Rory McIlroy will have his eyes set on a three-peat at this week’s Canadian Open but he’ll have a new course to learn as the event moves to Oakdale Golf and Country Club.
The Canadian Open moves around frequently with five different courses hosting since the 2011 edition.
This week’s host course is making its Canadian Open debut. They’ll see a full field of 156 golfers and the 36-hole cutline will see the field trimmed to the low 65 and ties.
The Course
Oakdale has a lot of history, being built in the 1920s with the third set of nine holes added in the1950s. None of that history involves hosting a PGA TOUR event so this will be a unique experience for the club.
They did get a test run last year by hosting the Monday Qualifier for the 2022 Canadian Open. The low score that day was 3-under but the course has been altered a bit after that test run.
The most obvious change was flipping the par-4 18th from a long par 4 into a short, par 5s. The course is lining up to play as a par 72 that plays to 7,264 yards from the tips.
It’s a unique setup at Oakdale as there are only three par 3s but also just three par 5s. Par 3s are typically the toughest holes in a PGA TOUR event so to remove one of them should make this play relatively easy in terms of scoring relative to par. Turning the 18th into a par 5 will also help in that regard. I think 20-under is a good target score if you want to find yourself in contention but it’s possible they go even deeper.
Off the tee, many of fairways are narrow but likely feel even more narrow with plenty of tree patches lining the corridors. Five of the par 4s play under 400 yards so there will certainly be chances to club down without losing too much ground. Four of the par 4s will play at 460 yards or longer so it’s not a wall-to-wall wedgefest.
On approach, golfers will have small greens to aim at. Many are elevated or have tiers that require a precise strike in order to have a reasonable birdie putt. The four-inch bluegrass rough may cause problems at times but the main defense will likely be the small, tricky greens.
For turf, golfers will see typical cool-season grasses with bentgrass fairways and a bent-poa blend on the greens.
Being the first time hosting on the big stage, the PGA TOUR typically errs to the side of caution which leads me to believe we should see plenty of low numbers this week at Oakdale.
Correlated Courses
We don’t have history to lean on this week but just looking at the course overall, here are a few that I feel could provide some nice crossover results:
TPC Deere Run
Detroit GC
TPC Twin Cities
Keene Trace
We’re looking for relatively easy courses that host events in the summer and feature cool-season turf.
The Weather
Thursday: Cloudy with a high of 67 degrees. Winds at 8 to 14 MPH.
Friday: Partly Sunny with a high of 71 degrees. Wind at 6 to 13 MPH.
It’s too early to lock down this forecast for the entire week but there is some precipitation in the forecast and also some potential wind over the weekend. We’ll want to revisit that on Wednesday.