RBC Canadian Open will have to pick its poison on PGA Tour’s two-track plan

Which track will Canadian Open end up on, and can it realistically live on either track without losing either its significance or its soul?

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Published Jun 11, 2026  •  Last updated 21 minutes ago  •  5 minute read

Collin Morikawa of the United States looks on on the 9th green during the RBC Canadian Open Pro-Am at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley on June 10, 2026 in Caledon, Ont. Photo by Vaughn Ridley /Getty Images

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CALEDON, Ont. — There always seems to be a new challenge lurking around the corner for the RBC Canadian Open, and the latest one could be a biggie.

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“I think as a National Open … maybe it’s time to evolve what the idea of an Open is,” Collin Morikawa said on Wednesday at TPC Toronto.

“Definitely I think there’s going to be some changes,” Canadian Corey Conners said a few hours later.

Whether it’s schedule changes, going head-to-head against the inaugural LIV Golf event like in 2022, or being ground zero for the stunning (failed) merger with the Saudi-led tour one year later, it has been a tumultuous half-decade for our century-old tournament.

Over that stretch, though, the Canadian Open has time after time over-delivered. Two wins from Rory McIlroy, a curse-breaking victory from Nick Taylor, and a new logo to brilliantly immortalize that magic moment are just some of the highlights.

You’re never going to make purists and content junkies perfectly happy, but in recent years the tournament has struck a nice balance of thrilling sport with a proud history mixed with all the concerts, food, and activations (whatever those are) that a modern event needs to find its way into your algorithm.

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“This was my first start ever as a pro,” said Morikawa, who returns to Canada for the first time since 2019. “I think we got a great field, a few top-10 players in the world, major champions, (including) a winner in Aaron Rai this year.”

“Guys like coming out here,” he added. “And I talked about it with a few guys yesterday, at the end of the day, it’s still a National Open. And I’ve never been able to win one, I would love to win one, just because looking back you can’t take away from that history. So, watching on TV the last few years, watching the little hockey rink area, hopefully we can pull off some good shots this week.”

With no Rory, but four of the world’s top ten players and major champions such as Morikawa, Rai, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Shane Lowry and Justin Rose, the high-end depth of the field looks great.

But will it be able to stay that way?

CEO of the PGA Tour Brian Rolapp. Photo by Cliff Hawkins /Getty Images

New PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp has made clear that his vision for the future is a two-track system with 15-18 Track 1 tournaments for a top group of players, and then a series of Track 2 events for the rest of the guys to duke it out trying to get promoted.

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Of course, there will be meetings and more meetings and meetings about those meetings before anything is actually settled ahead of what’s expected to be a start date of 2028. The question for the RBC Canadian Open in this scenario is which track will it end up on, and whether it can realistically live on either track without losing either its significance or its soul.

“There’s really been nothing decided on what events are going to be Track 1, Track 2,” Conners said when asked about the issue by Postmedia. “I care a lot about this event. I would love to see it as a Track 1 event and continue playing well on the PGA Tour and continue playing in front of the hometown fans.”

If Conners gets his wish and the RBC Canadian Open becomes a Track 1 event, it will almost certainly mean the end to the tournament being a familiar starting point for young Canadian pros, as well as the end of any sort of open qualifying.

“Maybe it’s time to evolve what the idea of an Open is,” Morikawa said when asked about the topic by Postmedia. “A hundred-and-twenty guys are the best players in the world come out here and try and win the RBC Canadian Open, that’s still meaningful, right?”

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Yes, a ‘closed’ Canadian Open would have the best field in generations, but it would come at a cost.

“Unfortunately, if that takes away from a couple spots, I think it could better the field,” two-time major winner Morikawa added. “We talk about the field here, who knows, maybe you have one of the strongest fields in two, three, four years. So there’s a lot of give and there’s a lot of take. I think we have to evolve and I think that’s what we’re doing, but at the same time respect the history of what the Canadian Open was and has been.”

Conners is among the long list of Canadian players who made their PGA Tour debut at their national open. In 2013 and 2014, it was the only PGA Tour event he played as he tried to get his career off the ground.

“The Open factor, you know, it’s always been nice to have 21 Canadians, give some young Canadian players an opportunity to play at such an elite event,” Conners said. “Like I said, nothing’s been quite decided, but I’m optimistic that the Canadian Open’s going to continue to thrive and hopefully it can continue to be a big part of the PGA Tour.”

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The other scenario is the RBC Canadian Open ends up a Track 2 event. That would most closely resemble the current situation for PGA Tour double-tournament sponsor RBC, where the Heritage event in Hilton Head is a Signature event and the Canadian Open is not, but still attracts a strong field. The issue with this is a report from recent meetings that Rolapp wants to limit Track 1 players from playing Track 2 events, at least in some fashion.

One thing we know about pro golfers is that they don’t like being told which tournaments they can and can’t play, so expect this to become a serious sticking point in negotiations. Forgetting the Canadian Open for a moment, virtually every tournament on the schedule has either community or sponsor relationships with some top players that won’t easily be pushed aside.

The entire idea of a PGA Tour split into Track 1 and Track 2 seems like an odd bit of self-sabotage. The tour is already a de-facto two-tier system and it only takes one glance at a field to see where a tournament sits in the hierarchy. What’s the benefit in telling your fans that half the events on the calendar are second-rate? Tournaments that spend all year planning and jumping through hoops to create buzz won’t be thrilled to have the tour say the quiet part out loud.

“I don’t know what to expect in say two years, right, when things are trying to be implemented,” Morikawa said. “What I do know is that hopefully it’s all for the betterment of the players and of the fans at the same time.”

For this week, life is good at the RBC Canadian Open and the only thing to worry about are some thunderstorms in the forecast.

As for what’s on the horizon, unusual challenges are par for the course, but luckily our national open has been solving them since 1904.

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