After the recent announcement of the merge between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF, the attention has been taken away from the Canadian Open once again, an event which features the likes of Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick.
Not only is it the biggest tournament in Canada, but it is also one of the most historic, with it being the third oldest continuously running event on the PGA Tour, after The Open Championship and the US Open. However, over the past two years, the attention has been somewhat drawn away from the tournament, with the rise of LIV Golf taking away the spotlight.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canadian Open wasn't played in 2020 and 2021, with the tournament making a return in 2022. Obviously, this should have been an exciting time but, after the news of LIV Golf's schedule, the Canadian Open fell on the same date as the Saudi-backed series' first tournament at Centurion Club in Hertfordshire.
Now, in 2023, it has once again been somewhat overshadowed by the news of the merger between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and PIF/LIV Golf, something which fellow Canadian, Adam Hadwin, feels sad about.
Speaking at Oakdale Golf & Country Club, the 35-year-old stated: "I think it's, you know last year was the return of the Canadian Open after having missed two and it was going up against the first LIV event. I know that that sort of overshadowed early in the week. Obviously with the event that took place it worked out as a massive win."
Hadwin, who will be amongst 21 other Canadians teeing it up in their National tournament, went on to add: "I can't help but feel sad for the Canadian Open, once again, that this news drops Tuesday of what is our National Open, a very important event for golf in Canada and hopefully viewed from the PGA Tour's standpoint as an important event to them.
"Now, once again we're overshadowed most likely for the entire week. My hope is that we end up with hopefully myself, if not myself, two or three other Canadians in contention, with Rory, with Justin Rose, with Tyrrell, with these guys, these top players that are here and we can put the emphasis back on the event. That's what happened last year. But I can't help but feel for the event now."
Like every player on the three circuits, no-one heard about the news until Tuesday morning when it first broke. In Hadwin's case: "I read it, like most people, when it came out this morning. We were given an e-mail. I read through, we also got an e-mail with comments from Jay (Monahan) regarding it.
"I don't know. I'll be honest. I think that what's transpired like the last year and a half and the rhetoric, not only on this side but on that side as well, I think it's difficult to look at that and say, how did we get here now. I do believe that everybody probably saw eventually something happening. I don't know if it was a complete merger, quote unquote, like it is. But certainly the entities coming together or finding a way to coexist so that the best players could continue to play against each other more often and not just at the four Majors right now.
"But in this way, I don't know if people saw it -- like I don't know if I ever saw it in this way. But beyond that there's so many details to be worked out and that haven't been talked about and discussed. I don't know if I could go any further than that on it. Just too many unknowns."
