This golden generation of Canadian golfers on the PGA Tour will take another stab at winning a major championship in 2025 – and it all gets started at the Masters.
Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith, Nick Taylor, and of course, Mike Weir are all set to tee it up at Augusta National this year. Conners earned his way in by virtue of finishing in the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of 2024, while Pendrith got his invite thanks to winning his maiden title on the PGA Tour – The CJ Cup Bryon Nelson – last summer. Taylor captured the Sony Open in Hawaii in January to re-earn his spot in the field.
The most Canadians to ever tee it up at the Masters is five, which happened twice before – in 1957 and 1961. Canada was close to matching that mark in 2024 with Mackenzie Hughes making a valiant charge up the leaderboard at the Houston Open. He ended up finishing No. 62 in the world after that week, with the top-50 cut off happening Sunday in Houston where Hughes finished 10th. A solo-third or better would have gotten him enough points to qualify.
Alas, it will be a fun year for Pendrith, who makes his Masters debut, and for both Conners and Taylor, eager for some revenge on the golf course. Taylor has gone two full seasons (eight in a row) without making the cut at a major while Conners, who had three straight top-10s at Augusta National from 2020-2022, missed the cut in 2023 and finished T38 in 2024.
Conners, however, notched three straight top-10s through the Florida Swing on the PGA Tour (3rd at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, T6 at The Players Championship, and T8 at the Valspar) and now has four top-10s on the season – matching his total from 2024 by just the third week of March in 2025.
Conners also had the best finish by a Canadian male at a major in 2024, with his T9 at the U.S. Open being the only top-10 finish by any Canadian at a men’s major through the whole of the year.
Obviously, this foursome is keen to start the year off with a bang at the Masters.
In order to notch a solid result – and, perhaps, even win the thing – they’re going to have to take on some of the biggest names in golf, not just the PGA Tour. Last year’s U.S. Open winner, Bryson DeChambeau, along with the 2023 Masters champ, Jon Rahm, are part of LIV Golf and will only get mixed in with the Tour’s best at majors. They are still some of the game’s top names, however.
But no one has had a better run over the last 12 months than Scottie Scheffler, the defending champion at the Masters.
Scheffler’s Masters title was his second Green Jacket and third win of 2024 – en route to winning seven times, plus an Olympic gold medal last year. He hasn’t yet won in 2025 but after a Christmastime accident where he cut his hand and needed stiches, he seems to be rounding into form. Scheffler will head into the Masters after a T2, his best result of the season so far, at the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
And then there’s Rory McIlroy – a two-time winner already this season. And Ludvig Aberg – who finished runner-up to Scheffler in his Masters debut in 2024. And Collin Morikawa and Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas. You get the idea, of course. All the big names are getting set to gather at the game’s most iconic place.
Four Canadians are in the field all looking to do what their countryman did 22 years ago. And the biggest names in the game are aiming to do the same thing.