Before the third major of the year out west, the PGA Tour heads north of the border. It’s the 2023 RBC Canadian Open from Oakdale Golf & Country Club in Toronto, ON. As always, here’s a preview of the 2023 RBC Canadian Open and a tournament betting guide.
2023 RBC Canadian Open Preview
The Field
Headlining the field at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open is Rory McIlroy. After a mid-season slump, Rory seems to have found his footing again. He followed up a T7 finish at the PGA Championship with a share of the 54-hole lead at the Memorial last week. Unfortunately, Rory didn’t bring his best on Sunday. But he should have good vibes heading into a tournament as the two-time defending champion.
Other notables in the field include Matthew Fitzpatrick, Sam Burns, Cameron Young, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry, Corey Conners, and Sahith Theegala. Unfortunately, there is a steep drop-off in talent after these names. Overall, the field at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open is very weak.
For the full field, click here.
The Golf Course
After leaving its anchor site in Glen Abbey, the RBC Canadian Open now rotates across different golf courses in the province of Ontario. In 2019, it was played at Hamilton Golf & Country Club. COVID then canceled the 2020 and 2021 Canadian Opens. In 2022 it was held at St. George’s Golf & Country Club. And in 2023, it will play at Oakdale Golf & Country Club.
Oakdale Golf & Country Club was built in 1926 by Stanley Thompson. He designed the first 18 holes at the golf course. In 1957, Robbie Robinson completed another nine holes. In total, Oakdale Golf & Country Club features 27 holes. For the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, a composite course from all three nines will be used for the tournament.
Because this is the first time a PGA Tour event will be played at Oakdale Golf & Country Club, I made a one-hour video and broke down every hole of the composite course. The analysis includes the types of tee shots players will hit, elevation changes from tee to green, and estimating approach shot proximity distances into each green. Please watch the video below before continuing this article:
Betting Strategies
While everything one needs for betting strategies is included in the video, here’s a summary of everything discussed. This will preview what types of players and statistics to focus on at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open.
General Information
The composite course used for the 2023 RBC Canadian Open will stretch 7,264 yards. It will play as a Par 72. However, there are only three Par 3’s in the layout. If we took an extra Par 4 and turned it into a Par 3, this golf course would play as a Par 71 at about 7,000 yards. This is a very, very short golf course for PGA Tour standards.
The three Par 3’s play to the following lengths:
- 9th – 193 Yards
- 11th – 208 Yards
- 14th – 172 Yards
The 12 Par 4’s are comprised of the following yardages:
- < 400 yards – 5
- 400-450 yards – 3
- 450-500 yards – 4
Half of the longer Par 4’s on the golf course play from significantly elevated tee boxes to a very wide and firm fairway. They won’t play nearly as long as what the scorecard says. In addition, several of the Par 4’s less than 400 yards long also play from elevated tee boxes to firm fairways. There’s no reason not to hit the driver on any of them. They’ll play extremely short.
The three Par 5’s play to the following lengths:
- 5th – 590 Yards
- 12th – 553 Yards
- 18th – 496 Yards
The Par 5 5th plays from a significantly elevated tee box to one of the widest fairways on the golf course. Players will get a ton of rollout should their tee shot find the fairway. The 12th plays uphill from the landing zone but still is reachable in 2. And the 18th requires a forced layup about 250 yards from the tee box in front of a creek and plays significantly uphill. However, it’s reachable in two.
Agronomy
The fairways and tee boxes are bentgrass. The rough is a mixture of poa and ryegrass. Unfortunately, the GCSAA did not release the length of the rough. However, I’d expect it to be at least 3.5-4 inches long. Considering there’s not much off the fairway to protect the golf course, the rough is low hanging fruit to try and give it some teeth.
The greens themselves are a mixture of bentgrass and poa. However, it’s unknown what the exact poa to bentgrass ratio of the greens is.
Here are other golf courses on the PGA Tour with a bentgrass and poa mix on the greens:
- Detroit Golf Club
- Silverado Resort
- TPC River Highlands
- Hamilton Golf & CC
- Muirfield Village (pre-2021)
- Firestone CC
- Ridgewood CC
- Olympia Fields
- Bethpage Black
Off The Tee
The golf course utilizes high spots very well for the tee boxes. There are several holes where players will hit a fairway well below them. This will increase their carry distances off the tee. In addition, there is very little to discourage a player not to pull a driver on almost every Par 4 or 5. There are virtually no water hazards players will contend with, and the golf course isn’t heavily bunkered.
The only true protection of the golf course comes with bottlenecked fairways and the expected thick rough. Most fairways are between 25-30 yards wide. However, some spots are as wide as 40 yards. There are other areas that bottleneck to less than 20 yards wide. However, drives that carry over 300 yards typically can avoid these bottlenecks and land in a much more wide open spot in the fairway.
Not only is the golf course short on the scorecard, but the ability for players to hit lots of drivers from elevated positions onto the firm, downhill fairways means the golf course will play as one of the shortest on the PGA Tour this season.
Approach Shots
While several tee shots play from an elevated position to a low landing zone, several greens play significantly uphill. Therefore, while most approach shots will be on the short side, players must adjust their club selection to account for greens that might occasionally be 15-20 feet above them.
Speaking of approach shots, here’s an approximation of the types of approach shots players will hit at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open. This will preview the types of players to target at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open:
- <100 yards -22.2%
- 100-125 yards- 22.2%
- 125-150 yards – 5.6%
- 150-175 yards – 16.7%
- 175-200 yards – 16.7%
- 200-225 yards – 0%
- 225-250 yards – 16.7%
- 250+ yards – 0%
This estimation is based on the analysis in the video above using Google Earth, taking into account elevation changes, fairway width, and the firmness of each fairway. This estimation also assumes shots that hit the fairway. This distribution will be affected should tee shots miss the fairway, as they won’t receive any rollout.
The greens at Oakdale Golf & Country Club are slightly smaller than the PGA Tour average. In all, they average about 5,100 sq. feet in area. That’s roughly the same size as the greens at Muirfield Village last week. However, with so many approach shots, players will have a much easier time hitting the green this week than they did from longer distances at Muirfield Village.
Around The Green
There doesn’t appear to be anything that’s tremendously difficult around each green. Most are guarded by a bunker or two and thick rough. There don’t appear to be many tight lie collection areas where a ball that missed the green rolls significantly away from the green. So, overall, most players shouldn’t have too much adversity should they miss a green.
Putting
As mentioned earlier, the greens are a mixture of bentgrass and poa annua. Therefore, they won’t run nearly as smoothly as they did last week at Muirfield Village. However, it’s not expected that the greens will run nearly as fast as they did either. Overall, players can probably be aggressive on putts in the hope of carding lots of birdies on the scorecard.
Comp Courses
Based on the findings in the video above, it’s a very real possibility that the PGA Tour might light Oakdale Golf & Country Club up. Unfortunately, it might feature some of the lowest-scoring conditions of the year. Without many deterrents to keep the driver in the bag, few consequences for missed fairways, and one of the heaviest single tournament volumes of short approach shots of the season, the winning score should eclipse -20+.
Some other golf courses that come to mind with these types of conditions are the following:
- Silverado Resort (Fortinet Championship
- Detroit Golf Club (Rocket Mortgage Classic)
- TPC Craig Ranch (AT&T Byron Nelson)
- The Summit Club (2021 CJ Cup)
- Austin Country Club (WGC Match Play)
- TPC Deere Run (John Deere Classic)
- Country Club of Jackson (Sanderson Farms Classic)
- Glen Abbey Golf & CC (multiple time RBC Canadian Open host)
This list of golf courses features various crossovers such as elevation changes tee-to-green, high birdie rates, low penalties, shorter approach shots, and a high frequency of using a driver off the tee. Targeting players with good histories at these golf courses is a good preview of who to expect to play well at the 2023 RBC Canadian Open.
