What an impressive year it was for Canadian professional golfers – no matter what Tour they played on.
Let’s start at the top, and of course, the biggest moment of the season. Even if you aren’t Canadian, Nick Taylor’s 72-foot eagle bomb to defeat Tommy Fleetwood on the fourth playoff hole at the RBC Canadian Open was the stuff of legends. Taylor and Fleetwood both finished at 17 under for the weekend and went back and forth until they replayed the par-5 18th and Taylor rolled in the longest putt of his PGA Tour career.
In the process, he became the first Canadian male to win his country’s national open in 69 years.
“I think it's a tournament that we've circled on our calendar since probably junior golf. But ever since I've been on the PGA Tour this is one that we want to do as well as we can in, and the crowd support was the most unbelievable thing I will probably ever experience in my life,” Taylor said of his victory on that special Sunday. “To kind of break that curse, if you want to call it […] I'm pretty speechless.
“I don't think it's going to sink in for quite some time what happened today.”
That epic performance and will go down in history and will be honoured in 2024 with a subtle – and awesome – tweak to the tournament’s logo. Taylor’s iconic putter drop will replace the old-school, newsboy-cap wearing golfer that previously replaced the ‘I’ in ‘Canadian.’
“To be a part of the 2024 RBC Canadian Open logo is really special,” said Taylor. “When I first saw the re-design with myself as the ‘swing man,’ I was flattered by the tribute and thought it was very cool. I am excited to get to Hamilton and looking forward to defending my title.”
Taylor was one of four Canadians to win on the PGA Tour in 2022-23, the most in one season in history. Mackenzie Hughes captured the Sanderson Farms Championship last November while Adam Svensson closed the 2022 portion of the season with a win at The RSM Classic. After the calendar turned, Corey Conners won the Valero Texas Open for the second time in his career before Taylor won at Toronto’s Oakdale Golf and Country Club in June.
Adam Hadwin very nearly made it five Canadian winners through the season, as he lost in a playoff at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, while also finishing second (alongside Taylor) at the Zurich Classic at New Orleans and also the Shriner’s Children’s Open in Las Vegas this fall.
While there continued to be week-in and week-out success by Canadians on the biggest stage in men’s professional golf, as you go down the ladder there were plenty of other great accomplishments.
Ben Silverman and Roger Sloan both won on the Korn Ferry Tour and re-earned PGA Tour status for next season. Stu MacDonald and Etienne Papineau both won on PGA Tour Canada while Myles Creighton won on PGA Tour Latinoamerica.
Papineau, Creighton, and Sudarshan Yellamaraju all earned guaranteed starts on the Korn Ferry Tour for 2024 via their finishes at Q-School in mid-December, meaning the next generation of young Canadian stars are ready to start their own ladder-climb.
On the women’s side, Alena Sharp won on the Epson Tour and also captured a bronze medal at the Pan American Games.
And of course, Brooke Henderson continued her never-before-seen effort as Canada’s top-ranked golfer. She won the first event of the season on the LPGA Tour, nearly defended her title at the Amundi Evian Championship, and closed her year with a second-place result alongside Corey Conners at the LPGA-PGA Tour co-sanctioned event, the Grant Thornton Invitational.
There will be five Canadians on the LPGA Tour next year (with Maddie Szeryk and Sharp re-earning LPGA Tour status while 21-year-old Savannah Grewal got her LPGA Tour card for the first time at Q-School and Maude-Aimee Leblanc will be returning from injury).
“Canadian golf is certainly on the rise. It's really fun to be a part of it,” Conners said at the Grant Thornton Invitational.
“It's definitely on the rise, and it's super cool on the PGA Tour, four wins this year, which is super exciting,” added Henderson. “I think if we can continue to inspire the young girls and boys all around the world and in Canada, too, that's pretty cool.”
While the success of Canadian golfers on the PGA Tour this year doesn’t necessarily mean that success will be guaranteed again next year there is obviously strength in numbers, and a collective belief that the big group of men and women on the biggest stages in the sport are all in their primes.
Of course, there’s lots to play for in 2024 with the Olympics in Paris on the schedule for both the men and women, along with the Presidents Cup returning to Royal Montreal, and the international squad captained by Mike Weir.
Regardless of what’s to come in 2024, however, Canadian golf fans had a lot to celebrate in 2023.
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