RBC Canadian Open Key Fantasy Stats

RBC Canadian Open

May 30th – June 2nd, 2024

Hamilton Golf & Country Club

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Par: 70 / Yardage: 7,084

Purse: $9.4 Million

with $1,620,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Nick Taylor

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

This is based on the key stats for Hamilton Golf and Country, using data from the 2003 (Won by Bob Tway), 2006 (Won by Jim Furyk), 2012 (Won by Scott Piercy), and 2019 (Won by Rory McIlroy) RBC Canadian Opens held at Hamilton and data from all players in the field with stats through 2024. We take their rank for each stat and then add the four categories.
Hamilton Golf and Country has a storied history. It’s located in Ancaster, Canada, about 50 miles south of Toronto and 20 miles west of Niagara Falls. The club began in 1894 and got renowned English golf architect Harry Colt designed 18 holes in 1914. A third nine was added in 1974. Since the day it opened in 1914, it has been considered one of the best courses in Canada. It thus was rewarded with hosting the very first Canadian Open in 1919, won by J. Douglas Edgar. 11 years after, in 1930, it held the event again and was won by Tommy Armour. The course wasn’t used again until 2003 when years of changes made the course play very tough. It returned in 2006, 2012, and then 2019.
When the 2019 Canadian Open was being played, the club approved a renovation project in which Martin Ebert and Tom MacKenzie were hired to help bring the course back to how golf architect Harry Colt built it over 100 years ago. This led to the complete rebuilding of all 27 greens, significant bunker improvements, and restoration of many design aspects. They put in a new irrigation system and cut a lot of trees. However, the pandemic slowed the renovation, which was finished for the 2022 summer season.
The golf course will play 117 yards longer than it did in 2019. The par-3 sixth, the second-most difficult hole at the 2019 RBC Canadian Open, will play 25 yards longer. The par-4 seventh (new back tee) will play 35 yards longer. The par-4 11th hole (21 additional yards) and par-4 14th (24) will require additional pop, as will the par-5 17th, which now measures 580 yards (30 yards longer with an entirely new green site that has been pushed back and to the left), and the par-4 18th (the hardest hole during the 2019 Canadian Open got an additional 11 yards)

One thing is certain when looking at Hamilton: it’s not a power-dominated course, which is a nice way of saying it isn’t a bombers course. We have an old classic parkland design featuring targets from the tee, firm, fast fairways, and slick greens. The course was built on excellent terrain. Elevation changes are commonplace throughout the routing and must be factored in on nearly every shot. Just like Colonial, six of the holes have sharp doglegs, and it will be hard to keep the ball in the fairway (1, 7, 10, 14, 15, and 18). The 5th hole is short and can be driven, but if you don’t hit a great shot, you will have problems making par. A wide variety of trees are found throughout the property, and their maturity makes them a significant factor when shots sail offline while bunkers are constantly grabbing your attention and dictating strategy.
Driving it straight is very important, probably the reason Bob Tway, Jim Furyk, Scott Piercy, and Rory McIlroy are past winners of the Canadian Open held at Hamilton. The par 3s are also very demanding, and the two par 5s aren’t automatic birdie holes. It’s important to hit lots of greens, but the most important element of playing well at Hamilton was putting. Both Jim Furyk in 2006 and Scott Piercy in 2012 had good putting weeks.

The hope is to reverse a trend in previous Canadian Opens played at Hamilton in which the winners’ scores drastically changed, showing how the advent of Technology made the course easier.
2003 Bob Tray          -8
2006 Jim Furyk      -14
2012 Scott Pierce  -17
2019 Rory McIlroy  -22
With these changes, the course should be a lot tougher than in 2019. So, how much easier did the course get?

In 2003, the course averaged 71.93 (almost two shots over for the par 70 making), making it the 8th hardest course on the PGA Tour. 2006, the course played to a 70.27 average (just over par), making it the 28th hardest course on tour that year. In 2012, the course played under par at an average of 69.59 and was the 32nd hardest course on tour. In 2014, the scoring average was 769.66, the 21st hardest course on the PGA Tour that year. So we can see how much easier the course played between 2003 and 2019. The blame for this is that Technology is getting better.

So, for the 156 players in the field, Hamilton will be a new adventure and should play harder than it played in 2019.
In looking at our four categories, our first is Fairway Accuracy. What makes this course challenging is the combination of tree-lined fairways with thick rough. So this will be one of those rare places where you have to hit it straight.

Here is a look at the driving average at Hamilton in the years the Canadian Open was played on it:
*2003 – Hamilton ranked 24th in driving distance (all drives) and 5th in driving accuracy.
Winner Bob Tway was T-26th in driving distance (all drives) and T-41st (30 of 54) in accuracy.
*2006 –Hamilton ranked T-11th in driving distance and 18th in driving accuracy.
Winner Jim Furyk was 53rd in driving distance and 4th (44 of 54) in accuracy.
*2012 – Hamilton ranked T-11th in driving distance (all drives) and 18th in driving accuracy.
Winner Scott Piercy was 21st in driving distance and T-30th (35 of 54) in accuracy.
*2019 – Hamilton ranked 16th in driving distance (all drives) and 6th in driving accuracy.
Winner Rory McIlroy was T-2nd in driving distance and T-6th (37 of 54) in accuracy.
So driving it far and straight is essential.

Our second category is Greens in Regulation.
This is critical for Hamilton. Its greens are small, at just 6,000 square feet, and they are well protected by bunkers and runoff areas that make it hard to get them up and down. So hitting the greens, especially from rough, is hard. In looking at the winners at Hamilton, Bob Tway and Rory McIlroy were both second, while Furyk was T-34th and Piercy was T-53rd.

Here is a look at the Greens in Regulation of the Hamilton G&C.C. for the years it held the RBC Canadian Open:
*2003 – Hamilton averaged 55.59% in Greens in Regulation; it was the 7th hardest of the 56 courses that year
Winner Bob Tway hit 48 of 72 greens (66.67%) and ranked 2nd.
*2006 – Hamilton averaged 58.81% in Greens in Regulation; it was the 22nd hardest of the 55 courses that year
Winner Jim Furyk hit 48 of 72 greens (66.67%) and ranked T-34th.
*2012 – Hamilton averaged 58.81% in Greens in Regulation; it was the 32nd hardest of the 48 courses that year
Winner Scott Piercy hit 48 of 72 greens (66.67%) and ranked T-53rd.
*2019 – Hamilton averaged 63.63% in Greens in Regulation; it was the 16th hardest of the 49 courses that year
Winner Rory McIlroy hit 55 of 72 greens (76.39%) and ranked T-2nd.
Again, I can’t stress how important it is to hit many greens.

With greens set up on a crown, if you miss them, it’s essential to save par. For our third category, I feel that scrambling will be vital for those in contention.

Here is a look at Scrambling for Hamilton G&C.C. over the years it held the RBC Canadian Open:
*2003 – Only 55.14% of the greens missed as the field got up and down, making Hamilton the 19th hardest course out of 56 courses on the PGA Tour in getting it up and down.
Winner Bob Tway’s key to winning was getting it up and down as he got it up and down on 22 of the 24 greens he missed, which ranked 1st.
*2006 – Only 59.48% of the greens missed as the field got up and down, making Hamilton the 40th hardest course out of 55 courses on the PGA Tour in getting it up and down.
Winner Jim Furyk was the complete opposite. He got it up and down on 19 of the 24 greens he missed, which ranked 57th.
*2012 – Only 60.23% of the greens missed as the field got up and down, making Hamilton the 37th hardest course out of 48 courses on the PGA Tour in getting it up and down.
Winner Scott Piercy got it up and down on 17 of the 24 missed greens, which ranks T-24th.
*2019 – Only 62.01% of the greens missed my field got up and down, making Hamilton the 38th hardest course out of 49 courses on the PGA Tour in getting it up and down on.
Winner Rory McIlroy got it up and down on 11 of the 17 missed greens, which ranks 36th.

Our last stat category is putting inside ten feet. Again, missing greens in greenside bunkers or the runoff areas will leave players with many putts in the four to ten-foot range, so making a lot of putts inside ten feet will be necessary. Also, with the small greens of Hamilton, balls should be closer to the hole, thus making these putts important.

Here is a look at Putts inside ten feet for Hamilton G&C.C. over the years it held the RBC Canadian Open:
*2003 – 87.56 putts inside ten feet were made, making Hamilton the 16th hardest course out of 56 courses on the PGA Tour in getting it up and down on.
Winner Bob Tway made 62 out of 69 attempts, which ranked 23rd.
*2006 – 87.16 putts inside ten feet were made, making Hamilton the 24th hardest course out of 55 courses on the PGA Tour in getting it up and down on.
Winner Jim Furyk made 58 out of 60 attempts, which ranked 1st.
*2012 – 86.33 putts inside ten feet were made, making Hamilton the 10th hardest course out of 48 courses on the PGA Tour in getting it up and down on.
Winner Scott Piercy made 62 out of 65 attempts, which ranked 3rd.
*2019 – 87.56 putts inside ten feet were made, making Hamilton the 16th hardest course out of 49 courses on the PGA Tour in getting it up and down on.
Winner Rory McIlroy made 60 out of 66 attempts, which ranked 20th.

Hamilton has a lot of history and a challenging course that should be a lot tougher this year with the changes made to the course.

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

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

*Scrambling: The percent of 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 117 of the 156 players from this year’s field with stats from 2023:

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