Global sports entertainment leader Topgolf® and Cineplex (TSX: CGX), a leading entertainment and media company, today announced an exclusive partnership that will bring Topgolf’s sports entertainment experience to Canada. The joint venture will see the opening of multiple Topgolf venues in markets across the country during the next several years.

“Throughout the years, Canada has been the top-requested country among our fans asking us to expand outside the United States,” said Topgolf Entertainment Group Co-Chairman and CEO Erik Anderson. “We’re thrilled to continue our growth in North America and introduce Topgolf as a destination for entertainment and socializing where Canadians can play golf even when there’s snow on the ground.”

We continue to identify new opportunities to grow and diversify our business and are very pleased to introduce this incredible entertainment and sports concept to Canadians,” said Cineplex President and CEO Ellis Jacob. “As one of the country’s leading entertainment companies, this relationship with Topgolf is a natural extension of our business and leverages our existing expertise, experience and infrastructure in the Canadian market.”

Through the premium experience of play, food and music, Topgolf inspires people of all ages and skill levels – even non-golfers – to come together for playful competition. Guests can enjoy point-scoring golf games using microchipped balls that instantly score themselves, showing players the accuracy and distance of their shots on a TV screen in their hitting bay. Topgolf locations are typically three-level, 65,000-square-foot venues that feature a chef-driven menu, top-shelf drinks, big screen TVs and music in climate-controlled hitting bays for all-seasons comfort. Year-round programming includes events for kids and families, social leagues, groups, golf tournaments and instruction.

Cineplex will manage the venues’ day to day operations, working closely with Topgolf to ensure the best guest experience in Canada. Predominately known as Canada’s largest and most innovative film exhibitor, Cineplex operates in the film entertainment and content, amusement and leisure, and media sectors. In addition to welcoming more than 75 million guests annually through its circuit of 164 theatres across Canada, it also owns and operates The Rec Room, Canada’s social destination for eats and entertainment, and an online eSports platform. Cineplex is also one of America’s largest providers of amusement games and arcade solutions.

“Cineplex has decades of experience running high-volume entertainment businesses, which makes them the perfect partner for Topgolf,” said Topgolf International COO Zach Shor. “Their company culture and expertise with real estate, location based entertainment and multi-unit operations will be major assets as we work together to introduce Topgolf in Canada.”

With 33 successful venues already operating in the United States and United Kingdom, Topgolf and Cineplex are planning potential locations in large urban centres across Canada. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.

Jennifer Kupcho shot a 5-under-par 65 during the opening round of the 104th playing of the Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship at Cutten Fields on Tuesday.

Kupcho, from Westminister, Colo., carded seven birdies during her round and used her power to her advantage in order to shoot one of the three rounds under par.

“I think my distance really played a factor in my score today,” she said, next to the ninth green. “I think that when I’m grabbing a six or 7-iron other girls are going for a hybrid and it’s really helping me out.”

The current No. 4 ranked amateur golfer in the world plans to stick to what’s working heading into round 2.

“Going forward I need to focus on what I did well today which was to hit good approach shots and set up tap-in birdies,” she said.

Sitting one stroke behind Kupcho is 15-year-old Susan Xiao (Surrey, B.C.) who is playing in her first Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship. Xiao’s 4-under-par 66 was powered by an eagle on the par-5 12th hole, and she managed to limit her scorecard to just one bogey which occurred on the most difficult hole of the day, the par-4 14th.

“I finished my first nine at 2-under par so I was able to head to the front nine with no pressure,” said Xiao. “Then I had a couple of really good par saves so that really kept me calm and focused on my game down the stretch.”

Canadian National Amateur Squad member Grace St-Germain rounds out the top three competitors who shot under par for the day. Starting on the back nine, she walked off the 18th hole at 2 under par but fell down the leaderboard after carding a double bogey and bogey in her first three holes after the turn. Down the stretch, she managed to make four birdies in her final six holes to hold third place.

Seven players sit tied in fourth place at even par: Lauren Greenlief (Ashburn, Va.), Jaravee Boonchant (Thailand), Katherine Zhu (China), Janet Mao (Johns Creek, Ga.), Naomi Ko (Victoria, B.C.), Rachel Heck (Memphis, Tenn.) and Hira Naveed (Australia).
Team British Columbia leads the inter-provincial competition after the team consisting of Naomi Ko, Michelle Kim and Gloria Usu Choi shot a combined 4 over par. Team Ontario sits in second at 13 over par.

In addition to the 2017 Canadian Women’s Amateur title, the individual champion will earn an exemption into the 2017 U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship and – along with the low Canadian – the CP Women’s Open at Ottawa Hunt & Golf Club in Ottawa from Aug. 21-27.

For full results click here.

Cataraqui Golf & Country Club will welcome the nation’s best young golfers for the 2017 Canadian Junior Boy Championship. The 79th playing of the tournament will take place between July 31-Aug. 3 and will consist of 156 of many of the nation’s best junior golfers, including all four members of Team Canada’s Development Squad.

Cataraqui was designed by famed Canadian golf course architect, Stanley Thompson, and boasts one of the best courses in the entire country and the only one in the surrounding area ranked on SCOREgolf’s 2016 top 100 Canadian courses (No. 91). Overlooking Lake Ontario and currently enjoying its centennial year, the course features rolling fairways and small breaking greens designed to challenge players’ shot making skills.

“Our tremendous staff has worked very hard and the course is in great shape. The community of Kingston is extremely excited to host an event of this calibre,” said Jay Gazeley, COO of Cataraqui Golf & Country Club. “We look forward to hosting this strong field through what is sure to be a great week of golf.”

The Canadian Junior Boys Championship has served as a significant milestone in a number of professional and amateur careers. Before playing on the PGA TOUR, Abbotsford, B.C., native Nick Taylor captured the 2006 Canadian Junior Boys title. Other champions include Canadian Golf Hall of Fame members Doug Silverberg, George Knudson, Gary Cowan and Doug Roxburgh.

“Golf Canada is pleased to head to Kingston to hold our annual Canadian Junior Boys Championship,” said Tournament Director Akash Patel. “We have received a very warm welcome here and truly appreciate the support and commitment of the staff. Cataraqui will be a great platform to showcase the talents of Canada’s best junior golfers.”

In 2016, Sam Meek, from Peterborough, Ont., shot an opening-round 66 that eventually propelled him to a two-shot victory and finished at 3 under for the tournament. The 18-year-old returns in hopes of becoming the championship’s eighth back-to-back winner and its first since Mitch Sutton accomplished the feat in 2008-09.

In order to be eligible to participate in the championship field all entrants must be under the 19 years of age. This year’s field will consist of the defending Canadian Junior Champion – both Junior and Juvenile – the Team Canada Development Squad members, the current Junior Club Champion/Host Club exemption, the top six finishers in all Future Links, driven by Acura regional championships and those players earning a spot through their respective provincial championship.

More information, including tee times, can be found here.

Golf legend and 73-time PGA TOUR winner Jack Nicklaus was on hand at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont., on Tuesday to help kick off the 2017 RBC Canadian Open.

Following a ceremonial airshow and opening remarks, amateur champion Judy Darling Evans and legendary golf club maker Bob Vokey were officially inducted as the 78th and 79th honoured members of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. Nicklaus, who was inducted into the Hall in 1995, joined 16 other legends of Canadian golf as part of the celebration.

After the opening ceremony, the Golden Bear made a quick stop at The Rink on the par-3 7th hole to try his hand at hockey.

Jack Nicklaus grabbed a hockey stick for the first time during Tuesday’s opening ceremony at the @RBCCanadianOpen. pic.twitter.com/8AFgaWu6Z4

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 25, 2017

For nearly a decade, the name Judy Darling Evans was synonymous with amateur golfing success. She was born on October 6, 1937 in Montreal and was first introduced to the game at Whitlock Golf Club where her grandfather, J.A. Darling—a Quebec Amateur champion himself— served as the club’s first president… Read more on Judy Darling Evans here.

Bob Vokey was born in 1939 in Montréal, Québec. and credits his early inspiration in club design to the summers he spent with his father, a fine tool and die maker who had a penchant for golf and enjoyed tinkering with equipment… Read more on Bob Vokey here.

A special thanks to our honoured @CGHF members for helping kick off today’s opening ceremony of the @RBCCanadianOpen! #OurOpen #RBCCO pic.twitter.com/r4ecYon0Ak

— Golf Canada (@TheGolfCanada) July 25, 2017

Photos from Tuesday’s Opening Ceremonies can be found on the RBC Canadian Open Facebook page here.

Click here for more information on what’s happening at the 2017 RBC Canadian Open.

Valiant efforts by Canadian golfers resulting in close calls have come to define the RBC Canadian Open in recent years.

Amateur Jared du Toit’s remarkable performance through three rounds last year before tying for ninth, conjured up some of those memories.

The national championship was last won by a Canadian in 1954 but since 2001 players such as David Morland IV, Adam Hadwin, David Hearn and most famously, Mike Weir, have come close to breaking the drought.

Weir’s close shave came in 2004 at Glen Abbey. The lefty from Brights Grove, Ont., was at the height of his powers back then and so too was Vijay Singh. Singh came to Oakville the No. 1-ranked player in the world and was enjoying one of the most successful seasons in the modern era by someone other than Tiger Woods. Weir, about 18 months removed from his Masters win, nursed a two-shot lead to start Sunday action and appeared in control as he made the turn, especially when he made birdie on the 10th hole.

“Oh, boy, this is crazy,” said a bemused PGA Tour official surveying the crowds that had gathered around Weir’s group as he was about to tee off on 16.

The crowd was sensing history being made. And it would have been perfect timing  — 50 years since Pat Fletcher’s win, days after Canadian legend Moe Norman had died, and a day before Team Canada was about to win the World Cup of Hockey a short distance away in Toronto.

It wasn’t meant to be. Not long after that PGA Tour official voiced his concern, Weir made bogey on No. 16 and failed to birdie No. 18 in regulation. That set the stage for Singh’s triumph on the third extra hole when Weir found water playing the 18th for the third time in less than an hour.

Weir, but also Hadwin and Hearn, who have had their own brushes with winning, have all voiced little in the way of overriding regret. Recent conversations with all three men said that the biggest takeaway from their experience was the sheer excitement, tinged with a bit of disappointment.

“None,” said Weir, when asked if he had any regrets, “just that I didn’t win but it was a great week.”

Hearn’s tournament two years ago was very much like Weir’s but also different. He was in the driver’s seat playing No. 16 too but Jason Day reeled off three birdies playing a group ahead — as Singh was with Weir 11 years earlier. While Day wasn’t yet the top-ranked player in the world, his run that started at Glen Abbey soon landed him there.

Hearn, who wound up in third place, and Weir were veteran PGA Tour pros when they almost won the national championship.

Adam Hadwin was just a second-year pro who was little known outside the Canadian golf community. Playing at Shaughnessy G&CC not far from where he grew up in Abbotsford, B.C., Hadwin had sole possession of the lead on Sunday before four-putting the par-3 eighth hole. The two shots he dropped there cost him a spot in a playoff eventually won by Sean O’Hair.

Looking back, for Hadwin it was the newness of the experience that made it so unique, surreal even.

“Nothing was expected of me,” he recalls “I wasn’t even a tour member at that point . . . I really had nothing to lose.”

Though not quite as close, other Canadians have contended as well. David Morland IV was in contention all four days at Royal Montreal GC in 2001. After firing a 66 on Sunday, Morland needed the leaders to falter but Verplank was steady with a 67 and eventually won by three shots. Morland was another two strokes back in a tie for fifth.

Though they never seriously contended for the title, Graham DeLaet (T7) and Brad Fritsch (T9) both posted top-10s three years ago, also at Royal Montréal. Eight years ago at Glen Abbey, two Canadians — Stephen Ames and Chris Baryla — also had top-10s, both tying for eighth.

Stretching back further, Dave Barr had his best RBC Canadian Open showing in 1988 when he tied for fourth, with fellow Canadian Gordie Smith tying for seventh. Barr’s showing matched Richard Zokol’s performance five years earlier, which to that point was the best performance by a Canadian during the Glen Abbey era of the tournament.

This article was originally published in the Summer Issue edition of Golf Canada Magazine. Click here to view the full magazine

Over 130 of Canada’s top young golfers will be in Ottawa from Aug. 1 – 4 for the 2017 Canadian Junior Girls Championship at Camelot Golf and Country Club.

The impressive, international field is led by the Team Canada Development Squad, with 12 of Canada’s top-50 golfers in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) in the draw. At No. 244, New Zealand’s Momoka Kobori the highest ranked golfer in the field in the WAGR.

A Thomas McBroom design, Camelot Golf and Country Club celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2016 and was ranked 63rd in ScoreGolf’s Top 100 courses list that same year.

“We’re thrilled to be hosting the strong, international field at Camelot in the nation’s capital in a year that is special for our country,” said Greg Richardson, General Manager at Camelot Golf and Country Club. “The golf course is in tremendous shape and we look forward to showcasing its beauty as well as the great city of Ottawa.”

McBroom’s signature weaving of the local landscape into the course layout is evident in the natural beauty of Camelot. The course meanders through meadows and heavily wooded parkland, combining traditional and links style course features.

“Camelot Golf and Country Club is the perfect host for our national Junior Girls Championship,” said Tournament Director Adam Cinel. “It’s unique style and signature holes will provide a great challenge for the best junior golfers in Canada as they chase a national championship right in Canada’s capital.”

All four members of Team Canada’s Development Squad will be chasing the title in Ottawa: Mary Parsons (Delta, B.C.), Chloe Currie (Mississauga, Ont.), Monet Chun (Richmond Hill, Ont.), and Hannah Lee (Surrey, B.C.).

Currie is the defending champion in the Canadian Juvenile Girls division, which awards the title to the lowest scoring competitor under the age of 16.

Team Canada’s Naomi Ko (Victoria, B.C.) is the reigning champion. Ko’s 5-under-par 283 at The Links at Penn Hills in 2016, put her four strokes ahead of Currie.

A practice round will be conducted on July 31 prior to the championship’s opening round on Aug. 1. Following the first two rounds of play, the field will be reduced to the low 70 players and ties with the top ten juvenile’s and ties included in the final round.

A tie for the championship will be decided by a hole-by-hole playoff immediately following the conclusion of play.

The 2017 Canadian Junior Girls’ champion will receive an exemption into the 2018 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship at Marine Drive Golf Club in Vancouver, B.C.

The Canadian Junior Girls Championship has a long list of distinguished past champions including Canadian Golf Hall of Famer and major champion Sandra Post, and current LPGA superstar and 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship winner Brooke Henderson.

Two-time defending team champions from B.C. will look to make it three in a row in the inter-provincial team competition, which takes place over the course of the first two rounds.

In rounds one and two the best two scores of the three golfers from each provincial team count towards the team’s score. The lowest aggregate score over rounds one and two determines the champion. British Columbia won the 2016 title with a two-day score of 290.

Additional information about the tournament, including the full field and tee-times is available here.

NOTABLES

Chloe Currie, Mississauga, Ont.
The 17-year-old is in her second year on the Team Canada Development Squad and is the defending champion in the Juvenile division of this event. She finished 5th at the 2017 Future Links driven by Acura Ontario Championship, was T5 at the 2017 Ontario Women’s Amateur. Currie will look to improve on her second-place finish in the main event in 2016. She is currently ranked No. 6 on the Future Links driven by Acura National Order of Merit.

Mary Parsons, Delta, B.C.
The 18-year-old Team Canada Development Squad rookie won her second consecutive Future Links driven by Acura Pacific Championship in 2017. She reached the round-of-32 at the 2017 Women’s Western Amateur Championship and finished T9 at the 2017 B.C. Women’s Amateur. In 2016 Parsons shared the 54-hole lead at this event finishing 3rd. She’s ranked No. 8 on the Future Links driven by Acura National Order of Merit.

Hannah Lee, Victoria, B.C.
The 17-year-old is in her second-year on the Development Squad. Lee finished 10th at the Future Links driven by Acura Pacific Championship and 9th at the prestigious 2017 Porter Cup. She finished 3rd at the 2017 B.C. Junior Girls Championship. Lee is ranked No. 9 on the Future Links driven by Acura National Order of Merit. Lee was T11 at this championship in 2016.

Monet Chun, Richmond Hill, Ont.
The 16-year-old Development Squad rookie won the 2017 Future Links driven by Acura Ontario Championship and the 2017 Investors Group Junior Girls’ Spring Classic. Chun finished 9th at the 2017 Porter Cup in June. Chun was 8th at this event in 2016. She is ranked No. 1 on the Future Links driven by Acura National Order of Merit.

Céleste Dao, Notre-Dame-de-L’Île-Perrot, Que.
The 16-year-old won the 2017 Future Links driven by Acura Quebec Championship and finished T3 at the 2017 Future Links driven by Acura Ontario Championship. Dao won the 2017 Quebec Women’s provincial Amateur Championship and won the 2017 Quebec Junior Girls Championship. Dao was T6 at this event in 2016. She is currently ranked No. 2 on the Future Links driven by Acura National Order of Merit.

Momoka Kobori, Rangoria, New Zealand
The 18-year-old was named the West Coast Conference Freshman of the year in her inaugural season with Pepperdine University (NCAA Div I), recording two top-10 finishes and a season stroke average of 75.36. Before coming to the U.S., Kabori was a recipient of the Lydia Ko scholarship. In 2016 she was runner-up at the Australian Girls Amateur and won the Queensland Girls Amateur.

Alyssa DiMarcantonio, Maple, Ont.
The 14-year-old won the 2017 MJT Spring Invitational and was second at the 2017 Investor’s Group Junior Girls Spring Classic. DiMarcantonio finished in a tie for third at the Future Links driven by Acura Ontario Championship and was fourth at the 2017 Ontario Junior Girls’ Championship. She is currently ranked No. 7 on the Future Links, driven by Acura National Order of Merit.

FAST FACTS

A British Columbia golfer has won the individual event the last two years: Naomi Ko 2016 (Victoria, B.C.), 2015: Michelle Kim (Surrey B.C.).

Four-time LPGA winner and major champion Brooke Henderson, from nearby Smiths Falls, Ont., won this event in 2012 at River Spirit Golf Club in Calgary, Alta.

The lowest single-round score in the tournament’s history is a 66, Hannah Lee (2015), Elyse Archambault (2010), Karen England (1997), and Kristy Finlayson (1998).

British Columbia has won the inter-provincial team competition in back-to-back years.

Heather Kuzmich won four straight Canadian Junior Girls Championships from 1981-1984.

Four Canadian Golf Hall of Fame members are past champions of this event: Betty Stanhope-Cole (1956), Judy Darling Evans (1957), Gail Harvey (1958-60), and Sandra Post (1964-66).

Current LPGA golfer Alena Sharp was the 1999 Canadian Junior Girls Champion.

The 2017 Canadian Junior Girls champion will receive an exemption into the 2018 Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship at Marine Drive Golf Club in Vancouver, B.C.

ABOUT THE COURSE

6, 161  yards, Par 72

Thomas McBroom design.

The first 150 members of Camelot were designated the Ladies and Knights by the club.

Camelot Golf and Country Club was ranked 63rd in 2016 ScoreGolf top-100 courses list, the highest ranking for any course in Eastern Ontario.

Features towering pine trees and stunning views of the Ottawa River and the Gatineau Hills.

For more information on the Canadian Junior Girls Championship click here.

The 2017 RBC Canadian Open features the strongest collection of homegrown talent ever. So is this the year the drought ends?

Two years ago, shortly after standing in the 18th fairway watching Jason Day bury a 22-foot birdie putt on the final green up ahead of him to win the RBC Canadian Open, David Hearn sat down in the media centre at Glen Abbey in front of a throng of reporters. He knew what they were going to ask, but still found it difficult to articulate his emotions.

Entering the final round with a two-shot lead, Hearn and pairing mate Bubba Watson — who will rejoin the field for this year’s national men’s open championship after a year off — traded momentum throughout the day only for the superstar Day to string three birdies together on the final three holes and leap past them into the winner’s circle, capped by that emphatic putt on the last green. It was the start of a torrid stretch for the Aussie, who two weeks later won his first major at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.

Falling two shots short of Day’s mark and settling for solo third, Hearn, the Brantford, Ont., native, was appreciative of the thousands of fans that came out hoping to witness history. Had he succeeded in winning, Hearn would’ve become the first Canadian to win the event since Pat Fletcher in 1954. But he also acknowledged that the intensity of the moment and pile of pressure on his shoulders was difficult to manage.

“It’s going to take a special performance for (a Canadian) to win this tournament one day,” he relented.

Fortunately, an extremely deep crop of Canadians is ready to take on the task in the 2017 edition. Spearheading the group is Adam Hadwin, who’s enjoyed a stellar season thus far and ascended to Canada’s No. 1 player. The recently married 29-year-old won his maiden PGA Tour title at the Valspar Championship in March, just seven weeks after posting a career-low 59 at the CareerBuilder Challenge. A series of strong results and several final rounds in contention — which thrusted him as high as 44th in the world — have provided him with a boatload of confidence to lean on while trying to execute in crunch time. The B.C. boy would love to rekindle the magic he conjured up at the 2011 RBC Canadian Open at Shaughnessy G&CC (see sidebar).

Two Canadians behind him who also happen to have PGA Tour victories under their belt are Mackenzie Hughes and Nick Taylor. Each won in their respective rookie season, Hughes this year and Taylor in 2014, and along with Matt Hill, who secured a spot in the field by winning the Ontario Regional Qualifier in mid-May, they represent the fruits of Golf Canada’s labour when it comes to its national development program.

The infusion of homegrown talent in the event includes newly minted professional Jared du Toit (a recent Team Canada member and in on a sponsor’s exemption), who sprung to national fame with a ninth-place finish last year. Just as Hearn was in 2015, du Toit was in the final group on Sunday. Another Canadian on the rise is 2016 Canadian Men’s Amateur champ Hugo Bernard, who will tee it up in his second straight RBC Canadian Open.

Not to be forgotten are the more grizzled golfers that sport Canada’s colours. Hearn, Graham DeLaet, Mike Weir and Brad Fritsch have all battled down the stretch with big tournaments on the line, including in this event for Hearn and Weir (see sidebar). As for DeLaet and Fritsch, they shared top-10 honours at the 2014 event at Royal Montreal.

In years past, the national contingent featured only a few legitimate threats to win, such as Weir, Stephen Ames and Ian Leggatt in the 2000s and Dave Barr, Dan Halldorson and Richard Zokol in the 1980s and early ‘90s. The latest offering of promise and experience speaks to the depth of Canadian players currently competing at golf’s various levels.

“This will be an exciting year for Canadian golf fans for sure,” said Brent McLaughlin, RBC Canadian Open tournament director. “We’ve come close in recent years with David Hearn in 2015 and du Toit’s terrific run last year. This may be the year the drought finally comes to an end.”

The tournament has been dominated lately by some of golf’s long bombers bullying their way around Glen Abbey, such as Jhonattan Vegas in 2016, Watson and Day in 2015 and Dustin Johnson in 2016 and 2013. The latter, now the World’s No. 1 player, has already committed to tee it up this July and will be the favourite to clinch a championship that he’s been close to winning before.

On the other end of the spectrum, one of the shorter hitters in this year’s field, and one who’s no stranger to being an underdog, believes the Canadian contingent can overcome the odds too.

“It’s a matter of time,” said Jim Furyk, the 2006 (Hamilton G&CC) and ’07 (Angus Glen – North) Canadian Open champion after Hearn’s narrow miss. “There are so many good Canadian players. I feel bad Mike Weir never won this golf tournament. But Graham DeLaet, David, there are a bunch of fine young players, so I’m sure it’s going to happen.”

“I think every Canadian wants to see it so bad and we want to do it so bad that it does make it hard,” explained Hearn. “At the same time, I believe it will happen. I believe we have enough talent.”

This year, more than ever perhaps, the depth of Canada’s talent is certainly undeniable.

This article was originally published in the Summer Issue edition of Golf Canada Magazine. Click here to view the full magazine

ANCASTER, ONT. (Golf Canada) – Drew Nesbitt of Shanty Bay, Ont., Riley Wheeldon of Comox, B.C., Lee McCoy of Tampa, Fla. and Jhared Hack of Homestead, Fla. have all earned entry into the 2017 RBC Canadian Open through today’s Final Qualifier at Heron Point Golf Links.

Nesbitt and Wheeldon carded matching rounds of 5-under-par 66 to share medallist honours.

Nesbitt, who will make his PGA TOUR debut at the 2017 RBC Canadian Open, is thankful Canada’s National Championship is truly an open event.

“That’s the nature of the game that they have these open qualifying events. It allows amateurs and pros that aren’t full status and mini tour players like myself, to get to the next level,” said Nesbitt. “It will be a good experience to test my game against the best players in the world.”

Wheeldon will be playing in his third PGA TOUR event. He played in the 2013 RBC Canadian Open and advanced through Monday Qualifying into the 2014 Farmers Insurance Open.

“I feel lucky as a Canadian that I get to play in our National Championship,” added Wheeldon. “It’s great to be one round away and know that you have that opportunity to get into that tournament.”

Six players shot 67, which forced a playoff that decided the last two spots. McCoy advanced on the second playoff hole while Hack outlasted Team Canada’s Stuart MacDonald from Vancouver on the sixth playoff hole.

Team Canada graduate Blair Hamilton (Burlington, Ont.), Nyasha Mauchaza (Port Saint Lucie, Fla.) and Hunter Stuart (Lexington, Ky.) were the other playoff participants who failed to qualify.

Click here for full scoring.

Click here for more information on the RBC Canadian Open.

Austin Connelly had a chance to return to Canada as somewhat of a folk hero after his tie for 14th at last week’s British Open, but for now his priorities remain across the Atlantic.

Connelly, who is trying lock up status on the European Tour for next year, decided to decline an invitation from Golf Canada to be part of the Canadian Open field this week.

Instead of heading to Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont., Connelly will be in the field at the Porsche European Open in Hamburg, Germany, as he tries to lock up a place to play for 2018.

The Canadian Open would be nothing more than a one-off PGA Tour start for Connelly, though he said it was a tough choice.

“If I had finished tied for sixth (or better) I would have been on that charter, because I really would have loved to be there,” Connelly said.

The 20-year-old was born in Irving, Texas, but started playing golf at the Clare Golf and Country Club in Comeauville, N.S., when he would visit his grandparents in the summer months. He’s still a member there.

Connelly, whose father, Bill, was born in Toronto, holds dual-citizenship and has been a part of Golf Canada’s National Team in the past. He also represented Canada at the Pan American Games in 2015.

Connelly was disappointed to decline Golf Canada’s invite – he finished tied for 79th at the 2015 Canadian Open – because he said he feels the support of Canadian fans wherever he goes.

“You just don’t get that (kind of support) in other places,” he said. “Honestly they are the best fans in the world. It doesn’t matter where I am. I’ve got so much support in Nova Scotia and just so many close family members and friends. They’ve supported me so much over the years. It’s nice to represent them and try to make them proud.”

Golf Canada’s new CEO, Laurence Applebaum, said Connelly did his country proud last week. He was “secretly hoping” Connelly would accept the organization’s invitation, but respected his decision.

“It speaks to the depth of Canadian golf that there’s someone not a lot of people know who can finish tied for 14th at the British Open,” said Applebaum. “It was a spectacular result, and a coming of age moment for him. This kid showed composure and excellence in one of the toughest tests of golf.”

Connelly’s Texas connections are strong as well. He’s good friends with fellow Texan Jordan Spieth, who went on to win the British Open on Sunday.

Connelly and Spieth played a practice round together last week. Connelly said he had a feeling Spieth was going to win, and Spieth told reporters he thinks Connelly has a “killer instinct.”

“He’s a guy that’s not afraid of the moment, as you can tell,” Spieth said. “And it will only be a matter of time before he breaks through.”

Connelly said hearing those words just prove what kind of guy Spieth is.

“It’s obviously nice to hear those kinds of words come from him. He’s a good friend, a really nice guy, and it gives you confidence moving forward,” Connelly said. “He’s a great ambassador and a great person to learn from. It’s nice to have him around and be able to watch and learn.”

Despite the PGA Tour’s elite status, the 20-year-old Connelly wants to enjoy all that the European Tour has to offer, even if it means skipping a tournament he loves at a golf course he enjoys playing.

“It’s been incredible to experience all these incredible countries and golf courses. Everything about (Europe) has been immaculate,” he said. “I’m very content with being in Europe right now. I’m very close to locking down my European Tour card for next year and that would be incredible.”

After this week’s European Tour event in Germany Connelly will return to Texas for a few weeks before potentially making a PGA Tour appearance at the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina in mid-August.