The homegrown talent was on full display in the opening round of the RBC Canadian Open on Thursday with both Adam Svensson and Taylor Pendrith impressing at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley.
Svensson fired an opening-round 5-under 65 to grab a share of second place on the leaderboard, while Pendrith signed for a 4-under 66 for a T10 from the Caledon, Ont. course.
Svensson, a native of Surrey, B.C., played a clean round with no bogeys through the first 18 holes at the national open. He went out in 33 with birdies at the 12th and 16th, before adding more red numbers to his scorecard at the first, second, and fifth to come in with a 32.
This ties the second-lowest round of Svensson’s season through 12 starts, and is also just the second time this year that he has made it through the opening round without dropping a shot.
“It’s the first time I’ve hit it that solid in a while so hopefully I can continue what I’m doing,” Svensson told TSN’s Bob Weeks after the opening round.
The 2022 RSM Classic winner gained strokes on the field in all four categories on Thursday, while hitting 13/14 fairways and 15/18 greens in regulation.
“You’ve got to hit the fairway,” he said of navigating his way around TPC Toronto. “If you miss the fairway, you’re hoping for a good lie just to get it up to the front of the green.
“I feel like there’s a lot of slope to these greens. Sometimes they break more, sometimes they break less, so you’ve kind of really have to be dialed in on your reads.”
Svensson has made just three cuts at the Canadian Open in nine starts dating back to 2013, but now appears to be in position to challenge his best career finish, a T21, coming in 2022.
Pendrith, of Richmond Hill, Ont., did not quite get off to the start he was looking for Thursday after finding the drink with his approach shot on the first hole of the day for a double-bogey.
He would brush off the ugly start though, dropping in birdies at each of the next four holes to quickly get back down to 2-under.
He would match Svensson’s front-nine 33 before making the turn, and would add another two birdies on the back to set himself up nicely heading into Friday’s round.
Pendrith was ranked fourth in the field with 3.382 Strokes Gained: Putting on Thursday, a massive improvement from his season-long ranking of 138th.
“I didn’t get off to a great start,” Pendrith said following his round. “[I] made a six with a really good wedge shot, I thought, kind of maybe got a bad break but was able to bounce back really well.
“Make a 10 or 12-footer on the next, and a 15-footer on the next so it was nice to see some putts go in early, was able to make a lot of really good ones today.”
Nick Taylor, the 2023 Canadian Open champion, was in contention at 4-under through 16 holes but bogeyed on 17 to fall back to 3-under in a tie for 27th after the first round.
“Nice run in the middle of the round. Everything was pretty good. Overall good day, amde some nice puts. Felt like the wedge game could be a little bit tighter,” Taylor said of his round.
