St. Georges’s Key Fantasy Stats

RBC Canadian Open

June 9th – 12th, 2022

St. George’s G&CC

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Par: 70 / Yardage: 7,014

Purse: $8.7 million

with $1,566,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Rory McIlroy

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

This is based on the most vital stats from St. George’s Golf & C.C., based on data from the 2010 RBC Canadian Open, and using data from all the players in the field with stats from 2022.
The RBC Canadian Open is the only North American event on the schedule not to have been contested in both 2020 and 2021 because of COVID-19. The membership of St. George’s Golf and Country Club voted in favor of keeping the event at its course after the cancellation of 2020 and again in 2021, and the championship will return to the club for the sixth time. The last time it was played was in 2010, and of those in the field this week, there are 29 that played in 2010 (Luke Donald-3rd, Greg Chalmers-T4th, Charley Hoffman-T4th, Adam Hadwin-T37th, Ricky Barnes-T37th, Mark Hensby-T48th. Camilo Villegas-T65th and Brian Stuard-T69th. The following players missed the cut in 2010; Nick Taylor, David Hearn, Bill Haas, Cameron Percy, D.A. Points, Johnson Wagner, Sean O’Hair, Jonathan Byrd, Mike Weir, Danny Lee, Brandt Snedeker, Pat Perez and Robert Garrigus, who withdrew). The odds of these 29 being in contention, let alone winning, are very slim.
The golf course was built as a public golf course owned by Canadian Pacific Railways Hotel and was converted into a private club in 1934. The Stanley Thompson gem, first constructed in 1929, is consistently ranked as one of Canada’s top courses. The course played host to the Canadian Open in 1933, 1949, 1960, 1968, and 2010. It’s considered one of the hidden gems of Canadian Golf. For many, they may say if it’s a great course, why has it been used just three times in 62 years? Its location in a crowded neighborhood with many homes and a tiny practice area was why the course wasn’t used. They have worked out the problem of fans not having to park by shuttling them in from remote parking lots. For the driving range, there is a makeshift practice range at the Islington Golf Club, and the players take an eight-minute shuttle down Islington Ave just over a mile, and it works well to take care of the problem. Another issue, the club is so tight with homes that there isn’t room for hospitality tents. Still, that problem has been taken care of as the course has many hospitality tents, and all of the logistics and catering are done with the closure of Islington Avenue. The same with all of the T.V. facilities, which are located on Islington Avenue.
The course is very old-fashioned, with mature trees lining the sloping fairways as undulating greens demand precise iron shots. It’s on rolling terrain, and Thompson put the holes through valleys. After a decade of work by the members to get the Canadian Open back, it’s just about the same course as it was in 2010, but the course will play 32 yards shorter than it played in 2010, something rarely seen. The course will play 42 yards more than it did in 1968, showing the greatest of the layout.
Rain will play a significant factor in things despite all of the work and time the club has waited two extra years to hold the tournament. On Tuesday, a storm will drop an inch of rain, and even with drizzle on Wednesday, showers on Thursday will bring a very soft course. The weekend will also see scattered rain.
Generally, with a dry and fast St. George’s, every game phase would have been examined, so will the wet conditions make the course any easier? In 2010, a wicked storm dropped close to two inches of rain, and the course played the last three days very softly. Despite that, the course played to a 69.64 average in 2010, just a bit under par. It was the 29th hardest course out of 51 courses in 2010.

In looking at our four categories, our first is Fairway Accuracy. It’s what makes this course challenging, and in 2010 St. George’s ranked 24th hardest on tour, so you have to be straight to play well. Next up is Greens in Regulation. St. George’s has some of the smallest greens on the PGA Tour at 4,000 square feet, so hitting the greens, especially from rough is hard. In 2010 the course ranked 31st. So with small greens that are set up on a crown, if you miss the greens, it’s essential to save par. In 2010 the course ranked 17th in scrambling, so it’s a necessary element if a person is going to win. Our last stat is putting inside ten feet. In 2010 it ranked 12th. There are a lot of putts in that range, so you need to make them.
I wish I could tell you the kind of player that wins at Royal St. Georges. Honestly, nobody even remembers the 2010 winner Carl Pettersson, so maybe with the U.S. Open a week away, a person that hasn’t won before wins this week. Now the field is not very deep. Yes, you have Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Sam Burns, and Matt Fitzpatrick, but it’s not that solid after that. Still, this tournament has a lot of history and is played on an excellent course so that we will have a great finish.

*Fairway Accuracy: The percentage of time a tee shot comes to rest in the fairway

*Greens in Regulation: The percent of the time a player was able to hit the green in regulation

*Scrambling: The percent of the time a player misses the green in regulation, but still makes par or better.

*Putting inside 10 feet: Very easy, counts every putt from ten feet in to see who makes the most.

Here are the 106 of the 156 players from this year’s field with stats from 2022:

Click any column title in the table header to sort columns.