Golf Glance: Rory McIlroy defends RBC Canadian Open title

Field Level Media's Golf Glance provides weekly news and storylines from each of the major North American golf tours.

PGA TOUR

LAST TOURNAMENT: The Memorial Tournament (Billy Horschel)

THIS WEEK: RBC Canadian Open, Toronto, June 9-12

Course: St. George's Golf & Country Club (Par 70, 7,014 yards)

Purse: $8.7M (Winner: $1.566M)

Defending Champion: Rory McIlroy (2019)

FedExCup Leader: Scottie Scheffler

HOW TO FOLLOW

TV: Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m. (Golf Channel), 3-6 p.m. (CBS)

PGA Tour Live: Daily feeds on ESPN+

Social Media: @RBCCanadianOpen (Twitter)

NOTES: The event returns after being canceled each of the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tournament was last played at Hamilton G&CC in 2019. This will be the sixth time St. George's has played host to the event (1933, 1949, 1960, 1968, 2010). ... The course features five par 3s and three par 5s, leading to groups teeing off on Nos. 1 and 9 for the first two rounds. ... McIlroy, a 20-time winner on the PGA Tour, seeks his first successful title defense. ... Twenty Canadians are scheduled to tee it up in their country's national open, including world No. 31 Corey Conners and No. 77 Mackenzie Hughes. A Canadian has not won the event since 1954. ... The top two finishers this week not otherwise exempt will qualify for the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews.

BEST BETS: Scheffler (+800 at BetMGM) makes his tournament debut while coming off a loss in a playoff in his previous start. He's trying to become the first five-time winner in a season since Justin Thomas in 2016-17. ... Thomas (+900) is coming off a missed cut at the Charles Schwab Challenge after winning the PGA Championship. ... McIlroy (+1000) has three top-10s in his past four starts and is second in strokes from tee to green and scoring average on tour this season. ... Cameron Smith (+1200) leads the tour in scoring average (69.253) but has missed the cut in his previous two event starts. ... Sam Burns (+1600) has won two of his past five starts and is ranked a career-high ninth in the world.

NEXT TOURNAMENT: U.S. Open, Brookline, Mass., June 16-19

LPGA Tour

LAST TOURNAMENT: U.S. Women's Open (Minjee Lee)

THIS WEEK: ShopRite LPGA Classic, Galloway, N.J., June 10-12

Course: Seaview, Bay Course (Par 71, 6,190 yards)

Purse: $1.75M (Winner: $262,500)

Defending Champion: Celine Boutier

Race to the CME Globe leader: Minjee Lee

HOW TO FOLLOW

TV: Friday, 12-4 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday, 2-5 p.m. (GC); Sunday, 12-1 p.m. (GC), 1-3 p.m. (Paramount+)

Twitter: @ShopRiteLPGA

Streaming: Friday, 12-3 p.m. ET; Saturday, 2-5 p.m.; Sunday, 12-1 p.m. (NBCSports.com/golfchannel.com)

NOTES: The 144-player field will be cut to the top 70 and ties after 36 holes. ... Boutier beat Brooke Henderson, Jin Young Ko and Inbee Park by one shot last year. ... Lee, the only multiple-time winner in 2022, leads the tour in scoring average at 68.750 and total strokes gained per round at 2.710. ... Danielle Kang, who won the Tournament of Champions earlier this year, will skip the next few events to let her ailing back heal.

NEXT TOURNAMENT: Meijer LPGA Classic, Belmont, Mich., June 16-19

Champions Tour

LAST TOURNAMENT: Principal Charity Classic (Jerry Kelly)

THIS WEEK: American Family Insurance Championship, Madison, Wisc., June 10-12

Course: University Ridge GC (Par 72, 7,083 yards)

Purse: $2.4M (Winner: $360,000)

Defending Champion: Kelly

Charles Schwab Cup leader: Steven Alker

HOW TO FOLLOW

TV: Friday, 6-8 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 2:30-5:30 p.m. (All times Golf Channel)

Twitter: @amfamchamp

NOTES: Kelly is the two-time defending champion and owns a 67.75 scoring average in the event. ... Steve Stricker has not finished lower than T7 in four previous starts in his hometown event. ... Fred Couples will play in only his fourth event this year. He has posted a T17-T2-T12 in his first three. ... The event has been decided by a single shot or a playoff in each of the past four seasons. ... This is a no-cut event with an 81-player field.

NEXT TOURNAMENT: U.S. Senior Open Championship, Bethlehem, Penn., June 23-26