CALEDON, Ont – Day one of the RBC Canadian Open saw the field dominate TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley.
Denmark’s Thorbjorn Oleson, and Chile’s Cristobal Del Sobar, share the lead shooting nine under through the first 18 holes.
Taylor Pendrith (-5) is tied for ninth after a 65. with eight other golfers, leading all Canadians on the board.
Two of his fellow countrymen and group members, Nick Taylor (-4) and Mackenzie Hughes (-2), also impressed in the all-Canadian group.
Pendrith matched the score he shot in 2014 (65) when he made his Canadian Open debut with not many fans watching.
“Those experiences [in 2014], I think, help me here where it’s one of the biggest events for us and it’s one that we look forward to all year,” said Pendrith to reporters after his round Thursday.
“It’s my fifth or sixth Canadian open now and it’s nice to play in a group with those guys and have the fans supporting us”
Taylor, Pendrith and Hughes embraced playing together in front of a home crowd.
“To play a practice round with a couple of buddies – excuse me, tournament round,” said Taylor to media following his round Thursday. “It felt like a practice round… It was fun. We kept it loose”
The 2023 Canadian Open winner shot a 33 on both the front and back nine, recording just two bogies on the day. Both of which came on the long par 4’s.
“I think there’s four or five really strong par 4’s,” said the Winnipeg native. “I think the difficulty today was the softness of the greens with short irons. There was a lot of spin”
But that did not stop Hughes from having arguably, the highlight of the day. Hitting a blind 6-iron on number five, from 197 yards out, he landed it just past the cup and spun it back for the eagle hole out.
“Mack holed a 6-iron on 5,” said Pendrith. “So it was a lot of fun. The crowd was into it.
Nice to see a lot of people out here on a rainy day.”
Fans will only get louder as the tournament heads into its final three days, which are forecasted to be free of rain. The all-Canadian group is set to tee off at 12:44 p.m. on the first tee deck.
Notable players currently outside the top 65 and below the -2 cutline
Corey Conners: E (7:40 a.m. tee off)
Gary Woodland: E (12:33 p.m tee off)
Max Homa: -1 (12:33 p.m. tee off)
Rory McIlroy: +1 (12:55 p.m. tee off)
Im-Sung Jae: +2 (12:33 p.m. tee off)
