The top Canadian golf story of the year is obvious … but what was second?

Each week, we ask our panel of writers, PGA members and golf industry experts to weigh in with their views on the hot topics of the day.

CEO Brian Rolapp’s prescription for the PGA Tour is parity, scarcity and simplicity. Recent chatter has the Tour shrinking to as few as 20 events by 2027 or 2028, which is a drastic change from more than 40 in recent years. If true, there will be a lot of unhappy tournament hosts, charities, sponsors and players. Having already reduced the number of exempt cards down to 100, the Tour is morphing into an elite league with a bunch of disappointed hosts, sponsors and players on the outside. What’s your take on this?

Jim Deeks, Fairways Magazine (@jimdeeks): I don’t believe the Tour would be so stupid as to limit the number of tournaments by half.  Sponsors are willing to pay… why look a gift horse in the mouth?  If there are some tournaments that are suffering, or sponsors indicating they won’t renew, by all means let those events die.  But why cancel them if there’s still a demand in those markets, and for network TV coverage?  “Parity, scarcity, and simplicity” makes no sense to me, and will indeed make a lot of players, longstanding sponsors and charities, and fans, very unhappy.  And for what purpose?  Was anyone asking for this strategy?

Craig Loughry, Golf Ontario (@craigloughry): The Tour is evolving for sure, into what kind of product remains to be seen. There may be something to putting a higher value on a scarcer product. The players are less likely to skip weeks, which provides a better field for the events that are actually conducted. Interesting strategy.

TJ Rule, Golf Away Tours (@GolfAwayTJ): That would be the worst decision the Tour has made in decades in my opinion.  How can you grow as a Tour by contracting that much.  It will give less players the chance to make a living, and impact the charities in particular, as well as the cities and towns that host tournaments.  I really hope that doesn’t become reality, as I think it would be a huge step back for the PGA Tour.  All of the sudden, a 12 tournament LIV campaign doesn’t seem so crazy.

Peter Mumford, Fairways Magazine (@FairwaysMag): Listening to comments that Tiger and Rory made recently, it sure looks like the Tour is moving to a two-tiered structure with the top players on a reduced schedule with bigger purses and the rest scrambling for playing spots and less money. Limited fields, no cuts and larger purses sounds an awful lot like LIV Golf. Are they saying Greg Norman was right after all? I’ll miss Friday cuts, making a cheque that actually means something and the Cinderella stories that tug at your heart.

It seems there’s no shortage of money to sponsor golf tournaments these days as long as they have the right players. The Skins Game was played last Friday with a purse of $4 million and this week it’s the Hero World Challenge with a purse of $5 million. That’s more than a typical DP World Tour event. And there are many more Silly Season events on the agenda, some not even involving pros but still attracting large prize money. It’s all about entertainment. What do you make of it all?

Deeks: It may seem hypocritical for me to criticize The Skins Game (having been Executive Director of the Canadian Skins Game for five years) and not having watched the event last week (heck, I had no idea it had even been revived.) But I just find the money offered for a few hours of “hit-and-giggle” to be cynical and obscene in this day and age — especially when so many Americans are struggling financially because of DOGE layoffs and Trump firings and tariffs. I wonder whether the sponsors got anywhere near a decent ROI from the Skins, or the Hero World Challenge… does anybody care to see multimillionaire golfers get ludicrous payoffs for essentially just showing up?

Loughry: If the events can draw eyeballs, then the event is a success. If it doesn’t, eventually the sponsors will analyze their return on investment in some way shape or form. That could be reach of audience, or “entertaining their business VIP’s”. Time will tell. I’m pretty sure Shell got their money worth with Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf. Now that I would tune in to see, THE BEST players (4-some) on THE BEST courses. Bradley, Lowry, Schauffele and Fleetwood are fine players, but not a single of them have a massive following, even their collective fan base is low.

Rule: It’s all about eyes and ears, and if an event draws enough interest, whether it be at the gate, on TV or on social media, then the money will follow.  I’m not a big fan of the Silly Season events, but if they are financially successful and give the sponsors the exposure they need, then I guess there is a place for them.  It always helps if Tiger plays with Charlie of course!

Mumford: Reports indicate there are more people playing off-course golf than the green grass variety. That expansion has spawned lots of non-traditional golf-themed entertainment – consider TGL, internet competitions, and all manner of Youtube video. Obscene prize money is another by-product of our culture of bigger, faster, more, more, more. We’re a celebrity obsessed culture with short attention spans looking for fast-paced distractions that are different and new. Golf is cool right now, especially if it can be packaged into an hour or two of entertainment. Competitions utilizing different formats with huge prize money deliver quick hits and lots of eyeballs for the sponsors. I think we’re just seeing the beginning. Traditional golf entertainment on TV hasn’t changed in forever and doesn’t necessarily connect with golfers used to ranges, simulators and internet golf. It’s not 1980 anymore.

Assuming Brooke Henderson winning the CPKC Women’s Open at Mississaugua was the top Canadian golf story in 2025, what was the second-best Canadian story?

Deeks: I honestly can’t think of one that strikes me.  The Canadian male pros on the PGA Tour all fared relatively well (although two didn’t keep their Tour cards), but nothing really outstanding happened.  I suppose Corey Conners’ performance in the Masters could be mentioned, but as so often happens with him, he faltered down the stretch. Actually, the second-best Canadian story, for me, was my making two holes-in-one in a month, in August-September, and missing a third by hitting the pin but staying out of the hole by two inches in November.  (Please pardon my lack of humility.)

Loughry: Other than Brooke winning on home soil, I think the biggest Canadian golf story has to be that 2025 saw an all-time high in rounds played/consumed in this country. That’s a far cry from just a few years ago. Golf is as popular as it ever has been in this country, and it’s great to see.

Rule: Brooke’s win was special, and out of nowhere, so was certainly the easy pick for top Canadian golf story. Beyond that it was a bit of a disappointing season for Brooke and other top Canadian pro golfers, despite Corey Conners and Nick Taylor having some success and finishing in the top 25 in money on the PGA Tour.  But I’m going to go off the board and choose a young man who didn’t play golf in college, turned pro at a young age and has gone through the gruelling task of playing his way up the tours to earn his PGA Card for next year, and that man is Sudarshan Yellamaraju.  It’s a pretty tough task to accomplish these days, and he has an exciting year ahead of him, here’s hoping he can find some success on the big Tour.

Mumford: While Jim’s two holes-in-one are a great story, I’m not sure they’re resonating with golfers across the country. We also seem to have forgotten that Nick Taylor won the Sony Open in a playoff last January. But I think an even bigger story was the RBC Canadian Open moving to a semi-permanent home at TPC Toronto and pulling off one of the best championships of the year.