It’s an interesting time in golf as the Canadian Women’s Open tees off tomorrow in Edmonton while the men’s FedEx Cup playoffs continue in St. Louis and the rebel LIV league enters perhaps its final days of existence. Here’s what to know:
Canadian Women’s Open
Currently branded as the CPKC Women’s Open, the lone Canadian stop on the LPGA Tour returns to Edmonton’s Royal Mayfair for the first time since 2013.
The $2.75-million US tournament ($412K to the winner) features six of the world’s top 10 golfers, including No. 1-ranked Nelly Korda of the United States, who won two of the five major championships this season. The absentees include third-ranked Haeran Ryu of South Korea, who also captured two majors; No. 2 Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand; and popular Englishwomen Lottie Woad and Charley Hull, ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.
No. 12 Lydia Ko of New Zealand is back to chase a record-breaking fourth Canadian Open trophy. One of her wins came at Royal Mayfair in 2013, when she successfully defended the title she captured the previous year in Vancouver as a 15-year-old amateur. Ko went on to win three majors and three consecutive Olympic medals, culminating with a gold in 2024 in Paris.
But the fan favourite, as usual, will be Canada’s Brooke Henderson, who won this event for the second time last year in Mississauga, Ont. Henderson’s first LPGA Tour win in 2½ years gave her 14 for her career — the most ever by a Canadian woman or man on a major tour — including a pair of major titles.
Brooke Henderson looking to defend CPKC Women’s Open title
Now ranked 11th in the world, the 28-year-old from Smiths Falls, Ont., is still looking for her first victory of 2026, though she was right in the hunt at back-to-back majors last month. Henderson tied for third at the Women’s PGA Championship in Minnesota, three shots behind Ryu, before losing a playoff to the Korean at the Evian Championship in France after firing back-to-back 64s on the weekend.
The other 14 Canadians in the field this week include a trio of intriguing teenagers.
Sixteen-year-old amateur Aphrodite Deng caused a stir last year in Mississauga by grabbing a share of the clubhouse lead in the opening round before finishing tied for 20th, the best finish by a non-pro since Ko’s back-to-back wins. Deng also impressed at the U.S. Women’s Open this June, tying for 17th, and the high-schooler later committed to join the golf team at Stanford — in 2028.
Clairey Lin, another 16-year-old amateur, won the prestigious U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship last month, after Deng became the first Canadian to do it in 2025.
But the most exciting Canadian teen in Edmonton this week could be Anna Huang. The 17-year-old from Vancouver has been tearing it up on the Ladies European Tour, where she recently became the youngest player ever to reach four career victories, breaking the record held by Ko. At the Euro tour’s London Championship earlier this month, she beat Charley Hull by two strokes.
Huang tied for 22nd at the Evian Championship last month and is now ranked 45th in the world, despite being too young to join the LPGA Tour.
Here’s more on Huang and here’s a preview of the Canadian Women’s Open from the Canadian Press.
FedEx Cup playoffs
While the women’s season continues until November, the PGA Tour is down to its final two weeks.
Following last week’s 70-man FedEx Cup playoff opener in Memphis, the field has been cut to 50 for the BMW Championship in St. Louis, beginning Thursday. After this, the top 30 in the season-long points chase advance to next week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta, where the slate is wiped clean and the winner will pocket a cool $10 million of the whopping $40M purse.
Ready for some more eye-watering numbers? With his commanding eight-shot win at last week’s St. Jude Championship, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler clinched the top spot in the points race and $23 million in bonus money. But there’s still a ton of cash at stake in St. Louis as the runner-up in the standings will take home $13 million in bonuses, plus his winnings from the tournament itself. The third-place finisher in the Cup chase receives $8M, fourth gets $6.5M and fifth collects $5.4M — almost a million more than any of the major champions earned. Even the 30th-place guy gets a cheque for $460K.
Unfortunately, no Canadians will get their hands on any more bonus money after the three that qualified for the playoffs — Sudarshan Yellamaraju, Corey Conners and Nick Taylor — failed to advance past the St. Jude. Still, they each walked away with a bonus of around $180K.
LIV (and let die?)
The LIV Golf season — and maybe the league itself — is set to expire this weekend. After losing the backing of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, the embattled renegade tour cancelled its championship event in Michigan next week and will instead wrap things up in Indianapolis. Jon Rahm has already clinched his third straight individual title, but the team trophy remains at stake.
Where LIV goes from here is anyone’s guess. Sketchy CEO Scott O’Neil is trying to lock down new investors for a slimmed-down tour after the Saudis blew an estimated $5 billion on lavish player contracts and other expenses over the last five years in a desperate attempt to hijack men’s pro golf. But, after high-profile players Brooks Koepka and Patrick Reed bailed on LIV earlier this year, it’s unclear whether Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and LIV’s few remaining stars will want to stick it out or seek a path back to the PGA Tour.
