leaderboard potential the event has rarely been able to advertise.
There is one notable absence. J.T. Poston, fresh from his Memorial playoff win over Ryan Gerard, has withdrawn, which is an entirely understandable decision from a man who has just banked the biggest title of his career and has a US Open to think about. His withdrawal also tells you something about the week’s central tension. Every player in this field is making the same calculation: whether competitive reps the week before Shinnecock sharpen the game or spend energy that will be wanted on Long Island. The players who have come to Canada have made their answer public.
The home charge
No preview of this event is complete without the Canadians, because no gallery in golf wants a home winner more than this one. Nick Taylor, whose 72nd-hole eagle to win the 2023 edition remains the loudest moment this championship has produced in decades, leads the home contingent alongside Corey Conners, and both have games suited to a course that rewards fairway-finding over brute force.
Then there is Mike Weir, teeing it up in his thirty-third Canadian Open, two short of the all-time appearance record held by George Cumming. Weir will not be expected to contend on a course this long, but expectation has never really been the point of his June pilgrimage. Some traditions matter because of what they say about a player’s relationship with his national championship, and Weir’s is one of the warmest in the game.
What to watch for
The shape of the week is easy enough to sketch. Fitzpatrick’s form against Fox’s defence, the four top-ten players measuring their games a week out from a major, and the home crowd willing Taylor or Conners into Sunday’s final groups. Underneath all of that sits the quieter contest, the one for the last fortnight of momentum before Shinnecock, where confidence will be worth more than any cheque handed out in Caledon.
The Canadian Open spent years asking the game’s best to take it seriously. This week, finally, they have.
Sources: PGA Tour: The First Look at the RBC Canadian Open, CBS Sports: RBC Canadian Open 2026 predictions and preview, Athlon Sports: field, storylines and TPC Toronto breakdown, Field Level Media: Poston withdraws