The post 5 U.S. Open sleepers, 1 angry qualifier, Rory speaks | Monday Finish appeared first on Golf.

The post 5 U.S. Open sleepers, 1 angry qualifier, Rory speaks | Monday Finish appeared first on Golf.

Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where it’s U.S. Open week! Time to tromp through some long rough, get a sunburn, grab a lemon wedge and relaunch the debate over whether greater Pittsburgh can be considered part of the Midwest. But first, the news…

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE

Oakmont’s angriest competitor.

It seems to me very likely that nobody will come into U.S. Open week with a hotter fire lit directly under his golf shorts than Cameron Young.

I have noticed that certain corners of the golf internet — golf’s gambling corner, specifically — have a real love-hate relationship with Young. Love because he frequently seems like a good bet to win. Hate because he never does. Specifically Young has recorded seven runner-up finishes (and several more close calls) in the first 89 starts of his PGA Tour career without a win, which is stastically unlikely and impressive but real-life infuriating for him and, I suppose, for anybody investing in him as the winner.

Sunday at the RBC Canadian Open seemed like a golden opportunity for Young to break the curse; he started three shots behind as part of a jam-packed leaderboard, which meant (do not take this as insightful or even fact-based golf analysis) he had nothing to lose, could play aggressively and sneak up on the leaders. Young was struggling earlier this year but found something these last few weeks, and driving it well paid dividends at TPC Toronto. He made eagle on the first. Birdied 6 and 7. Birdied 14 and 15. And came to No. 18, a reachable par-5, just one shot behind Sam Burns‘ clubhouse lead.

He pummeled a 313-yard drive down the fairway, leaving 260 yards to the flag. Then he took 3-wood, fired it at his target, and … airmailed the green.

“I thought in the air I was going to have about a 12-footer to win the tournament, and it ended up somewhere I was going to struggle to make par, let alone make a 4,” Young said post-round, still in disbelief.

That “somewhere” he ended up was in thick rough on a downslope under a tree facing a delicate chip shot back towards the hole with water looming long. He walked away with a bogey 6 to finish T4.

So how’d he feel afterwards?

“This very moment? A lot of anger, a bit of frustration,” he said. “I couldn’t have hit two better shots on the last hole. I don’t hit 3-wood that far, and it’s blowing straight into the wind, and it decided to bounce all the way to the back woods.”

So what’s the point? The point is that I like this guy and I admit I’m fascinated by his dilemma. I like the way he’s committed to being himself, even though “himself” can be sort of shy and curmudgeonly. He sees the self-promotional social-media corners of sports as a scourge, so he avoids them altogether. He’s funny in a dry, dark sort of way. And he is, as far as pro golf goes, a tragic figure, a guy clearly talented enough to win who just hasn’t done so. Given his aversion to attention, an entire Tour of Cameron Youngs would probably not be good for ratings, but as a silent, brooding presence amidst an increasingly thirsty sports landscape, I appreciate his style and I hope he wins soon. Maybe it’ll be this week.

Oh, and there’s a whole heap of good news for Young fans (the Youngsters?), even if he wasn’t exactly grinning about it: He qualified for two majors this week. Last Monday he played his way through sectionals into the U.S. Open. And his finish at TPC Toronto was enough to give him the nod into the Open Championship.

Things are looking up already.

WINNERS

Who won the week?

Ryan Fox won the RBC Canadian Open, making birdie on the fourth playoff hole to beat Sam Burns. It’s Fox’s second playoff PGA Tour win in four weeks; he chipped in for his maiden victory at Myrtle Beach in May.

Jennifer Kupcho won the LPGA Shoprite Classic, surprising even herself after a tough stretch of play; the win was her first top 10 of 2025.

“Struggled a lot at the beginning of the year,” she said. “Struggled mentally. Completely lost my swing back in L.A. pretty much, so really was just trying to figure that out. Going into Chevron I didn’t know where the ball was going. So to be able to say I’ve won now, like only really a few weeks later, is kind of insane.”

Joaquin Niemann won LIV’s event in Virginia, firing a closing 63 for his fourth win in the league’s first eight events. Phil Mickelson stirred the pot when he declared Niemann the No. 1 player in the world earlier this year; Graeme McDowell had a more measured take after this one:

“He’s just so good,” said McDowell, whose 66 yielded his first podium finish. “He’s an absolute top-10 player in the world. You could argue top five. Phenomenal, phenomenal player.”

Connor Syme won the KLM Open, his maiden DP World Tour title in his 182nd start, moving from 263 to 145 in the world in the process and marking the 150th DPWT for Scottish pros.

Sara Kouskova won the Tenerife Women’s Open, her second consecutive LET title; the Czech pro is now up to No. 2 on the circuit’s Order of Merit.

Austin Smotherman won the BMW Charity Pro-Am, firing a final-round 67 to win by three, move from 267 to 173 in the world and up to No. 4 on the KFT’s Order of Merit as he efforts a return to the PGA Tour.

And the tandem of Thomas Bjorn and Darren Clarke teamed up to win the American Family Insurance Championship in Madison, Wis., on the PGA Tour Champions, marking the first win for Bjorn on the circuit.

NOT-WINNERS

But still winners.

Sam Burns lost in the playoff to Fox but reinforced the idea that his ball-striking is catching up with his (PGA Tour-leading) putting; he now has five top-20s in his last six starts.

Ludvig Åberg hit the ball quite well en route to a T13 finish, which was an encouraging sign heading to a tournament that should theoretically suit him.

“I feel like the work we’ve done since the PGA has shown things that I like,” Aberg said, adding that he feels more “at ease” with his golf swing.

Shane Lowry, the 54-hole leader the last time the U.S. Open visited Oakmont, was third in the field in strokes gained approach.

And Nick Taylor was low Canadian.

On the LPGA, Ilhee Lee finished runner-up, her first top 10 since 2016 and her best finish in over a decade.

And on LIV, the final leaderboard suggested a few intriguing names flashing form heading to Oakmont, including Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson (T4, two shots back), Jon Rahm (T8) and Dustin Johnson (T10).

SHORT HITTERS

Five sleepers to watch at the U.S. Open.

Pre-cursor: I dunno, your guess is as good as mine. But I’m looking at the odds board and these guys at 100-1 or longer may not win but jump out as underrated and potential contenders.

1. Harris English, 100-1. Absolute dog on brutal setups. T2 and T12 in his last two majors. Three top-eight finishes at this tournament this decade. Played well at the Masters, the Truist, the PGA, the Memorial. A lot to like.

2. Taylor Pendrith 110-1. Drives it well basically every week and has had some strong weeks with his irons, too, making him a real ball-striking threat on a course that’ll demand it — if his putter cooperates he could do some real damage.

3. Cameron Young, 150-1. We’ve spilled enough ink on Mr. Young but I’ll add that he grew up playing at a prestigious Northeast country club; he’ll feel as comfy as one can in the Oakmont confines.

4. Max Greyserman, 250-1. He’s stuck in the “meh” zone; six of his last seven starts he’s finished between T22 and T33, which is impressive. This is kind of just a feeling that a terrific putter with plenty of power who grew up one state over could find his way into the top 20.

5a. Rasmus Hojgaard, 250-1 and 5b. Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, 270-1. Two big-balling Danish Rasmuses on the cheap? Why not?! These guys have both shown potential as ball-striking studs, and Oakmont will reward exactly that. RNP is entering in dreadful form off three MCs in a row — but before that he’d logged three top-4s in five starts across the DP World Tour and PGA Tour. Rasmus Hojgaard has the potential to be one of the better hitters in the world but hasn’t consistently put four good rounds together, hence the discount price.

ONE BIG QUESTION

How will the dentist play?

And the high schooler, and the mini-tour pros, and the grinders that made it all the way from local qualifying through sectionals and into this U.S. Open field? Of the nearly 10,000 players who competed in the first 18-hole stage of U.S. Open qualifying, just 16 made it into this week’s U.S. Open field, several with terrific, inspiring stories. Can any make the cut?

ONE SWING THOUGHT

From Rory McIlroy.

This isn’t a swing thought so much as an observation: it was unsettling to see McIlroy beat just four players (plus WDs) at the RBC Canadian Open.

I’m not saying I’m worried about Rory McIlroy. I’m not saying he’s suddenly bad at golf. I’m just saying that when you win the Masters and complete the career Grand Slam it would be nice if you could just sort of float along on cloud nine for a while rather than lose at golf to one guy named Cougar Collins and another fella who works for Goldman Sachs.

To McIlroy’s credit, he spoke to the media before the tournament, admitting some malaise, and he spoke after shooting 71-78, admitting some worry. Some of what he said:

“I felt like I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that that sort of was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn’t.”

“There’s still learnings that you have to take from a day like today … Yeah, I’m going to have to do a lot of practice and a lot of work over the weekend at home and try to at least have a better idea of where my game is going into next week.”

“I went back to a 44-inch driver this week to try to get something that was a little more in control and could try to get something a bit more in play. But if I’m going to miss fairways, I’d rather have the ball speed and miss the fairway than not. I was saying to Harry going down the last this is the second time this year I’ve tried the new version, and it hasn’t quite worked out for me. So I’d say I’ll be testing quite a few drivers over the weekend.”

RYDER CUP WATCH

Sam Burns.

There was exactly one change in the top 15 spots in the U.S. Ryder Cup standings on Sunday: Sam Burns’ runner-up finish elevated him to 15th from 24th, while Daniel Berger slid to No. 16.

On the European side, two guys improved by one: Ludvig Aberg passed Justin Rose for seventh while Robert MacIntyre slid past Niklas Norgaard for 11th.

TEAM USA RYDER CUP RANKINGS

1. Scheffler 2. Schauffele 3. DeChambeau 4. Thomas 5. Morikawa 6. Henley 7. Griffin 8. McNealy 9. English 10. Novak 11. Harman 12. Cantlay 13. Spaun 14. Hoge 15. Burns

TEAM EUROPE RYDER CUP RANKINGS

1. McIlroy 2. Lowry 3. Straka 4. R. Hojgaard 5. Hatton 6. Fleetwood 7. Aberg 8. Rose 9. Detry 10. Wallace 11. MacIntyre 12. Norgaard 13. Hovland 14. Olesen 15. Canter

Full standings here.

ONE THING TO WATCH

Mickelson’s chip.

You wouldn’t consider Phil Mickelson and Oakmont to be a natural fit, but if he’s getting into wizardry, maybe anything’s possible?

NEWS FROM SEATTLE

Monday Finish HQ.

I’m readying myself for a Monday night redeye to Pittsburgh for a week of U.S. Open coverage, a reminder of the wonders of Alaska Airlines, which consistently surprises me with its array of nonstop flight destinations. Unrelated: the passenger door of my car will not open from the outside, a problem I have not yet diagnosed, never mind solved, the sort of vaguely pesky thing you can tolerate for a while and the sort of to-do list item that looms especially large whenever I’m about to leave for a week. Also, the weather has been unbelievably perfect. Seattle rules.

If you’re at Oakmont, say hello.

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

The post 5 U.S. Open sleepers, 1 angry qualifier, Rory speaks | Monday Finish appeared first on Golf.

The post Ryan Fox’s clubs: Inside his RBC Canadian Open winning-setup appeared first on Golf.

The post Ryan Fox’s clubs: Inside his RBC Canadian Open winning-setup appeared first on Golf.

Ryan Fox has collected his second PGA Tour title of his career and the season at the RBC Canadian Open in a playoff over Sam Burns.

Both Fox and Burns missed opportunities to put the other away through the first three holes of a sudden-death playoff, but Fox slammed the door shut on the 4th thanks to a brilliant 3-wood approach on the par-5 18th.

Keep reading below for Fox’s detailed specs.

Ryan Fox’s winning clubs at the 2025 RBC Canadian Open

Driver: Srixon ZXi 10.5˚, Fujikura Ventus Black 7-TX

Srixon ZXi Custom Driver

$549.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

ALSO AVAILABLE AT: PGA Tour Superstore

Fujikura Ventus Black Wood Shaft (Previous Gen)

  The Fujikura Ventus Black utilizes a Tour-inspired profile and the first to include Fujikura’s VeloCore Technology in an accelerated taper, ultra stiff tip profile. Maximum energy transfer from the tip section boosts the clubhead’s performance and a straight taper design enhances loading and feel. You can purchase the Fujikura Ventus Black in the following models: 6, 7, and 8. You can buy the Fujikura Ventus Black with the adaptor sleeve of choice built to your requires specifications. JOCKEY TIP: The Fujikura Ventus Black is ideal for the player looking for a low launch, low spin shaft that was designed to significantly tighten shot dispersion and maximize ball speed especially on off-center shots.

$350.00 from Fairway Jockey

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4-wood: Srixon ZXi 16.5˚, Fujikura Ventus TR Blue 8 X

Srixon ZXi Custom Fairway Wood

$329.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

Driving Iron: Srixon ZXiU 2-iron, True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Irons: Srixon ZXi5 (4-5), ZXi7 (6-PW), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Srixon ZXi5 Custom Irons

$199.99 from Fairway Jockey

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Srixon ZXi7 Custom Irons

$199.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

Wedges: Cleveland RTZ (50-10 MID, 56-10 MID, 60-06 LOW), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Cleveland RTZ Custom Wedge

All-new RTZ Wedges are made with Z-Alloy, a completely new steel formula that enables a zero-compromise design approach for incredible feel, better durability, and more consistency for our best performing tour Wedges yet. Plus, there’s an all-new ADAPT grind featuring full-face grooves, to give RTZ Wedges more versatility than ever before.  Z-Alloy  Z-Alloy is a brand-new steel with better feel. It’s softer, lighter, and remarkably durable. It gives RTZ Wedges superior feel, better forgiveness, and more consistency. On RTZ Tour Rack Wedges, Z-Alloy’s rust-resistant properties ensure longer-lasting, like-new performance.  HydraZip HydraZip is a unique system of face blasts and laser-milled lines formulated to maximize spin performance under wet conditions. This technology is dynamically configured by loft groupings, which helps balance spin across lofts, while maximizing spin in adverse conditions.  ZipCore This low-density core technology replaces heavier material in the heel and hosel area with a lightweight, low-density, vibration-dampening material. This proprietary core allows us to shift the Center of Gravity closer to where you strike the ball, while simultaneously adding MOI.  UltiZip UltiZip’s sharper grooves cut through grass and debris at contact, while deeper grooves help make space for grass, sand, dirt, or water to clear the impact zone, giving RTZ Wedges stronger, more consistent spin from the fairway, rough, or bunker. 

$199.99 from Fairway Jockey

View Product

Putter: Ping Anser 2D, Grip: SuperStroke Zenergy 1.0P ‘21

Grip: Golf Pride ZGrip Cord

Ball: Srixon Z-Star XV

Srixon Z-STAR XV Golf Balls

Z-STAR SeriesWhether you’re chasing major championships or your next personal best, the all-new Z-STAR series is the choice for serious players everywhere. Featuring reformulated cores and covers across the line, this generation of Z-STAR golf balls delivers greater distance, optimized spin, and tour-level stopping power around the green. It’s a formula designed to give you one thing: pure performance when it matters most. Z-STAR XV provides maximum ball speed for unmatched Driver and Iron distance. Its premium 3-piece construction gives skilled players complete tour performance, tee to green.

$49.99 from Fairway Jockey

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Want to overhaul your bag for 2025? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

The post Ryan Fox’s clubs: Inside his RBC Canadian Open winning-setup appeared first on Golf.

The post Anger, a ‘pillow fight’ playoff, and a shot of a lifetime: How RBC Canadian Open’s wild Sunday unfolded appeared first on Golf.

The post Anger, a ‘pillow fight’ playoff, and a shot of a lifetime: How RBC Canadian Open’s wild Sunday unfolded appeared first on Golf.

The RBC Canadian Open has a knack for delivering dramatic moments.

Three years ago, Rory McIlroy defended his title by defeating Tony Finau and Justin Thomas. At the onset of the LIV Golf-PGA Tour war, McIlroy celebrated his win with a jab at then-LIV Golf CEO and commissioner Greg Norman. In 2023, Canadian Nick Taylor drained a 72-foot eagle putt to defeat Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff. Last year, Robert MacIntyre won with his father on his bag as a fill-in caddie.

The 2025 edition won’t be remembered in the same light as those mentioned above but there was plenty of drama on Sunday in Caldeon, Ontario.

Sam Burns went out Sunday at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley and fired a final-round eight-under 62 to take the clubhouse lead. Burns waited for two hours as 54-hole co-leaders, Matteo Manassero and Ryan Fox, and other would-be contenders made their way around the course.

Cameron Young’s chance

Burns watched Kevin Yu and Ben An rise and fall and rise again. Then came the first real challenger: Cameron Young.

Burns saw the long-bombing Young blitz his way up the leaderboard and gave himself a chance to win in regulation with an eagle on the par-5 18th. Young blistered his drive and then smoked his 3-wood dead into the wind. Walking after his second shot, Young believed he had hit the shot needed to give him a winning putt. Instead, the ball ripped through the wind, bounced over the green, and nestled in thick rough off the back. Young eventually made bogey, and Burns dodged a challenger.

“This very moment, a lot of anger, a bit of frustration,” Young said after he finished T4. “I couldn’t have hit two better shots on the last hole. I don’t hit 3-wood that far, and it’s blowing straight into the wind, and it decided to bounce all the way to the back woods. I thought in the air I was going to have about a 12-footer to win the tournament, and it ended up somewhere I was going to struggle to make par, let alone make a 4. Pretty upset. Played pretty well. Kind of just want to go home right now.”

A feel-good story that fell short

Burns stood warming up on the range as other contenders fell short of his 18-under mark for the tournament.

He dodged Yu and An. He watched as Manassero, a former golf prodigy who once found rock bottom in pro golf, let his chance at a career-changing win slip away.

“It was a nice week,” Manassero said after finishing in a tie for sixth place. “My game is trending in the right direction for sure, and I think to ultimately end up winning tournaments, you need to go through days like this in which you learn how to maybe improve something that could possibly be improved. Today, my game probably wasn’t as good as the other days. I guess that’s something that you can only feel and experience when you’re under that kind of pressure on a Sunday to play for a PGA TOUR event. So I will take that in and know the stuff I have to work on.”

“Pillow fight” playoff with a Fox

Finally, all that was left was Fox, the 38-year-old New Zealander who just won his first PGA Tour event last month with a chip-in during a playoff at the Myrtle Beach Classic.

After birdies at 14 and 15, Fox sat just one shot back of Burns with three holes to play, including the par-5 18th. Fox missed a 24-foot putt for birdie on 16 and then missed an eight-footer for birdie on 17.

Burns just stood on the range, sending balls into the Toronto sky, hoping he could dodge one last contender.

Fox hit the 18th fairway, laid up with his second, and stuck his third to 17 feet. The New Zealander gave his birdie putt a confident stroke, but it looked like he left it out to the left. As it approached the hole, the ball crept back toward the cup and barely slid in the side door to send the 2025 RBC Canadian Open to a playoff.

From there, the drama stalled.

Burns and Fox both made par at the first playoff hole, with Burns, statistically the best putter on the PGA Tour, missing a six-foot birdie putt for the win. It didn’t even touch the hole. Both players made par again during their next go around on 18, with Fox leaving his birdie attempt short.

After the hole location was changed to the front right portion of the green, Burns and Fox played the 18th hole for a third time. Both laid up with their second shot and made a mess of their third. Fox pulled his long and left to the back of the green while Burns ripped his off the front and almost into the water. Both players again made par.

Finally, the fourth time was a charm.

Both players blistered their drives to give them a shot at going for the green in two. Fox had 258 to the hole and hit a majestic 3-wood that landed soft on the green and stopped seven feet away from the cup.

Burns went next and pulled his shot to the left side of the green. The best putter on Tour’s best weapon once again let him down as he ran the 40-foot eagle putt 10 feet past and then missed the comebacker to give Fox an easy two-putt for the win.

“It was tough,” Fox said after his win. “I hit some great shots down the stretch in regulation. Probably got a little lucky on that putt on 18 in regulation, snuck in the left door. To be honest, Sam and I had a bit of a pillow fight there for three holes. It was some pretty average golf from both of us, some average putting. But that shot I hit on 18 with the 3-wood was probably the best shot I ever hit. It would have been nice to make it, but hey, I’ll take it.”

That shot made him a two-time PGA Tour winner and left Burns staring at his putter for answers, thinking about the one that got away as he heads to Oakmont for the 2025 U.S. Open.

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The post 2025 RBC Canadian Open payout: Here’s how much every player made appeared first on Golf.

The post 2025 RBC Canadian Open payout: Here’s how much every player made appeared first on Golf.

As it has so many times in recent years, the RBC Canadian Open delivered on drama Sunday afternoon.

After Sam Burns posted a final-round 62 to shoot up the leaderboard and take the clubhouse lead, he had a long afternoon of waiting to see his fate decided. And although it took until the final group. his 18-under total was eventually matched as Ryan Fox dripped in a birdie putt on No. 18 to force a playoff.

The playoff was, as analyst Trevor Immelman put it, a bit of a “pillow fight,” but on the fourth playoff hole, Fix eventually prevailed with a birdie. For his efforts, the Kiwi takes home a winner’s check worth $1.76 million, while Burns earned just over $1 million. Not bad for a week’s work.

Check out below for a breakdown of what everyone in the field earned this week in Canada.

What every player made at the 2025 RBC Canadian Open

1. Ryan Fox, $1,764,000

2. Sam Burns, $1,068,200

3. Kevin Yu, $676,200

T4. Matt McCarty, $441,000
Cameron Young, $441,000

T6. Ben An, $330,750
Andrew Putnam, $330,750
Matteo Manassero, $330,750

T9. Cameron Champ, $257,250
Victor Perez, $257,250
David Skinns, $257,250
Lee Hodges, $257,250

T13. Ludvig Aberg, $180,810
Shane Lowry, $180,810
Nick Taylor, $180,810
Danny Willett, $180,810
Alex Smalley, $180,810

T18. Noah Goodwin, $125,276
Jackson Suber, $125,276
Jesper Svensson, $125,276
Jeremy Paul, $125,276
Thomas Detry, $125,276

T24. Emiliano Grillo, $86,730
Harry Hall, $86,730
Antoine Rozner, $86,730

T27. Lanto Griffin, $64,353
Max McGreevy, $64,353
Corey Conners, $64,353
Keith Mitchell, $64,353
John Pak, $64,353
Adam Hadwin, $64,353
Taylor Pendrith, $64,353
Jake Knapp, $64,353
Mackenzie Hughes, $64,353

T36. Rico Hoey, $42,630
Robert MacIntyre, $42,630
Thorbjorn Olesen, $42,630
Ben Silverman, $42,630
Taylor Montgomery, $42,630
Richard Lee, $42,630
Cristobal Del Solar, $42,630

T43. Steven Fisk, $33,810
Patrick Fishburn, $33,810
Rasmus Hojgaard, $33,810
Trey Mullinax, $33,810

T47. Mark Hubbard, $26,401
Nate Lashley, $26,401
Ryo Hisatune, $26,401
Matthew Anderson, $26,401
Paul Waring

T52. Vince Whaley, $23,114
Caron Young, $23,114
Zac Blair, $23,114
Beau Hossler, $23,114
Paul Peterson, $23,114
Henrik Norlander, $23,114
Trevor Cone, $23,114

T59. Wyndham Clark, $21,854
Hayden Springer, $21,854
Davis Riley, $21,854
Dylan Wu, $21,854
Peter Malnati, $21,854

64. Chanlder Phillips, $21,266

T65. Tyler Mawhinney (a), $0
Adam Schenk, $21,070

67. Charley Hoffman, $20,678

68. Justin Lower, $20,482

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The post Pro pokes hilarious fun at his disastrous octuple-bogey ’12’ at Canadian Open appeared first on Golf.

The post Pro pokes hilarious fun at his disastrous octuple-bogey ’12’ at Canadian Open appeared first on Golf.

Comedy is tragedy plus time.

So goes the saying, and Matthieu Pavon is proving it true.

With Friday’s second round of the RBC Canadian Open receding into memory, the Frenchman has already found humor in the calamity that kicked off that day for him.

If you were keeping score at home, you probably recall that Pavon carded a 12 on the par-4 10th, his opening hole, a colossal blemish brought on by an unhappy medley of poor execution, bad luck and questionable decisions.

C’est le golf. C’est la vie.

In insouciant French fashion, Pavon took the octuple-bogey in stride. Or at least smoothly enough that he bounced back with birdie-birdie on his next two holes. 

By then, of course, the damage was done. Pavon’s douze — that’s French for a dozen — plunged him 50 spots down the leaderboard, and he missed the cut by kilometers, finishing third-to-last. 

He now had the weekend free. And what better way to kill time with some comic relief?

On his Instagram account, the 32-year-old put a cheeky spin on traditional golf instruction by offering what he billed as “The easy guide to making a perfect 12.”

According to Pavon, this is how you do it:

Step 1: “First shot: Feeling confident off the tee after a brilliant warm up. Pull the shot 40 [yards] left into deep rough.”

Step 2: “Get lucky: ball is plugged. Make a perfect drop — going for the green is tempting, although a little voice in your head says ‘get back to the fairway.’ Decided to go for it. Grass closed the clubface at impact — straight into the trees.”

Step 3: “Dead! Try to go back to the fairway but failed. Now deep in the thick rough.”

Step 4: “Feeling smart now, try to anticipate the clubface closing at impact. Wasn’t successful. Ball straight in the water!”

Step 5: “Drop.”

Step 6: “Great decision: Dropping 60 yards from the pin on a tight and wet surface. Fat the shot, ball in the water!”

Step 7: “Drop again.”

Step 8: “Head is gone. So why not try again from 60 yards instead of going a few steps back to your favorite 88 yard [shot]? Fat the shot again. Water.”

Step 9: “Drop again (starting to master it) from the same spot.”

Step 10: “Realize there are only two balls left in the bag. Play smart: aim left to avoid the big slope pulling balls back into the water.”

Step 11: “Finally on the green. God, it feels good! Looking back at the 10th tee and feeling like the clubhouse is not so far away. Nice lag to 1 foot to make sure I’m not making three putts (not great for the stats)!”

Step 12: “In! Highest personal score on a single hole in career. Walk to the next tee, try to pinch myself, ask my caddie if it was a 10? Turns out it was a 12! Think about John-Louis Guepy, the record-holder for most consecutive birdies (10). Why not? Birdied the next two… and came back to earth with a bogey on 13!”

And that’s how the pros make a 12.

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The post 2025 RBC Canadian Open purse: Payout breakdown, winner’s share appeared first on Golf.

The post 2025 RBC Canadian Open purse: Payout breakdown, winner’s share appeared first on Golf.

Matteo Manassero is 18 holes away from penning the next great chapter in his golf comeback at the 2025 RBC Canadian Open.

Manassero, a former golf prodigy who once bottomed out of pro golf, shares the 54-hole lead at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley with Ryan Fox. A win on Sunday would be Manassero’s first-career PGA Tour title and would mark the latest step in his steady climb back from rock bottom. After crashing out, Manassero had to start his climb on the third-tier Alps Tour, where he won in 2020. He moved up to the Challenge Tour and won two more times in 2023 before recording his first DP World Tour win in 11 years at the Jonsson Workwear Open last year.

Now on the PGA Tour, Manassero hopes to capture some Sunday magic in Canada to earn his first career win on the American circuit, along with a two-year exemption and invitations to the Masters and PGA Championship.

It won’t be easy for Manassero to get across the line, though.

There is a whole pack of contenders within four shots of him, including Shane Lowry and Cameron Young.

There’s a $9.8 million purse up for grabs in Canada, with the winner taking home $1.76 million.

2025 RBC Canadian Open purse: Payout breakdown, winner’s share

WIN: $1.76 million

2: $1.0682 million

3: $676,200

4: $480,200

5: $401,800

6: $355,250

7: $330,750

8: $306,250

9: $286,650

10: $267,050

11: $247,450

12: $227,850

13: $208,250

14: $188,650

15: $178,850

16: $169,050

17: $159,250

18: $149,450

19: $139,650

20: $129,850

21: $120,050

22: $110,250

23: $102,410

24: $94,570

25: $86,730

26: $78,890

27: $75,950

28: $73,010

29: $70,070

30: $67,130

31: $64,190

32: $61,250

33: $58,310

34: $55,860

35: $53,410

36: $50,960

37: $48,510

38: $46,550

39: $44,590

40: $42,630

41: $40,670

42: $38,710

43: $36,750

44: $34,790

45: $32,830

46: $30,870

47: $28,910

48: $27,342

49: $25,970

50: $25,186

51: $24,598

52: $24,010

53: $23,618

54: $23,226

55: $23,030

56: $22,834

57: $22,638

58: $22,442

59: $22,246

60: $22,050

61: $21,854

62: $21,658

63: $21,462

64: $21,266

65: $21,070

66: $20,874

67: $20,678

68: $20,482

69: $20,286

70: $20,090

71: $19,894

72: $19,698

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Matteo Manassero has lived a long, winding life in golf.

In 2009, at the age of 16, Manassero became the youngest ever to win the British Amateur. One month later, he was the top amateur at the 2009 Open Championship, where he finished T13 at Turnberry. That was just four shots outside of the playoff between Stewart Cink and Tom Watson. He was the No. 1 ranked amateur in the world by year’s end and became the youngest to ever make the cut at the Masters the following April. He turned pro and won four times on the European Tour, including the 2013 BMW PGA, where he outplayed Sergio Garcia, Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, Francesco Molinari and others. He rose to No. 25 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

Then, the young Italian’s game fell off and fast. He registered just one top-10 finish in 2014, made just six cuts in 2015 and was no longer a card-carrying European Tour member by 2018. The smooth-swinging Manassero cobwebbed his sticks briefly after losing his joy for the game. He took time to reflect, not just on golf and his career, but on life — about what he wanted out of it. He looked for happiness outside of golf. He met his wife, Francesca Apollonio, and eventually found himself rebuilding his golf game from the ground up.

In 2020, Manassero could only play on the Alps Tour, European Golf’s third division. That’s where his great golf revival began.

In September of 2020, Manassero won the Toscano Alps Open, which moved him up a run to the Challenge Tour. The work continued. Two years later, in 2023, Manassero won the Copenhagen Challenge and Italian Challenge Open to get back to the DP World Tour. Last March, Manassero fully reemerged, winning the DP World Tour’s Jonsson Workwear Open in South Africa. That win helped him earn his PGA Tour card for the 2025 season through the DP World Tour’s Eligibility Pathway.

Manassero, the golfing prodigy blessed with deft touch and picturesque swing who once cratered out of pro golf, made it all the way back to the top of the pro golf ladder.

But the 32-year-old’s great golf revival story isn’t done being written. And after he fired a third-round 64 on Saturday at the RBC Canadian Open, Manassero, who is tied for the 54-hole lead with Ryan Fox, will have a chance to pen arguably the best chapter of his resurrection on Sunday at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley.

Manassero’s best PGA Tour finish came at the 2014 Valspar Championship, where he finished tied for eighth. His best finish this season came at the team event, Zurich Classic of New Orleans, where he finished in a tie for 12th with his partner Cristobal Del Solar.

Sunday will be a big round for Manassero. Of that, there’s no question. A PGA Tour win means an invite to the Masters, the PGA Championship, and the Players, as well as a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour.

But Manassero’s journey into the golfing abyss taught him not to focus on the prize at the end. Being hyper-focused on the results is what started his spiral. Through his journey back, a new mentality has emerged — one he will lean on Sunday as he looks to best a leaderboard filled with journeymen who have not accomplished what he has or stared down the demons he did.

“It’s definitely made me more mature and much better perspective towards golf, which at one point was everything,” Manassero said Saturday of his journey. “The results-oriented, which I discover being not a very good thing for my game and for me. So I switched away from that, and I try to get a good attitude, a good thought process, talk well to myself. Very basic things, but that’s what I learned alongside a lot of other things that I long to get into the details.

“But I’ve matured a lot, and I have a better perspective towards, for example, a day like tomorrow.”

And so, Matteo Manassero, once golf’s great prodigy who was destined to live in the stars, will go to sleep Saturday holding a share of the lead at a PGA Tour event. He’ll rest knowing a lot is on the line Sunday at TPC Toronto.

Job security, Coveted major invites. But more importantly, a sign that Matteo Manassero, who has been to the golf abyss and back, can still write his own ending to a remarkable golf story that now seems far from over.

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Josh Goldenberg doesn’t plan to quit his day job. But he had a great time dabbling in his old career.

“This week was incredible,” he said. “A dream come true.”

It was nearing noon on Saturday, and Goldenberg was speaking by phone from the Toronto airport, about to board a flight home to New York. By Monday morning, he’d be back at his desk in Manhattan, working in finance for Goldman Sachs. But for now, he was still basking in the good vibes of the last few days, when he’d competed in his first PGA Tour event — the RBC Canadian Open — after late-qualifying into the field. 

While Goldenberg’s appearance at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley hadn’t come entirely out of the blue — a former standout on the golf team at the University of Pennsylvania, he’d been a globe-trotting grinder on development circuits for several years — it also wasn’t anything he would have banked on. 

He knew the deal. He’d given professional golf a go, and he’d learned enough to know that he couldn’t make a reliable living at it. This past March, at 28, he signed on for a steady paycheck with Goldman Sachs.

Childhood dreams die hard, though, and Goldenberg’s status on the DP World Tour kept him eligible for Monday qualifying through 2025. It so happened that Monday qualifying for this year’s RBC was scheduled for a Sunday, relieving Goldenberg of any weekday work conflict. After getting the blessing from his bosses, Goldenberg flew north for the deciding round at The Pulpit Club in Caledon, Ontario, where he finished T2 to earn a spot.

“If you had told me that this was the timeline it was going to happen in, I would have laughed,” Goldenberg said. “I was out there playing for years. I’ve done quite a few of these qualifiers, and now, when I’ve been sitting at a desk for months and not practicing, now is when I make it in?”

Might as well enjoy.

During Monday and Tuesday practice rounds at Osprey Valley, where he pegged it with the likes of Joel Dahmen, Tom Kim, Ben An and Danny Willett, Goldenberg could hardly keep the grin off his face.

“I was looking around at the grandstands, the entire setting and I kept wanting to ask those guys, does this ever get old?” he said.

On Wednesday, he chose to simply walk the course.

“I was making a conscious effort to move slowly, just trying to soak it all in,” he said. 

As fresh as it was — his first time competing at the game’s highest level — the experience also struck him as oddly familiar. Working through his warmups before his opening round — chipping, putting, stretching, swinging — “it was kind of normal,” Goldenberg said. “I didn’t feel too out of my comfort zone.”

He couldn’t have asked for a better start. On Thursday morning, he introduced himself to Rory McIlroy on the putting green (“He was absolutely great.”) and then went out in the 8:24 a.m. grouping with Thomas Rosenmüller and Mason Andersen, birdying the 10th hole — his first — and following that with a gritty up-and-down for par on the tough par-3 11th. 

For a fleeting moment, he thought, “I’m up there on the leaderboard.” 

The electricity he sensed wasn’t just his nerves. Goldenberg had an entourage of family around him. His parents, who had raised him in Scarsdale, NY, and introduced him to the game almost as soon as he could walk, were in attendance, along with his three siblings, four cousins, an uncle and an aunt, and his girlfriend, Jen. He also had the long-distance backing of Rick Hartmann, the head pro from his home club of Atlantic CC on Long Island, who Goldenberg said, “has been with me on this journey since I was a kid.” Hartmann had called as soon as he saw the qualifying results.

“I’m so grateful for my support system, from my family to my coaches and pros back home,” he said. “They knew I could accomplish something like this even when I sometimes didn’t.”

Self-belief is big in golf. Ability is, too. But who makes it and who doesn’t can be hard to figure out. That was something else that Goldenberg was reminded of this week — the puzzling intangibles. With rounds of 74 and 71, he fell short of the weekend. But he finished four shots better than McIlroy, among others. And as impressed as he was by the Tour pros in his midst, not even the finest shots he witnessed seemed like feats he couldn’t pull off himself.

“I didn’t feel like there was anything revolutionary,” he said. “In that sense, I guess you could say it’s heartening and frustrating at the same time — knowing I have the ability but also fully appreciating how hard it is to make a living at it, which is something I was unable to do.”

As fallbacks go, finance is a good one. He enjoys the work and the collaboration that it requires.

“I am a very social person, and golf can be a lonely lifestyle — I’ve been there,” he said. “I want to be surrounded by a team, and as much as I love competing, I didn’t get to that point in golf.”

That he’s sticking with his day job doesn’t mean he’s giving up on the game. His DP World Tour status is valid through the end of the year, “so I want to take advantage of it as long as I have it.”

Other qualifiers are surely in his future. But maybe not right now.

“I just used up five vacation days,” he said.

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Rory McIlroy’s week in Canada ended earlier than expected at the 2025 RBC Canadian Open as the reigning Masters champion went 71-78 to miss the cut by a mile at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley.

The five-time major champion struggled mightily off the tee this week in Canada. After playing with a backup driver at the 2025 PGA Championship after his gamer failed the CT test, McIlroy showed up in Toronto with a TaylorMade Qi35 driver with a shorter build.

The combination didn’t work as McIlroy hit just 42 percent of his fairways in two rounds and lost 2.187 strokes off the tee. With the U.S. Open at Oakmont looming, McIlroy has to get back in the lab to find a driver that allows his superpower to shine as it normally does.

“So I went back to a 44-inch driver this week to try to get something that was a little more in control and could try to get something a bit more in play,” McIlroy said after missing the cut in Canada. “But if I’m going to miss fairways, I’d rather have the ball speed and miss the fairway than not. I was saying to [caddie Harry Diamond] going down the last, this is the second time this year I’ve tried the new version, and it hasn’t quite worked out for me. So I’d say I’ll be testing quite a few drivers over the weekend.”

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Back in March, McIlroy played the first three rounds of the Arnold Palmer Invitational with TaylorMade’s latest driver and woods before paying $995 for an Uber to bring his old gamers to Orlando for the final round.

After his second try with TaylorMade’s newest driver flopped, McIlroy will spend the next handful of days trying to find the right weapon off the tee heading to Oakmont. Until he has that driver in hand, the 36-year-old Northern Irishman’s game will be a big question mark heading into the brutal examination known as the U.S. Open.

“Of course it concerns me,” McIlroy said. “You don’t want to shoot high scores like the one I did today. Still, I felt like I came here obviously with a new driver thinking that that sort of was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn’t. Obviously going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways. Still sort of searching for the sort of missing piece off the tee. Obviously, for me, when I get that part of the game clicking, then everything falls into place for me. Right now, that isn’t. Yeah, that’s a concern going into next week.”

McIlroy also admitted earlier in the week that he has been dealing with a career Grand Slam hangover after his historic win at Augusta National in April. The newly minted Masters champion has now gone T12-T7-47-MC in his four starts since the Masters victory, with the T12 coming at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a team event.

After getting off to a blistering start that included wins at Pebble Beach, the Players and the Masters, McIlroy left a disappointing week at the PGA Championship needing to recalibrate after achieving a lifelong dream.

“I don’t know if I’m chasing anything,” McIlroy said on Wednesday. “I would certainly say that the last few weeks I’ve had a couple weeks off, and going and grinding on the range for three or four hours every day is maybe a little tougher than it used to be. You have this event in your life that you’ve worked towards, and it happens. Sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation to get back on the horse and go again.”

McIlroy took two weeks off in between the PGA Championship and the RBC Canadian Open. He said he used that time to “reset” his goals for the season and determine where he’s “at in his own head” and how he wants to attack the rest of the season.

The hope was that four days in Canada would spark him toward a strong finish to the 2025 season.

Instead, driver troubles derailed his tournament early, and now he will enter what promises to be a brutal challenge at Oakmont facing two questions: Can Rory McIlroy find the right driver and fix his driving woes in a few days? And what should we expect from him during the back half of a season that is forever etched in golf history?

How he answers them — or if he does — will determine whether or not this year has any more magic in store for McIlroy.

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His physical gifts have never been in doubt.

Even before the first of his three PGA Tour wins, Cameron Champ was known as a prodigious hitter, a reputation he has only reinforced since that breakthrough victory in 2018. He remains one of the game’s longest bombers.

But playing golf at the highest level requires more than elevated ball speeds. Mechanics matter. So does mindset.

And Champ has been battling the latter.

“The last couple years for me, it’s mostly been off-the-course stuff,” Champ said. “It’s been a little rough for me to even be out here.”

It was late-day Friday, with two rounds in the books at the RBC Canadian Open, and Champ, who’d gained entrance into the field as the eighth alternate, stood before the press in a surprising position—12-under par and with a two-shot lead heading into the weekend at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley. 

His score, supported by a scorching 62 on Thursday, did not reflect the form that Champ has shown of late. Recent seasons have been a slog for the 29-year-old, so much so that he lost his card last year and has been toggling between the PGA and Korn Ferry tours, competing when he can through past champion status. Amid multiple missed cuts, including three in his previous five PGA Tour starts, his best finish was a T15 at the CJ Cup Bryson Nelson early last month.

As this week’s tournament in Toronto approached, Champ did not expect to be making a trip north. He found himself instead in South Carolina, preparing for a Korn Ferry event, when word came through that a slot had opened for him. It just so happened that he had his passport with him, though he said he hadn’t put the document on his packing list.

“I don’t know why I brought it,” he said. “I was like, you know, I’m just going to bring it in case for whatever reason, not even thinking about the tournament. So it all worked out nicely.”

True to form, Champ is leading the field in driving distance this week. But the most important gap has been the space between his ears.

“These last two days was just nice —not a sigh of relief but it was just a joy for me to play like that,” Champ said. “I know it’s there. I just have to get out of my own way and keep progressing.”

Though Champ did not elaborate on the nature of his mental struggles, he acknowledged they’d been more than he could handle on his own.

“I just finally just accepted that and finally got some help and slowly working towards that, which has been nice.” 

Less helpful has been the uncertainty of his playing schedule, which creates strains of a different kind.

“It’s definitely ups and downs, not knowing this week and getting a call last minute and rushing here,” he said. “It’s been really just a challenge to try to take advantage of the opportunities when I get them.”

Champ now has an opportunity for his first PGA Tour win since the 2021 3M Open. A victory this week would also put him into next week’s U.S. Open field at Oakmont.

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