National Open week in Canada for the PGA Tour! Home National Open for myself so I always have more excitement for the RBC Canadian Open than others may. Unfortunately, I’ll be watching from my couch instead of being on the grounds, but hopefully this is the last year I’ll be saying that.
It’s always unfortunate that this event falls the week before a major and the week after a big signature event, but we actually have a pretty exciting field this year, and that’s without Rory, who has played here in the past. The likes of Hovland, Morikawa, Koepka, Fleetwood, Burns, the Fitzpatricks, and Lowry all being in the field is awesome.
Alright, into my storylines of the week.
PGA Tour U Ben James Pro Debut
Canada has frequently been the debut spot for many recent PGA Tour U graduates over the last few years, such as Ludvig Aberg and Luke Clanton, and the same will be true for this year’s PGA Tour U No. 1 player out of Virginia, Ben James.
How will he fare?
Well, he’s coming off qualifying for the U.S. Open via Golf’s Longest Day on Monday, so the game is in decent form and he should be carrying some confidence from that result.
He’s yet to play on Tour in 2026, but in 2025 he made three starts, making the cut once at the Valero Texas Open, where he finished T33.
It will be interesting to see how quickly James can make a name for himself. Aberg, as we know, has been the quickest PGA Tour U graduate to transition from the college ranks to PGA Tour success thus far. Thorbjornsen is now starting to come into his own after a couple of years that have been somewhat derailed by injury, while David Ford has struggled a bit more to produce high-end results.
Will James find quick success like Ludvig Aberg, or will he fare more like David Ford?
Will Koepka contend before Shinnecock
Next week is U.S. Open week, and we head to the site of Brooks Koepka’s last U.S. Open victory, Shinnecock Hills.
We’ll soon see how Shinnecock treats Brooks this time around, but for me to believe he has a legitimate chance of contending there again, I need to see it at least once beforehand, something he has yet to do in 2026.
He’s had some decent finishes and stretches of solid play, but it’s mostly been a collection of T9-T15 results. He hasn’t teed it up this year and reached the back nine on Sunday with a legitimate chance to win, or even an outside chance.
I find it highly unlikely that he’ll do that for the first time all season at the U.S. Open. Then again, Aaron Rai, a much less decorated player than Koepka, just won the PGA Championship despite having a fairly bleak season from a results standpoint up until that point.
My main point, however, is that the RBC Canadian Open is Koepka’s last opportunity to get some pressure-packed Sunday shots under his belt before teeing it up at Shinnecock Hills.
Can any Old Dogs Flip the Script on Their Season
This is directed specifically at the likes of Max Homa, Tony Finau, Corey Conners, Billy Horschel, Chris Kirk, and Lucas Glover.
Everyone listed above is a past PGA Tour winner who has had an abysmal season to this point. For the likes of Lucas Glover and Chris Kirk, who are both in their 40s, it’s a little more expected. For the others, however, it continues to be very disappointing, especially for Homa and Finau.
A non-signature event presents all of them with a great opportunity this week to take advantage and flip the script on the narrative currently surrounding their 2026 seasons. Right now, all of them are on the outside looking in when it comes to the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Can any Young Dogs Flip the Script on Their Season
This is directed specifically at Luke Clanton, Nick Dunlap, Michael Brennan, Johnny Keefer, Neal Shipley, Karl Vilips, and Michael Thorbjornsen.
Thorbjornsen has by far had the best season of anyone in this group, so for him this point is more about whether, if he puts himself in position through 54 holes, he can flip the script on his Sunday narrative. Right now, every time he’s had a chance on Sunday, he’s botched his final-round performance, and because of that he’s accumulated significantly fewer FedEx Cup and OWGR points than he could have in 2026.
For the rest, outside of a couple of nice finishes from Brennan and Keefer, their seasons have been painfully disappointing. These are all players who have shown flashes. Dunlap has multiple wins, Brennan and Vilips each have a win, Clanton showed so much promise as an amateur competing on Tour, and Keefer and Shipley won multiple times on the Korn Ferry Tour last year. Yet all of them have pretty much nothing to show for it in 2026.
We’re at that point in the season where it’s becoming crunch time before they run out of events to secure their cards (Dunlap, Brennan, and Vilips are safe).
The good news for them is that there’s only one signature event remaining after the U.S. Open, the Travelers Championship. After that, they’ll be able to tee it up in all of the remaining events on the calendar without having their schedules interrupted by long gaps and forced time off.
In the meantime, this week in Canada is a great opportunity for all of them to flip the narrative and work their way toward being part of the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
Can Viktor Hovland Show Any Signs of Life
Since 2022, Hovland has at least contended and had a legitimate chance on the back nine Sunday to win a major.
In 2022 it was The Open at St. Andrews. In 2023 it was the PGA Championship at Oak Hill. In 2024 it was the PGA Championship at Valhalla. And in 2025 it was the U.S. Open at Oakmont.
With only two majors left this year, he has just a couple of opportunities remaining to keep that trend alive, and the way he’s been playing lately doesn’t give me much confidence that he’ll do that at next week’s U.S. Open.
We haven’t seen him since he missed the cut at the PGA Championship, and now he’s teeing it up in Canada for the first time.
Will he give us any signs of hope for Shinnecock? Can he contend?
Again, he has only one top-10 finish this year, which came in his first start. He’s shown flashes throughout tournaments, but a disaster always seems to be lurking while he’s on the course right now.
It’s an important week for him if he wants to get his name back into the frequent “best player without a major” conversations.
