Twenty years ago, Mike Weir won the Masters to become the first Canadian male to win a major championship. The Green Jacket came north of the border – to borrow a line from Jim Nantz.
The impact of Weir’s Masters triumph has been long felt. And in 2023, two decades on, there were more Canadians who won on the PGA Tour than in any other 12-month timeframe. Emphasized, of course, by Nick Taylor’s dramatic playoff victory at the RBC Canadian Open in June.
“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. “To, kind of, break that curse – I’m pretty speechless.
“I don’t think it’s going to sink in for quite some time what happened today.”
Along with Taylor’s win at Oakdale Golf and Country Club, Mackenzie Hughes captured the Sanderson Farms Championship, Adam Svensson broke through for his first PGA Tour title at The RSM Classic, and Corey Conners won the Valero Texas Open for the second time. Conners and Taylor made it to the Tour Championship in August, the first time that there has been more than one Canadian in the final-event field on Tour during the FedExCup-era. There were excellent major-championship efforts, in-the-mix weeks at almost every tournament, and plenty of momentum behind the mid-30s group on the top of their games on the biggest stage in men’s golf.
And that’s just what happened on the PGA Tour over the last 12 months.
Add in Brooke Henderson’s season-opening triumph on the LPGA Tour along with a handful of more impressive results on the professional and amateur circuit (more on that later), it’s been a magical time in Canadian golf – one that could be the pillar for even more big-time inspiration to come.
“Our specific goal is to help heroes grow the game,” says Tristan Mullally, Golf Canada’s head of national talent identification. “There’s a Canadian from a small town and if they can do it, I can too.”
Taylor and Henderson are the only golfers in this country’s history to win the Canadian Junior, Canadian Amateur, and Canadian Open on their respective Tours.
“When (junior golfers) see these guys winning and when they see Brooke doing well… they have to see it to know they can do it,” says Kevin Blue, Golf Canada’s chief sport officer. “The success the players are having, they have earned over their own hard work and their achievements. It shows up-and-coming players that Canadians can and are doing it on the world stage.”
While the impressive victories – and seasons overall – by those on the PGA and LPGA Tour are the world-beating newsmakers, it doesn’t take long to see how incredible the results have been by so many other Canadians on planet golf.
Alena Sharp, at 42, hasn’t missed a cut on the Epson Tour all season. Her run has included five top-10 results, including a victory. As of late September, she is just $3,000 back of re-earning an LPGA Tour card for next year.
Two Canadians, meanwhile, have won the Korn Ferry Tour – Ben Silverman and Roger Sloan. Silverman has already locked up his PGA Tour card for next season and is gunning for the No.1 spot on the Korn Ferry Tour’s Points List. Sloan, meanwhile, is within shouting distance of the PGA Tour, too. The Korn Ferry Tour has its season-ending Korn Ferry Tour Championship next week.
Another two won on PGA Tour Canada this season. Long-time Golf Canada National Team members Etienne Papineau (Royal Beach Victoria Open presented by Times Colonist) and Stuart Macdonald (Commissionaires Ottawa Open) each found the winners’ circle in Canada in 2023, with Papineau finishing fourth on the season-long points list and earned conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour. He also, as the top Canadian on PGA Tour Canada, earned an exemption into the 2024 RBC Canadian Open.
Kudos, too, to Myles Creighton, a winner on PGA Tour Latinoamerica. And of course, Stephen Ames, who has won a remarkable four times(!) on PGA Tour Champions this season.
Canadian amateurs also had some impressive moments throughout 2023.
Eileen Park won the Canadian Junior Girls Championship, the legend Judith Kyrinis won the Canadian Women’s Mid-Am, Lauren Kim captured the 109th Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship, Ashton McCulloch won the 118th Canadian Men’s Amateur, Alex Zhang won the Canadian Junior Boys Championship, and another icon, Mary-Ann Hayward, won the Canadian Women’s Senior Amateur by one over Kyrinis.
Monet Chun, a senior at the University of Michigan, became the first Canadian to make the cut at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She finished tied for 14th after her final round at Augusta National and also made the cut at the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach.
“The excitement level for results we’re seeing is fantastic and it rubs off on the young players,” says Blue. “The younger players will see this and think, ‘why not me?’ and that’s great.”
From Weir’s win to Henderson’s heroics and Taylor’s triumph, there’s never been a more exciting time in Canadian golf, and this year has been a perfect example of that.
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