Tight race for top 125 awaits at Wyndham Championship

TORONTO, Ont. – Rory McIlroy marked his ball with a Canadian $1 coin, nicknamed a ‘Loonie,’ the last time he played the RBC Canadian Open. He received one from his pro-am partner in 2019 and that extra luck worked. He won. This year, tournament organizers came prepared. “I turned up to the locker room and there was already one in my locker,” said McIlroy with a smile. “And then one of my pro-am partners gave me one this morning on the first green as well. “I’m loaded with loonies this week.” McIlroy will (finally) defend his title this week in Canada, three years after he won by seven shots at Hamilton Golf and Country Club. He flirted with 59 much of the final day before shooting a thrilling 61 that separated him from the field. He comes to St. George’s Golf and Country Club looking to go back-to-back for the first time on the PGA TOUR, but to do it he’ll have to top one of the strongest fields north of the border in recent memory. McIlroy is one of five golfers ranked in the top 10 in the world who are teeing it up this week in Toronto, including Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns. The top two players in the FedExCup are making their Canadian Open debuts. Scheffler, who also sits atop the world ranking, has won four times this year, including the Masters, while Burns earned his third win of the season by beating Scheffler in a playoff at the recent Charles Schwab Challenge. PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas and THE PLAYERS champion Cameron Smith are the other two top-10 players in the field this week. There are 20 Canadians teeing it up in their national open as well, including Corey Conners, the top-ranked Canadian in the FedExCup standings. “It’s really exciting to have those guys here,” Conners said of the stout field. “I think national championships, wherever they’re played, have a little bit more prestige and guys think really highly of this event. There are so many historic names on the trophy, and it would be awesome to be added to that and I think a lot of those guys feel the same way. It’s a good part of your legacy to be able to call yourself a Canadian Open champion and national open champion.” McIlroy comes into the week after a T18 at the Memorial. He notched three consecutive top-10 finishes in his previous three starts, including a runner-up at the Masters and an eighth-place finish at the PGA Championship. He sits 15th on the FedExCup standings. So far, he’s “loved” St. George’s Golf and Country Club, which is hosting its sixth RBC Canadian Open. He said it’s a “really good” traditional layout – built in 1929 – that will serve as a strong place to compete before next week’s U.S. Open. McIlroy will be grouped with Conners and Thomas for the first two rounds. Thomas said he took a few days off after he missed the cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge and celebrated his PGA Championship victory with some high-school friends back home in Louisville. Playing the week before the PGA Championship paid off with his win at Southern Hills and he’s hoping it will do the trick again with the U.S. Open coming next week. But Thomas is quick to recognize the legacy of the Canadian Open, as well. This is the 111th playing of the tournament. “You look at the history of this event, it kind of speaks for itself,’ says Thomas. “The opportunity to come to a place and a tournament that’s so historic … definitely makes it a little bit more special.” Scheffler said “it was easy” for him to include the Canadian Open in his schedule with a comparable set-up at St. George’s to The Country Club at Brookline. With seven of the top 25 in the world (Matt Fitzpatrick, Tony Finau, Tyrell Hatton and Shane Lowry are the others) all playing this week, it’ll be a solid challenge. “I’m preparing for next week’s U.S. Open, but I really want to win this week. I really want to win every time I tee it up and play,” says Scheffler. “We (drew) a really good field this week and so definitely looking forward to competing against these guys.” While Scheffler is on top of the FedExCup standings with his excellent play so far this season, it’s two-time FedExCup winner McIlroy who has quickly become the top draw in Canada. This is, of course, attributed to winning in his debut in 2019 – “It would be nice to keep that percentage up this week, for sure,” he said – and the fact that he acted as the ‘defending’ champion for two extra seasons. His group drew the biggest crowds in Wednesday’s pro-am at St. George’s. “I’ve worked hard to get to this position,” he says. “I mean if I didn’t like the attention I would go and I would play another sport or I would get another job or whatever. But there’s a lot of things that come along with being one of the top players in the game and yeah, I do relish it. I like that, I like being in that position.” Another position McIlroy enjoys being in is first place on PGA TOUR leaderboards, something he’ll try to do again this week in Canada. And he’s got a good-luck coin ready to go.

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Tiger Woods started this PGA TOUR season just hoping to make it to the end unscathed, but now the 79-time winner’s expectations have turned to the Woods of old. He’s ready to win. To use his own word … Woods is “trending.â€� Fresh off his T6 finish at The Open Championship where he hit the lead on Sunday only to fade late, Woods returns to Firestone Country Club for the World Golf Championships–Bridgestone Invitational where he has an incredible eight wins. Including his last TOUR win – some five years ago. “I went from just hoping to be able to play the TOUR to now that I feel that I can play the TOUR. I certainly can win again,â€� Woods said. “I’ve had an opportunity to win a couple times this year. I had a great chance at Valspar early in the year, and even a week ago I had a great shot at it. My game’s gotten better and good enough where I feel like I can win again out here on TOUR.â€� Woods had to fight his way into the world top 50 to book his place at Firestone. From the depths of the 1,200’s last December he forged his way in after The Open. In 12 starts he has four top 10s and eight top 25s. “This was certainly a goal of mine. Within a year to get down to 50, I think is a pretty good accomplishment,â€� he smiled. “This event has been very special to me over the years. I’m excited to be back.â€� Eight wins at one venue is a TOUR record he holds. He also has eight at Torrey Pines and Bay Hill. And while he might not be the same player who won by 11 shots in 2000, his competitors are expecting him to be a huge factor. “You know he’s going to play well this week,â€� reigning FedExCup champion Justin Thomas said.  “This place is like Augusta for him. He could probably take two, three weeks off and he’s going to get it around here fine, because he knows how to. He’s won here as many times as I’ve won everywhere in my career. I am surprised he hasn’t mentioned that yet, which is nice. “I grew up watching him win a lot of tournaments here, hitting the shots in the dark. It’s pretty unbelievable the career he has at this golf course alone, let alone his entire career.â€� The sting of The Open defeat is still in Wood’s psyche. And it spurs him forward. But he’s about to enter some uncharted territory. Playing a lot of golf in a short space of time for the first time since his comeback from spinal fusion surgery. Woods is due to play five times in the next six weeks, assuming he makes it through to the third week of the FedExCup Playoffs. At 47th in the standings at the moment, chances are he will certainly be in the top 70 that make the BMW Championship. “We built a pretty good physical game plan for it,â€� Woods explained. “My training schedule, how to build myself up, my recovery breaks, even had to factor in how much I can practice, just to make sure I’m physically fit enough to get through this section. “I want to play well and win tournaments through this. I feel like my body is good. I need to keep it that way. I still need to train really hard and limit how much I do practice, the wear and tear on the body, because I’m going to be putting it through its paces in tournament play, which as we all know, we hit the ball harder in tournaments than we do in practice.â€� Molinari: A new level of self-belief When we last saw Francesco Molinari, he was winning The Open Championship at Carnoustie, the culmination of an epic run that included a runaway victory at the Quicken Loans National and a T2 at the John Deere Classic, propelling him all the way to 7th in the FedExCup. His pre-season goal to make it all the way to the season-ending TOUR Championship at East Lake next month? Yeah, that’s looking pretty good. Could he have imagined the season he’s had, which also has included a victory at the European Tour’s BMW Championship? “No, I couldn’t,â€� said Molinari, who has risen to a career-high of sixth in the world, from 20th a year ago. “And I don’t think anyone could, to be honest.â€� Firestone South, a long, tree-lined course, has not in the past set up well for the 35-year-old Italian. He has finished no better than T15 (2011) in seven previous starts here. But that was the old Molinari. He began working with putting coach Phil Kenyon earlier this season, which has paid dividends, and has gained self-confidence during his epic 2018.  He was, he admitted, probably the last member of his team to truly believe in himself. “When you go out on the course and you’re playing with some of the best players in the world, you confront yourself with them,â€� he said. “And I think a few years back, obviously, I was competing against them, but I always felt like they had something that I didn’t have. “And now it feels like I can play with them and, you know, I don’t feel intimidated in any way,â€� he added. “Or I feel like I can compete with all of them.â€� Case in point: Molinari’s playing partner in the final round of The Open was Tiger Woods. Now, Molinari’s team is urging him to go even further. “Just the potential to win majors and the potential to be in the top‑10 of the world and, you know, now they’re pushing the limits even more,â€� he said. Considering everything he’s achieved this year alone, that’s a scary thought.

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