2023 RBC Canadian Open betting and DFS picks: Current form, course fit and horses for courses
Fantasy Golf & Golf Betting

2023 RBC Canadian Open betting and DFS picks: Current form, course fit and horses for courses

A picture of golfer Rory McIlroy DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - JANUARY 29: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland tees off on the 8th hole during the Third Round on Day Four of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club on January 29, 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)


Each week, including this week's 2023 RBC Canadian Open, Golf News Net offers PGA Tour betting picks and daily fantasy sports (DFS) lineups using our proprietary model, which is weighted toward longer-term performance.

However, we don't just use our model when making these picks. We also need to look at current form, course fits and horses for courses. This data can and should help inform our decision making, including validating things we see in the model. If everything lines up, then a player can become an auto-play. If only some parts of the equation suggest a player will perform well this week, then we may look more tepidly at investing in a player.

2023 RBC Canadian Open history and current PGA Tour finish trends

Finish Trends

Recent PGA Tour Trends

We start by looking at the recent past, back at players who have finished inside the top 15 in the last five individual PGA Tour events.

  • Corey Conners - 2 - T-8 Wells Fargo Championship, T-12 PGA Championship
  • Harry Hall - 2 - T-5 Byron Nelson, T-3 Colonial
  • Tyrrell Hatton - 3 - T-3 Wells Fargo Championship, T-5 Byron Nelson, T-15 PGA Championship
  • Michael Kim - 2 - T-7 Wells Fargo Championship, T-6 Colonial
  • Justin Rose - 2 - T-9 PGA Championship, T-12 Colonial

Event Finish History

We like to look for potential horses for courses with most PGA Tour events, particularly those with regular host courses. We're typically looking at players who finished in the top 15 in this particular event in the last five years, regardless of venue.

Course Fits

A player is a course fit -- or a potential course fit, at least -- if their Strokes Gained breakout when they finish in the top 25 is similar to the average for top-25 finishers at this week's event.

We have never seen this course, so we'll have no fits this week.

Find course fits using our member-only tool which shows this week's course numbers relative to the field.

I've also created a new listing which helps you find correlated courses by looking at the course fit breakdown for each recurring host course on the PGA Tour.

This week's model

Check out the 2023 RBC Canadian Open generic model, which is available to GNN members.

My model weighs performance over multiple time frames (the last five events, 1 year and 2 years) with different weighting to strokes gained based on quality of competition.

We also have a tool for members which lays out the last field, our model and their results in the last five PGA Tour events and last five years of this week's event. Check it out!

We have also dramatically updated all of our tools with better data presentation, export and more to come soon!

Good luck this week!

About the author

Ryan Ballengee

Ryan Ballengee is founder and editor of Golf News Net. He has been writing and broadcasting about golf for nearly 20 years. Ballengee lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his family. He is currently a +2.6 USGA handicap, and he has covered dozens of major championships and professional golf tournaments. He likes writing about golf and making it more accessible by answering the complex questions fans have about the pro game or who want to understand how to play golf better.

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