Members at Oakdale Golf and Country Club in Toronto are voting to decide whether to play host to the RBC Canadian Open in 2023 and 2026.
Voting, via paper ballots and online, is scheduled to conclude at 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday, according to an e-mail sent by the club to members last Friday.
A yes vote would give Oakdale its first opportunity to stage the national championship in the club’s 95-year history and fill two gaps in the Canadian Open’s schedule over the next five years.
The 2026 hosting would coincide with the 100th anniversary of Oakdale, a private club in Toronto’s northwestern corner that was formed by Jewish immigrants who were refused entry into the city’s established clubs in the 1920s. The family oriented club, which also offers tennis and swimming, has about 600 families in its membership.
The 2020 and 2021 Canadian Opens were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related public-safety restrictions. St. George’s Golf and Country Club, another classic course in Toronto, was set to be the venue in those years and has deferred its hosting duties to 2022. Members at Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Ancaster, Ont., have agreed to take on 2024, reprising its 2019 staging, when Rory McIlroy took the title in his Canadian Open debut.
If Oakdale comes on board, only 2025 would remain unaccounted for through 2026.
The championship, which is part of the PGA Tour, has been moving around of late after being played for much of the past four decades at Glen Abbey Golf Club, a public-access facility in Oakville, Ont., which is slated to be redeveloped for housing.
Oakdale has 27 tree-lined holes in a valley setting, 18 of which were designed by Canadian golf architecture giant Stanley Thompson ahead of the opening in 1926. Thompson protégé C.E. (Robbie) Robinson drafted the other nine, which were added in the 1950s.
One of the nines is named after Thompson, while the others bear the names of George Knudson and Wilf Homenuik, both professionals at the club who also had careers on the PGA Tour. Knudson won eight PGA Tour titles, tying Mike Weir for the most by a Canadian.
PGA Tour representatives and Canadian Open organizers at Golf Canada, who have visited the property to assess its suitability, would use holes from each of Oakdale’s nine-hole layouts to form a composite course for the Canadian Open. At a virtual town hall last week, members heard a presentation on the logistics and details of serving as host, the e-mail indicates.
Host courses are typically fine-tuned and lengthened, where possible, to meet PGA Tour standards.
Oakdale director of golf Roan Vollmer acknowledged “there is an ongoing process at the moment.” Golf Canada would not comment other than to say, “Golf Canada is continuing with all required due diligence on our future venue strategy for the RBC Canadian Open,” according to an e-mail from senior director of communications Dan Pino.