Vision Realized: How the RBC Canadian Open came to TPC Toronto
In June, TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley will become the 38th host venue in the 121-year history of the RBC Canadian Open - a milestone occasion with decades-long origins. In this exclusive story, Adam Stanley explores how Canada’s Men’s National Championship came to Osprey Valley in 2025.
From left-to-right: Town of Caledon Councillor Mario Russo, Golf Canada CEO Laurence Applebaum, TPC Toronto President Chris Humeniuk, RBC Canadian Open Tournament Director Ryan Paul, RBC Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer Mary DePaoli, Ontario Minister of Tourism, Culture and Gaming of Ontario Stan Cho.
By Adam Stanley
Dave Hunter has been a part of the team at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley for three decades, and as the Superintendent of the North and Hoot courses he’s seen, well, a little bit of everything.
But this particular springtime, as the facility and the staff all prepare to welcome the best players in the world to their piece of paradise for the RBC Canadian Open, Hunter, perhaps the person most intimately connected to the place from dusk to dawn is still thinking about how this has all been a little bit different.
“I can’t wrap my head around the development and the progress from the last seven or eight years,” Hunter says with a smile. “We went from ‘just’ golf to this mecca property now.”
So, how did we get here?
The 5th and 6th holes on the North course
More than three decades ago, brothers Jerry and Roman Humeniuk had a grand vision for a world-class golf facility in Caledon. There are three distinct 18-hole layouts, and Osprey Valley was located somewhere unique – it was a hidden gem just outside Toronto, until it wasn’t.
The sprawling property now boasts a new 65,000 square-foot Main Clubhouse featuring event spaces, VIP suites, and Two Brothers, its flagship restaurant. There’s also luxury stay-and-play Villas, a second Clubhouse and an upscale restaurant, Fescue, on the Heathlands course and more to come – including, of course, this year’s RBC Canadian Open.
TPC Toronto’s North course will be the 38th host venue in the event’s 121-year history, and is unique among other venues in its accessibility to the public.
“It’s exciting to think that some of the best players in the world are going to come and play this golf course,” TPC Toronto’s president Chris Humeniuk says. “We’ve made a material investment into the North course not just financially but in the time and the energy it’s taken to convert it into a golf course that we think can stand up to that calibre of golf.”
TPC Toronto President Chris Humeniuk at RBC Canadian Open Media Day (Photo c/o Golf Canada)
Humeniuk and TPC Toronto have enjoyed a pair of pleasant collaborative partnerships that have helped the facility to get to this point – one with the PGA Tour and the other with Golf Canada.
Scott Pritchard with PGA Tour Canada (now known as PGA Tour Americas) engaged Humeniuk to see about securing a venue in the Greater Toronto Area for one of its tournaments. Humeniuk shared with him Osprey Valley’s go-forward vision, and Pritchard was the one to introduce Humeniuk to the leadership team at the TPC Network, part of the PGA Tour family. Osprey Valley joined TPC Network in 2018, the first in Canada to do so.
“There was a real organic beginning – they were looking for a venue and we were looking to refresh our overall strategy and direction,” Humeniuk explains. “We had a vision, but to have the PGA Tour validate your vision by offering the opportunity to join the TPC network was a tremendous opportunity for us.
The 18th hole of the North course and Main Clubhouse during RBC Canadian Open Media Day on May 5, 2025 (photo c/o Golf Canada)
“As we’ve gone down this parallel path with them – the access to the resources we’ve had, the clubhouse design, the new operation plans, the budgeting and projections, it’s all been tremendous […] they really are an incredible partner. They just want us to be successful.”
While the team at the now-named TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley began its on and off-course effort for the future, Humeniuk had another important meeting at the RBC Canadian Open in 2019 in Hamilton that would also help shape the future of the facility, as he first connected with Golf Canada’s CEO Laurence Applebaum. It was then – with Rory McIlroy’s first win and the change to the atmosphere of the Canadian Open to include a concert and a focus on food and more – where you could really see what the Canadian Open had the potential to become.
By joining the TPC Network, Humeniuk and the TPC Toronto team got to understand more about what their destination might look like and how to pull together the very best in stay-and-play opportunities, corporate events and food-and-beverage offerings, all the while not losing anything about the great golf the 54-hole facility had long been known for. But you take all those pieces, and the desire to become a golf destination, and then you add Applebaum’s vision for growing the game in Canada and before long, another official partnership had been realized.
In July 2022 Golf Canada and Osprey Valley announced a major partnership and bold vision to build a new ‘Home for Canadian Golf.’ Not only will Golf Canada move its offices to TPC Toronto – along with almost a half-dozen other golf stakeholder organizations – but there are training facilities and a public-access putting green in the works, while the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and museum will also be relocated there.
“The vision that the Humeniuk family and the leadership group at Osprey Valley have invited us to be a part of with this world-class property is progressive and incredibly exciting,” Applebaum said at the time of the big announcement.
With two partnerships in place, TPC Toronto continued its growth as a top-tier event host, welcoming PGA TOUR Americas golfers since 2018 as well as playing host to the Monday Qualifier for the RBC Canadian Open last year (on the North course) and a U.S. Open qualifier.
The North course saw a full-scale renovation in 2023 under the guidance of architect Ian Andrew.
The biggest announcement of all, however, was made official in May 2024. The North course, it was revealed, would play host to the 2025 RBC Canadian Open after undergoing a significant renovation under the watchful eye of celebrated Canadian golf architect Ian Andrew, who worked closely with Architect Doug Carrick on the course’s original design and construction. The North will play at an overall length of 7,450 yards and a par 70. Five par-4s can play in excess of 500 yards. There will also be changes to the routing, as the par-5 eighth will play as the par-4 17th for the championship, with the usual par-4 17th playing as the par-4 eighth.
“For the event, reducing par was something I went in with the intention of doing. I do believe we’re better off closer to 70 than we are to 72. Identifying good players, you want them to hit some mid or long clubs into the greens, and take on some risk in order to give themselves birdie chances. That’s one of the ways to identify their good play. Part of that was just making the tee-to-green game matter,” Andrew explains.
Andrew, who began his work on the golf course in Summer of 2023, says he had to reacquaint himself with some of the North’s little features. He had been involved at the very beginning and had, of course, seen the North over the last few decades but this was an opportunity to really get into the dirt – figuratively and literally.
“Out of the three courses, (the North) was the most logical one to host the RBC Canadian Open. It’s got the best 18th hole and it’s such a logical conclusion for an event and it’s a golf course that had a broader scale. It allowed for lengthening. It was always in a better position to host something because it had the ability to have the length and the flexibility to move people around,” Andrew says.
From left-to-right: North Superintendent Dave Hunter, TPC Toronto President Chris Humeniuk, Renovation Architect Ian Andrew, North Assistant Superintendent Aaron Hill
“I didn’t go into this thinking, ‘Well, this is going to (host) the Canadian Open,’ because that wasn’t always a given. It was just a case of if a Canadian Open went there, what would we do? That’s the approach we took.”
Humeniuk, who was closely involved with the renovation along with consultation from the PGA Tour, says changes were made to the course in real time as the renovation progressed, and that a clarified vision for the course was settled on by the time work was completed at the end of 2023.
“We went from thinking of this as a public course where a championship could be held, to a championship course that the public can play,” says Humeniuk.
Andrew admits that while it’s “cool” to have some of the best golfers in the world tee it up on a layout you had a hand in creating, there is certainly a nervous reaction to what the end-of-week reviews will be. Alas, Andrew said the No. 1 objective was to do the work that you think is right.
“You stick to your guns on what is appropriate,” Andrew explains, “and you live with the consequences.”
Most of the feedback, however, has been extremely positive. The North course has long been a championship-scale test, but now with some twists and tweaks, it’s been as prepared as it can be for PGA TOUR stars like Rory McIlroy and Corey Conners and others to tee it up. But, of course, just days after they do, the golfing public can too. TPC Toronto is, at its heart, a public facility. Humeniuk is hopeful for there to be a moment in 2025 that will see Canadian golfers want to come to the North course to try their hand at it, like Tiger Woods’ epic bunker shot on No. 18 at Glen Abbey. If you’ve already played the North course at TPC Toronto, just because it will host the RBC Canadian Open this year doesn’t mean you won’t get a chance to do it again and again.
One of TPC Toronto’s customers last year, Humeniuk recalls, came to play and wanted to speak with the president afterward. He wanted to let Humeniuk know how excited he was to have the opportunity to play the RBC Canadian Open course and got emotional as he expressed his wonder.
“It’s surreal,” Hunter, the head superintendent, says. “It’s wild to see all these structures going up. I’m focused on so many other directions, but I’m going to take the time – and I’ve told my team to take the time – and enjoy it all. Because this is a very special first.”
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