2024 RBC Canadian Open Course Preview and Breakdown - Hamilton Golf and Country Club

The Canadian Open is one of the oldest and most storied national championships in all professional golf, dating back to 1904 when it was first played at Royal Montreal Golf Club. The tournament has rotated amongst several different landmark golf courses throughout Canada but is set to return to a familiar Harry Colt design in Ancaster, Ontario for the 2024 edition. I'll go into detail on several of the course changes since we last saw this event in 2019, and how I think the course will be set up for the pros at Hamilton Golf & Country Club for 2024.

I wanted to use this piece to hopefully highlight a few different angles and elements that may be less spoken about to provide some value in this course preview.  I'm hopeful that you can utilize this for building lineups and making your stat models to provide you with the best possible chances at success this week. This tournament typically brings fireworks and dramatic finishes, and the iconic 18th hole at Hamilton G&CC should set the perfect scene!

An Introduction to the Course

Hamilton Golf & Country Club was first established pre-1900s, making it one of Canada's oldest golf clubs still in operation. Initially, it consisted as a mundane 9-hole layout, before the club hired the well-respected Harry Colt to build a new 18-hole course that was apt to host the richest golf events in Canada, including the Canadian Open. The club first hosted the Canadian Open in 1919, and it quickly became known for being one of the most challenging and scenic golf courses in the country, driving up membership and status along the way.

The club has been a favored location for the Canadian Open recently, and 2024 will mark the 5th Canadian Open held on the property since 2003. The big difference this year is after the club last hosted this event in 2019, it underwent a substantial restoration project that only recently concluded as the stage is set for 2024. The historic facelift to the property with the intention of restoring some of the classical elements was first deployed by Harry Colt on the property while accounting for the modern player attributes.

It's still short...very short by PGA Tour standards. That said, I don't believe it undermines the architectural essence and will still challenge Tour players in ways they may be less familiar with at the run-of-the-mill TPC courses. This tournament always seems to draw a very strong field, despite not being anointed signature status by the PGA Tour and being sandwiched between two other great tournaments. Rory McIlroy, the 2019 winner, and several of the European contingent love coming to Canada to compete, and will once again be on site this week in Hamilton.

Recent Winners:

2019: Rory McIlroy -22

2012: Scott Piercy -17

2006: Jim Furyk -14

Hamilton Golf and Country Club will host the @RBCCanadianOpen for a seventh time this week. As @jeff_mingay writes, the course is more than a great @PGATOUR venue. It’s a history lesson in Canadian golf architecture.https://t.co/n4kyVs6vxV

— SCOREGolf (@SCOREGolf) May 28, 2024

Scorecard

Course Specs

Let's go ahead and get this out of the way. The golf course is incredibly short. Tapping out at barely over 7,000 yards will make it one of the shortest setups that Tour Players will see all season. There are TEN total par 4's that will play under 450 yards which is a stark contrast to courses like Quail Hollow and Valhalla that we have seen in recent weeks. The course has actually been modestly lengthened a bit since 2019 but still remains susceptible to being dismantled by a power player who has a week where they hit it straight...see Rory 2019.

It would appear that a lot of the rough and some of the bunkers surrounding the green complexes have been removed and replaced with short grass. The short grass trend in golf course architecture will be on full display at Hamilton G&CC and it has proven to often provide a greater challenge to elite players than thick rough. The greens are made up of the familiar Northeast Bent Grass/POA blend.

The par-3 holes are challenging and the biggest defensive tactic that the course has. If you can play them at Even par for the week, you succeeded. There are a couple of fun, potentially drivable par 4's, depending on which tee boxes that they play on certain days and both par 5's should be easily reachable in two for the majority of the field.

The fairways on average are 29 yards wide at the 250-yard mark.  At the 325-yard mark off the tee, the fairways are 27 yards wide. For me, that's not much of a difference and should entice the bombers to try and deploy a bomb & gauge strategy if they feel that they can manage the rough on a miss. There is a huge difference in terms of expected proximity to the hole from 100 yards away vs. 175 yards away. It's something that I am going to monitor player comments to see if I can get an idea of the general consensus of strategy, which could help make most DFS or betting decisions for me.

Statistical Considerations

I'm leaning heavily into placing an emphasis on Carry Distance. When looking at the overheads, if you can carry the ball 300-310 yards, you can remove the potential hazard of fairway bunkers on most holes. There is only a small subset of the field capable of doing this, but I believe those players have a distinct advantage this week. One of the bombers is going to have a week where they hit the ball their expected distance but also will have an above-average week in terms of accuracy. That guy is going to have a great chance to win.

It's not the only way to attack this course. If you are not extremely long off the tee, then you can also succeed with being hyper-accurate. We see this with former champions like Jim Furyk and players like Shane Lowry who finished 2nd in 2019. The key is not getting caught selecting players who are stuck in the middle. You either need to be elite level long, or extremely accurate to have your best chance.

The majority of approach shots will likely come from the 75-150-yard range. I'm looking at proximity and GIR numbers from both the fairway and the rough at those ranges. The greens have been modestly expanded in size to around 5,000 sq. ft. on average. I am also factoring in a good bit of around-the-green play. Hamilton has added short grass areas and runoffs around most of the greens which tends to be more predictable and a reliable separator from the good and bag around-the-green players on Tour.

Here is a fantastic thread from Eric Patterson detailing the added short game areas and potential advantage that bombers could have on a number of holes at Hamilton Golf & Country Club

was lucky enough to play Hamilton in early May but didn't play the course before the renovations.

Here's a hole-by-hole look using GPS screenshots that show the pre-renovation (left, played in 2019) vs. the post-renovation layouts (right) and my take on how the course will…

— Eric Patterson (@EPatGolf) May 27, 2024

Best Player Course Fit Rankings for the 2024 RBC Canadian Open:

1. Alex Noren
2. Martin Laird
3. Rory McIlroy
4. Aaron Baddeley
5. Kelly Kraft
6. Ben Griffin
7. Alistair Docherty
8. Mac Meissner
9. Akshar Bhatia
10. Mackenzie Hughes

*Based on the last 36 rounds of player data via Rickrungood.com.

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