– Defending champion returns
– Johnson hungry for more
– Furyk on form
The PGA Tour stops off in Oakville in Canada for the RBC Canadian Open this week. Unsurprisingly, our list of challengers is dominated by Americans, with the defending champion being the only exception.
Jason Day will return as the defending champion. In 2015, the Australian edged Bubba Watson by one stroke for victory, which started a sensational run for Day, who won three of his next five events. He has all the tools and more to successfully defend his title this year.
Bubbling under is the big-hitting Dustin Johnson. The American is fresh off his back-to-back wins at the U.S. Open and the WGC Bridgestone Invitational, where he simply overpowered the course. A T9 at The Open shows he is still in good touch.
Jim Furyk has a decent record at the event, with best finishes being T7, T9 and a T14. Following his wrist surgery, the major winner showed he can still mix it with the best in the world, finishing T2 at the U.S. Open.
Matt Kuchar is on a consistent streak at the moment, with top tens coming from seven of his last eleven starts. The veteran was also a runner-up finisher at Glen Abbey Golf Club in 2013. Don’t be surprised if the world number 17 gets rewarded for all his hard work this weekend.
A surprise to all last week was the performance of Tony Finau. The tall American only has two PGA Tour wins to his name and many were scratching their heads when his name kept showing up on the upper echelons of The Open Championship leaderboard last week.
He slipped down to a T18 finish after a troubling final round, but showed promising signs of good form. In his debut appearance in Oakville, carded a t22 finish. We expect him to do better this time around.
