There was plenty to celebrate in Canadian golf in 2022 — Brooke Henderson won a major, two Canadians made the Presidents Cup team and the return of the RBC Canadian Open and CP Women’s Open were incredible! — but as the snow flies (unfortunately), there is still some time yet until golf season picks back up again across the country.
Lucky for golf fans in Canada both the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour’s 2023 campaigns are set to return not long after the calendar turns to January.
Golf is perhaps the most unpredictable of sports, but we’re going to do our best here — in hopes that 2022’s momentum will mean more big moments for Canadian golf next year.
A Canadian wins a men’s major
There seems to be too much symmetry on this one, but sometimes a little bit of good juju from the universe is all you need.
2023 will mark the 20-year anniversary of Mike Weir’s Masters triumph, and a fellow Canadian, Corey Conners, is heading into this year’s spin around Augusta National on the back of three straight top-10 finishes including a tie for sixth this year (the best by a Canadian since 2005, when Weir finished fifth).
Conners became the first Canadian since Stan Leonard in 1958-60 to finish inside in the top 10 at the Masters three years in a row with his result this April.
Conners at Augusta, exactly 20 years after Weir did it, would be the specific men’s major-winning choice.
But look at what happened this fall on the PGA Tour with Mackenzie Hughes and Adam Svensson winning events in a span of seven weeks — the Canadians on the PGA Tour are all hitting their primes.
The more they put themselves into the contention, the more comfortable they’ll get.Now it’s just time for them to do it on the biggest stages in the sport.
Brooke Henderson will get to Top 3 in the world
What more can be said of Brooke Henderson? She’s already an all-time great (her 12 wins are the most of any Canadian on the PGA or LPGA Tour), is a guaranteed Canadian Golf Hall-of-Famer and was a two-time champion in 2022, including winning her second major title (the first Canadian, male or female, to ever win more than one major).
So, what’s next?
Well Henderson, who ended the year ranked sixth in the world, is laser-like on getting to No.1 in the world. Imagine a 25-year-old Canadian from a town of 9,000 people with a homemade swing and her dad as her coach and her sister as her caddy as the top female golfer on the planet?
Henderson has been a bit of a victim of her own success in the past (the world-rankings system’s algorithm does not reward someone who plays as often as Henderson did pre-2020) but she may cull her schedule a little further for 2023 based on her familiarity with venues, preparation for majors, and more.
So, while Lydia Ko and Nelly Korda are showing no signs of slowing down as No.’s 1 and 2 in the world, respectively, a few more wins by Henderson in 2023 — which would be the least-bold prediction made — should get her up onto the podium, at minimum, by this time next year.
