With three golfers from Ontario in the Open Championship and just one from British Columbia, Nick Taylor needed to find an appropriate partner for the usual Tuesday practice round at a major. He found one in Taylor Pendrith, and Team Taylor eventually “dusted the boys.”
There are signs of Canadian support throughout Portrush, as Pendrith told Sportsnet they saw Canadian flags, Toronto Maple Leafs jerseys, hats and hoodies, and even a B.C. Lions CFL jersey outside the ropes early in the week.
For the final major of the season, this particular foursome is hoping to give those fans — and everyone across the pond — lots to cheer about after a very solid major season for the Canadian men.
Taylor, Pendrith, Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners make up the contingent at Royal Portrush. Pendrith is making his Open Championship debut this year, while Hughes has had the best collection of results at this major over the last few years — he finished tied for 16th last year and his lone career top 10 at a major came in 2021 at the Open when he finished tied for sixth.
For Taylor, he comes to Royal Portrush on the back of his best major finish at the U.S. Open at Oakmont, where he was paired with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler for the final round. A winner already this season, Taylor tees it up at the final major of 2025 on an impressive run of consistency. Save for a missed cut at the PGA Championship, Taylor has finished inside the top 25 in every event he’s played since late April — including a solo fourth at the Memorial Tournament.
“There’s a lot of confidence I can take from the U.S. Open, being in that big of a spot, having it be a major championship and having a great week,” Taylor told Sportsnet. “Links golf is certainly a different animal for us, the conditions can be brutal, the grass is different — it’s just different golf. But golf-game-wise, I’ve probably never been this consistent in my career, really, the last four weeks. There’s lots I can take from that.”
Taylor said he’d be practicing patience for the week at Royal Portrush and managing things will be different than a normal week on the PGA Tour. He eased his way into things with a tidy tie for 22nd last week at the Genesis Scottish Open, and although his major-championship record hasn’t been the most sparkling, he said he was happy to have a near two-week break after a busy early summertime stretch.
“The mental side is definitely a grind, especially with majors being sandwiched in the middle, they’re (the) big-time events. In the end, I was running on fumes. It was four weeks in a row, but I also felt like I was in contention for four weeks in a row,” Taylor said of his run from the Memorial through the Travelers Championship. “I drove it in play a lot. The iron play had been solid all year, and that continued. And then I scored well for a lot of the rounds. There wasn’t a whole lot of weaknesses and just kept in it for the mental side.”
With Taylor notching his best finish at a major at the U.S. Open, so too did Pendrith at the PGA Championship. He became the first Canadian male in 20 years to finish inside the top five at a major with his effort at Quail Hollow. Pendrith’s tie for fifth at the PGA was one of four top-10s in 2025 and he comes to Royal Portrush off a tie for 13th at the Scottish Open, his first taste of links golf.
It’s been a bit of a crash course for Pendrith on the other side of the pond. Exhibit A: On No. 11 at Royal Portrush on Monday, Pendrith said he hit driver and had 225 yards to the pin. On Tuesday, he hit a three-quarter lob wedge for his approach. On No. 12 on Monday, he had 240 yards to the pin, and on Tuesday he needed to hit only a pitching wedge.
“It’s cool, but you have to be patient. It’s a big test of patience,” Pendrith said of the Open. “(But) I feel good. I feel like my game has been good the last month and a half. Had a nice week last week.
“Been driving it nicely most of the year, had a couple of really good days with the irons, and putter was solid. Everything feels nice, and it’s nice to be at a big week and hope to have a big finish at the end of the year.”
Although Conners and Hughes ended up on the losing side of the match Tuesday, they’ve had their own share of wins through the 2025 campaign.
Conners finished tied for eighth at the Masters, one of five top-10s this season. There was potential for him to lock up another one at the U.S. Open, but he was forced to withdraw before the final round because of a wrist injury.
Conners told Sportsnet last week, when he finished tied for 47th at the Scottish Open, that things had “improved each day” and “would say things are back to normal.”
This week, Conners told the Toronto Sun at the Open that “everything was feeling all right” but there’s still a question mark on how he’ll manage to interact with the unique, firm turf offered at Royal Portrush.
Hughes, meanwhile, with the best body of work results-wise at the Open, has three top-10s this season, including a playoff loss at the Myrtle Beach Classic. And although he sits into the 100s in most statistical strokes-gained categories this season, he is 26th in strokes gained: around the green — by far the best of the bunch.
A different Canadian has been part of the conversation for each of the three majors on the PGA Tour in 2025, and the plans are in place for more of the same this week at the Open.
“Overall, it’s been a really consistent season so far, which is always what I’m striving for,” Taylor said. “And if I can snag another win here, it would turn into a phenomenal year.”
