PGA Tour Canada is entering a new era, emerging from two years of pandemic-related constraints with a full schedule again and some new features, including a season-long points race and a bonus prize pool.
The developmental circuit will be without its long-time umbrella sponsor Mackenzie Investments – that partnership expired – but has brought aboard cybersecurity company Fortinet as a significant new sponsor through at least 2026. Players will compete during the season for the Fortinet Cup, modeled after the FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour.
The top performers through the first 10 tournaments will advance to the season-ending Fortinet Cup Championship, in which the overall winner will earn a $25,000 bonus and the next nine finishers will share another $75,000.
“Barring another lockdown or border restrictions or changes, I think we’re in a good spot,” said tour president Scott Pritchard. “Our events are all ready to go and doing well in their respective markets. We’re full speed ahead.”
The PGA Tour took over the circuit, formerly called the Canadian Tour among other names, in 2013 with the aim of providing a pathway to higher levels of pro golf. Top performers each year earn promotions to the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour, which then gives them an opportunity to reach the PGA Tour.
More than 50 PGA Tour Canada alumni have advanced to the PGA Tour since 2013, including Tony Finau, Joel Dahmen, Aaron Wise and J.J. Spaun, as well as Canadians Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners. They and others have accounted for 16 PGA Tour victories and 49 wins on the Korn Ferry Tour.
PGA Tour Canada’s 2020 and 2021 regular schedules were upended by COVID-19 and related entry restrictions at the U.S.-Canada border, reducing it to fewer events and mostly for Canadian-based players only. This year’s calendar looks more like it did before the pandemic: 11 tournaments across Canada, stopping in seven provinces and, for the first time, in the U.S. for an event in Minnesota.
“We were a little bit cautious in terms of our outlook on what the interest level would be (among players), but we’re pleasantly surprised to see that the interest is significant."
Scott Pritchard, PGA Tour Canada president
Players from any country can play this year, although Canadian government regulations require all entrants to the country to be vaccinated.
“It’s back to what we know,” Pritchard said. “Having the international players come back to Canada and being able to compete for access to the Korn Ferry Tour, and then with our new sponsor Fortinet and $100,000 prize pool, I think those players have a lot to look forward to.”
The 2022 season begins June 2 at the Royal Beach Victoria Open in British Columbia and wraps up in Cambridge, Ontario, in mid-September with the Fortinet Cup Championship.
Pritchard said interest in the tour remains strong among players despite the two-year disruption, as evidenced by its series of full qualifying schools this spring, and sponsor inquiries are growing, perhaps because golf has enjoyed a resurgence and higher profile during the pandemic.
“We were a little bit cautious in terms of our outlook on what the interest level would be (among players), but we’re pleasantly surprised to see that the interest is significant,” he said. “I think that has a lot to do with the success our PGA Tour Canada alumni are having.”
Aaron Cockerill of Winnipeg posted his second top-three finish of the DP World Tour season on Sunday, all but assuring his playing card for next year. The 30-year-old, Canada’s lone player on the circuit formerly known as the European Tour, held the lead outright at one point during the final round of the ISPS Handa Championship in Spain. Though Cockerill acquitted himself well with a final-round 3-under-par 67, he and the rest of the contenders were steamrolled by Spaniard Pablo Larrazábal, who shot 62 to win by a stroke over countryman Adrian Otaegui.
Cockerill had a 62 of his own in the third round to put himself in contention on the Lakes Course at the Infinitum resort, tying his career best. “I like this course,” he said after the third round. “I got through the qualifying school here in 2019, so I have good memories here.”
The Manitoban had the best finish of his season and career, a T2, in March at the Magical Kenyan Open. His T3 result Sunday propelled him up the DP World Tour’s season standings 19 spots, to a projected No. 25.
Mike Weir has been named an assistant captain for the International side at the Presidents Cup for the third time, bolstering his chances of taking over the captaincy role for the biennial event’s 2024 edition on his home soil in Montreal.
International captain Trevor Immelman last week named Weir, South Korean K.J. Choi, Australian Geoff Ogilvy and Colombian Camilo Villegas as his assistants. The American side is headed by Davis Love III.
Weir also served under 2017 captain Nick Price and 2019 captain Ernie Els, adding to his five appearances as a competitor, most notably in 2007 when the Presidents Cup was last played in Montreal and he took down Tiger Woods in the final day’s singles matches. Weir had a 13-9-2 record in the event as a player.
“When I think of highlights in my career that stand out to me, the Presidents Cup always makes the top of the list,” said Weir, whose eight PGA Tour victories include the 2003 Masters. At 51, he competes on PGA Tour Champions, where he has won once. “The camaraderie that continues to grow within this team is irreplaceable.”
The players won’t be announced until late summer. Corey Conners is in line for the 12-man International squad, while fellow Canadians Mackenzie Hughes and Adam Hadwin are not far out of qualifying positions. The event will be played Sept. 22-25 at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Jessica Korda’s withdrawal from the Dio Implant LA Open last week opened up a spot in the field for Canadian rookie Maddie Szeryk, who made her third LPGA Tour start of the year.
The 25-year-old Szeryk took up Korda’s vacated spot in a superstar group that included fellow Canadian Brooke Henderson and world No. 1 Jin Young Ko. It was a reunion of sorts for Henderson and Szeryk, a dual U.S.-Canada citizen with roots in London, Ontario. They once played together on Canada’s national amateur team.
Henderson, the defending champion in Los Angeles, was returning to action after she pulled out of the previous week’s Lotte Championship with an undisclosed illness. Both missed the cut, a first since June 2021 for Henderson and the third weekend off in a row for Szeryk.
PGA Tour rookie Taylor Pendrith is expected to miss several more weeks of competition as he nurses a fractured rib. The long-hitter from Richmond Hill, Ontario, first noticed discomfort during The Players Championship in March. An MRI revealed the fracture in early April.
His management at Landmark Sport Group said Pendrith injured himself at the Players while swinging but can’t pinpoint one specific moment. Pendrith has one of the highest swing speeds on tour, regularly hitting 125 mph with the driver. The injury is not unlike the stress fracture that plagued Rory McIlroy throughout the 2017 season.
Pendrith is resting, limiting his golf activity to chipping and putting, and is expected to return after the PGA Championship in late May, his manager said.
The injury sets back Pendrith’s solid start as a regular on the PGA Tour. He’s had one top-five finish and three other top-25s, including a tie for 13th place at the Players. He was in 76th spot in the FedEx Cup standings entering last week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
The Shaw Charity Classic is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a new date on the PGA Tour Champions schedule and fan incentives that include $10 general admission tickets.
The tournament will be held earlier in the schedule than in previous years, on Aug. 5-7, and once again be played at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club in Calgary. It was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic and returned in 2021 with some restrictions, but organizers say this year’s edition will be making a “full return.”
The pre-tournament events will include Blakes Women’s Day, which brings together up to 104 businesswomen and community leaders for a day of networking, golf discussion, clinics and a scramble. Organizers said last week that they’ve enlisted LPGA Tour star Michelle Wie West as a special guest.
Top: After two years of pandemic disruption, PGA Tour Canada picks up the bag where it left off.
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